Moonlit Unicorn

Moonlit Unicorn -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Moonlit Unicorn is a painting that I started prior to Christmas. Our daughter flew home from NYC on the 18th and brought the flu with her. She got home and went straight to bed for a few days, once she was on the mend, I caught it. Needless to say our Christmas holidays were a bit subdued. We are all feeling better now, she’s out and about with friends and I have finally completed this painting.

I chose to paint a unicorn night scene because I was still thinking about the magical time of the early days of December. Years ago when my twin sister and I were sent to bed, some times our oldest sister would sneak into our room and tell us tales that she made up. I have fond memories of her stories.

When my girl was very young, around two or three at bed time I began making up stories of Grace, a loving white unicorn who would come to visit her. Our first home in Atlanta had a big wooded back yard that sloped down to a creek. It was beautiful. My husband put up a swing set and our girl loved swinging and playing there.

In the stories, Grace would always appear from the woods in our backyard as our girl was swinging. She would take her up on her back and fly her off on adventures. Who knows, maybe that’s one reason why my daughter has such an adventurous spirit.

Lady and the Unicorn

Lady and the Unicorn -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Lady and the Unicorn is a new painting to add to my mythical creatures series.  I’ve always been fascinated by unicorns and wondered if they ever actually existed. One Christmas while in high school, my older sister gave me a jigsaw puzzle which had a striking image of a tamed unicorn in a lovely garden from a medieval tapestry. I loved it.

Years later while living in New York City every so often I would trek up to the Cloisters Metropolitan Museum to view the original tapestry which is part of The Hunt of the Unicorn series on view there. The building and tapestries made me feel as if I had gone back to a more meditative time. In this painting I wanted it to have the feel of a medieval tapestry so I  painted a floral pattern background and a traditional unicorn with his billy goat’s beard showing, The unicorns from that period also had a lion’s tail and cloven hooves.

In myths unicorns are mysterious, beautiful and hard to tame.  They are seen as gentle, strong and kind.  The innocent maiden is able to tame him with her open heart and trusting nature.

Purchase the print here:  Lady and the Unicorn