Stories in still life: Artist specializes in equine subjects

You don't have to have thousands and thousands of dollars to take home a beautiful Tennessee walking horse from the Walking Horse Trainers' Association's annual show. Just stop by Billie Nipper's booth on the mezzanine at Calsonic Arena and see what she has to offer.

A native of Cleveland, Tenn., Billie's artwork has been a favorite of walking horse fans -- as well as other breeds -- for close to 40 years now. It has traveled around the world and now resides in England, South America and other faraway places. Her paintings have been owned by celebrities such as Ronald Reagan and Shania Twain.

She has won numerous awards and much acclaim for her work, whether it's the impressionistic stylings of her early years or her landscapes or the detailed equine portraiture that has made her a favorite here.

And it all started with a gift.

"I married into a walking horse family," she said. "My husband's father was a trainer and my husband rode in amateur classes. Then he became a trainer, and now my son is a trainer."

In fact, her 7-year-old great-granddaughter Skyler is the fifth generation of Nippers to ride into the show ring.

Billie enjoyed painting since her school days, but didn't really begin to stretch her wings until her husband's job moved them to that other Cleveland, the one in Ohio.

"There was a little art store nearby and I bought myself a starter kit," she said. "I did a lot of little paintings but I didn't like them and hid them away. My husband kept getting them out and showing them to people."

For Christmas one year, Billie decided to use her gift to create a gift -- a painting of her father-in-law's horse.

"His customers liked it and kept asking me to do their horses," she said. "I started to run out of paint and realized I'd better start charging -- enough to buy more paint, anyway!"

In the mid-70s, her talent was becoming well known in the walking horse industry and she began to get commissions to paint the World Grand Champions. For a few years, she did it under the auspices of the Tennessee Walking horse Breeders' Association, but soon went back out on her own.

"You know us artists, we like our independence," said Billie.

Several things separate her work from that of other equine artists. Billie goes out and takes photographs of the subject herself.

"Especially head shots," she said. "I like to get the eyes -- that's where you see the personality. A lot of people think a horse is a horse, but that's not true, Each one has its own personality and that's what I want to capture."

She works for hours to get the proportions just right, so it looks like a walker, not just any old horse with a leg lifted high in the air.

But above all, she tells a story.

"When I painted Pride's Generator, I asked Claude Crowley if I could do a montage," said Billie. "He said, 'I don't know what that is, but why not?"

Soon instead of a simple portrait, which could be captured by any camera, she created a story with different scenes from the horse's show career. The style caught on and now most of her work, especially those paintings of the World Grand Champions, are done in the same style.

It was also in the mid-70s when she began having prints made of her oil paintings and pastels as well.

"A lot of people would tell me they couldn't afford an original, would I make prints, so I did," she said, Since then, she has expanded and her artwork is now printed on lamp shades, collector plates, and even purses.

Billie gets to know the horses as she works on their paintings, a process that can take three to four months.

She once painted a head shot of The Whole Nine Yards long before he was a World Grand Champion. She surrounded the then-2-year-old's head with roses. Years later, after he did claim the top honors at the Celebration, the owner of the portrait told Billie she'd almost sent it back.

"She told me he hadn't won anything yet at that time. I told her I knew what was coming," said Billie. "I love that horse. I bred my mare to him."

But ask her which one is her favorite, and she'll tell you -- "The next one I'm working on!"