Untamed Grace is the original 16×20 acrylic painting from which all the fine art prints and collector editions are created.
There is only one.
I have a very hard time selling original paintings. Not because I don’t want people to own them, but because by the time I finish one, it has usually become part of my life.
I don’t paint quickly. I live with a piece while I’m making it. I stare at it, walk away from it, come back to it, change things, learn from it, fight with it a little, and sometimes surprise myself with what finally appears.
Every original has taught me something.
A new way to see light.
A new way to build texture.
A better understanding of anatomy.
A different way to handle color, movement, contrast, emotion, or composition.
And for that reason, every painting also becomes a marker of where I was as an artist when I made it.
When I look at an older piece, I don’t just see the finished painting. I remember the hours spent standing in front of it. I remember the problems I had to solve. I remember the moments where something finally clicked. I remember what I learned from it and how that lesson showed up later in another piece.
That is why originals are difficult for me to let go of.
They become part artwork, part teacher, and part memory.
Untamed Grace is especially hard for me.
There is something about the posture of the horse—the strength in the body, the softness in the gesture, and the tension and surrender happening at the same time—that kept pulling me back while I painted it.
It is dramatic without needing to be loud.
It is powerful without needing to stand tall.
And that contradiction is a big part of why I love it.
This painting also represents a point in my own development where I was learning to trust texture and contrast more, to stop trying to make every mark perfect, and to let the piece tell me what it needed instead of forcing it into what I originally imagined.
That is one of the strange things about painting: you start out thinking you are making the artwork, and somewhere along the way the artwork starts teaching you.
That is what this one did for me.
Why is the original priced at $20,000?
The price of this original is intentionally high.
It is not based on the idea that every 16×20 painting should cost $20,000.
It is based on something much simpler:
I do not really want to sell it.
The original lives with me. I see it. I remember making it. It is tied to a specific period in my artistic growth, and once an original leaves, there is no second one.
Prints can be made again.
A limited edition can have several collectors.
The original is singular.
So the price reflects the amount it would take for me to genuinely feel comfortable letting this particular piece leave my life.
If someone falls in love with it enough to make that happen, then I will know it is going somewhere it is deeply wanted.
And if nobody does?
I am completely happy continuing to live with it.
That is the beauty of originals.
They do not have to leave.
Artwork details
Title: Untamed Grace
Artist: Nadine Ewing
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Original size: 16×20 inches
Original artwork: One of one
Signed: Yes
Certificate of Authenticity: Included
Fine art reproductions and limited collector editions of Untamed Grace are available separately.
