Orren Mixer - Equine Artist

I suggest that someone reading this post might know a lot more about Orren Mixer than I do. Recalling his name from my childhood in efforts to recollect childhood memories, I have been thinking of him quite regularly for the last couple of years and not until yesterday did it occur to me to look him up on Google. I found there an extraordinary story of this man's professional art career and life, also discovering that he died on April 29, 2008. You're wondering why, if I didn't know him, where I came up with the desire to know more about him and his life as an equine artist - thus the Google search.

After an extraordinarily long absence from anything having to do with a paintbrush or canvas, in the last couple of years I have renewed my own personal painting, as in pieces for one's wall as opposed to house painting. Also, in this time of rediscovering my longing to produce artwork, I've come up against the fact that I know very little about my ancestry. My parents, both deceased, did not speak much of their childhood or even young adulthood - maybe they did - but I don't remember it and now, along with my two siblings and our families, I believe we are poorer for not knowing anything about our ancestors or what has led any one of us into any one direction or another in our lives be it career or interest of any kind.

Now retired and painting when I please, as I alluded to I have also spent time trying to resurrect my memories of childhood. As far as ancestry is concerned, I've gone to a few websites and thought seriously about trying to trace our family's history, but I haven't put anything into the works there so far. I've often wondered why with no creative interests in my childhood home, no art, artwork, art books or literature, no art classes in school - why did I decide as a young stay-at-home mom to venture into learning to draw, learning to paint, devouring art and art history books? I was certain I had never been exposed to any art of any kind. Except one place I can clearly remember -

My parents lived in Bethany and Oklahoma City, OK, in their school days and were in San Diego in '41-'47 (my dad was in the Navy), and then they returned to Bethany. Reviewing Orren's history on the internet, I see that he was in OKC for a while, then to San Diego where he worked in a naval shipyard, then his life took him to other states but back to OKC at about the same time my mother and dad came back. They may have known him in young school life, or in the Navy, I have no idea. But I know they were friends as we visited in the Mixer's home several times and I can clearly remember my Mother being so excited for herself and for me to be able to visit Orren's studio and to view his beautiful work. I can feel myself looking up at a huge canvas (I was about 6 or 7) in a beautifully lit room. It was a painting of horses in a field and I was in awe that someone (Mr. Mixer) had actually painted the scene. My Mother was "whispery" in her instructions to me about not touching, wasn't it beautiful, etc. It was a sacred moment.

It turns out that Orren Mixer was one of the, if not the, most well-known equine painter in the world up until the time of his death. He's catalogued in museum and private collections all over the world. How my parents knew him and his wife is a mystery to me but we visited them more than once. I don't remember if they came to our house - I only remember that awestruck moment of realizing someone could actually paint, as opposed to photograph such a beautiful portrait.

The point of my story here is two-fold - One - Orren appears to have been from his press and demeanor, a totally unassuming man with seemingly no veneer of success to change the person he was in life - that of a man pursuing his passion and bringing joy into others' lives with his work. What a wonderful legacy to give his children, grandchildren, and all his friends and family. Two - I am surprised to think that there was in my Mother that spark of recognition and acquaintance of what a truly wonderful artist and his artwork was. That sacred moment in Orren's studio may have well been the spark in a young girl's mind of what the joy of art could mean to a person. Whether or not that was the reason that I paint today or have such a voracious appetite for things artistic, I don't know. Whether or not I can soften my remembrance of Mother's stern attitude toward anything other than "earning a living being important", .....perhaps I can. She did know that Mr. Mixer's art was something to behold and that she wanted me to see it, and for that special memory in its own right, I am thankful. This memory of Orren Mixer and his talent and his art is one of thanksgiving from me for his life and the effect that he may have had on mine......and perhaps on my young Mother's life also.

OM Portrait Photo from the internet website of HORSE CHANNEL.COM