Dawn Hardy: After a move to Calgary in 1982, Dawn Hardy was thrilled to discover that the medium of bronze enabled her to embrace two passions: horses and art.
The artist’s earliest commissions by the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede and the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society were followed by exhibitions across the United States, where she quickly gained an enthusiastic audience for her ability to capture the spirit and nature of the horse. Her desire to preserve the artistic integrity of each finished bronze led her to establish her own foundry in 1983; such personal involvement in the complex casting process was essential to full understanding of the medium, and the successful achievement of her trademark fine finishes.
Dawn Hardy bronzes reside in numerous museum, corporate, and private collections; many have been initiated as ongoing special awards and perpetual trophies from New York to California in the sports of racing and show jumping. Throughout the 1980s, many of her sporting sculptures were honored on the cover of “The Chronicle of the Horse”.
In 1991 the artist began an extended sabbatical from sculpting to immerse herself in another creative passion.