The Gift of Saradel: How One Woman’s Kindness Shaped a Legacy of Art and Dreams

I look back on the works of art born from this time with deep nostalgia. I was in my early twenties, only a few years into my journey as an equine artist. I had never owned a horse, and my only access to them was through local riding stables. Most of the stables weren’t very inspiring — the horses stood quietly in their stalls or small paddocks but their lives were limited and confined. Others were being worked by riders, but they were focused on obeying commands..

Then I met Saradel Parker, who invited me into a different world. Saradel was an Arabian horse breeder and teacher who owned Parker Arabians on Bainbridge Island. Her farm was an oasis — rolling green pastures edged by tall trees, with a cozy barn and a farmhouse perched above it all like a guardian gently watching over the herd.

Saradel welcomed me to photograph and sketch her horses as they grazed in the meadows. I would sit among them for hours, sketchbook in hand, breathing in the stillness and imagining what it would be like to live in such harmony with these magnificent beings.

Through her kindness and openness, I experienced some of the most profound moments I had ever known with horses — moments that shaped my understanding of them forever.

One night, because of Saradel, I witnessed my first foal being born — and to this day, it remains the only birth I’ve ever seen in person. The call came late in the evening, and I rushed to her barn in time to see her chestnut Arabian mare lying in the soft straw, ready to bring new life into the world.

Through her kindness and generosity, I was able to experience horses not as subjects, but as companions — living, breathing inspirations. She allowed me to witness horses in their most perfect setting — a home where they were loved, respected, and truly seen. Her gift was more than access; it was vision.

Her gift ripples out into my work and in my own life on my farm, where I now live surrounded by the same peace I once dreamed of in her pastures.

Thank you, Saradel.

“Alight”

One day I was standing on a hillside with this beautiful mare, and I was inspired by the sunset light sparkling on her face.  That vision became the inspiration for a style of using Iridescent gold, silver, and copper metallic pastels on black paper that I still continue to create today

“Long Shadows”

Not only were the horses inspiring, but the setting of her hillside pastures was a dynamic for inspiration. “Long Shadows” was sketched from the shadow created by the low setting sun.

“Promise”

“In the miracle of birth he unfolded from the mare. Compact as a wet butterfly emerging from its cocoon. His first instinctive thought, to stand!

“Little Angel”

“It is delightful to watch foals discover their complicated bodies.  They stand, balance and walk within moments of birth, yet I think some aspects of the body they are inhabiting still is a surprise to them at first.”