Kym Day “Hula Horse 11”

There is joy in this painting, and it is impossible to contain. "Hula Horse 11" by Kym Day is one of those rare works that makes you smile before you've even had a chance to think about why, a rearing horse, golden hula hoops spinning in perfect orbit around it, set against a warm and dramatic sky that feels like the exact moment before something wonderful happens.

Day has always worked at the intersection of realism and dream logic, and "Hula Horse 11" is perhaps her most joyful expression of that instinct. The horse is rendered with the technical mastery you'd expect from an artist trained at the Maryland Institute College of Art — every muscle, every movement, every strand of mane caught in the kind of light that only oil and metal leaf together can produce. And then the hula hoops arrive, golden and spinning and gloriously absurd, and the whole thing lifts off into something else entirely.

The metal leaf is what makes this piece extraordinary at any scale. At 30" x 15", it commands attention not just through size but through light, the metal leaf catches and shifts depending on where you stand, giving the painting a living quality that photographs can only hint at. In person, it glows.

Rooted in her Texas childhood and shaped by the American South, Day imbues her western imagery with a sense of wonder that feels genuinely rare in contemporary painting. "Hula Horse 11" is that wonder distilled into a single, perfect image, serious craft in service of pure, unfiltered delight.

This is a painting for someone who takes joy seriously.

Dimensions: 30" x 15"
Medium: Oil and Metal Leaf on Canvas
Artist: Kym Day