Braymere Custom Saddlery: BreyerFest Diorama Contest entries, part one

The theme for this year's BreyerFest Diorama Contest is Horses Throughout Art History. Entrants were challenged to create a diorama, using at least one Breyer, which recreates a horse in art. The horses could be any scale, but the entire diorama needs to fit within a twelve inch cube. Additionally, the inspiration had to be a public domain/open access work of art chosen from one of several specific sites. The deadline for entry was this past weekend, and since then, my Facebook feed has been flooded with dioramas, all of which are absolutely stunning. Today, we're looking at some of these entries, starting with Danielle Feldman's A Horse Affrighted at a Lion.

Inspired by a George Stubbs' work of the same name, Danielle created this piece using a Breyer Beautiful Breeds Warmblood Ornament for the horse and a Breyer Companion Animal Beagle for the lion.

Carly Kudalis calls her entry, The Colt Starter.

It was inspired by Frederic Remington's The Bronco Buster.

The horse is a customized Breyer Wyatt. The tack and rider were made by Carly.

From the American West to ancient Egypt, here's Kristen Cermele's entry.

The bold lines and colors of the original are a perfect match for her vibrant palette.

Lisa Esping's diorama is based on Toulouse-Lautrec’s circus pieces. It includes her first ever completed tack pieces and customized dolls.

The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur is one of the world's most iconic horse paintings.

Here it is in Stablemate scale by Missy Shaw.

Robyn White's entry is titled, "The Blank Canvas."

It was inspired by The Horses of Anahita.

Robyn writes: As someone who has always loved creating things, I have really enjoyed this year’s Breyerfest theme. Every artist throughout history has started with a blank canvas or lump of clay or cave wall upon which they attempt to bring their vision to life. The artist in this piece is envisioning all of the possibilities that a blank canvas provides. In the vision of the artist, it is as if the horses have literally sprung to life and leaped off the canvas.

This was Sha Scholtens first time entering the diorama contest. Sha Scholtens. She writes: When I saw Two Horses I was immediately inspired. I could imagine going back in time to see these horses in the seventeenth century Japanese countryside with the cherry blossoms coming out early and a fresh dusting of snow on the ground.

I constructed the base out of multiple layers of foam and carving it to create the hill. I made the cherry tree out of wire, tape, and modeling texture, and the blossoms are made from real dried babies breath flowers. I also sculpted a traditional Japanese lantern, tōrō, which was popularized in Japan just before the 17th century. Using Stablemates, I recreated the look of the horses from the painting and now they are right where I envisioned them.

Donna Houchins' piece is a 3-D "ink drawing".

The horse started out as the Freedom Series Morgan, and the chickens are CollectA. She added the brush so the horse could be looking not only at the chicken, but also at the illustration of his world.