During my teen years, my parents asked our neighbor, artist Mel Shaw to do my portrait. He did a formal portrait of me with my two Min Pin dogs. But at about the same time, he started a painting of a young girl with a white horse. This turned out to catch my spirit much more truely than did the formal portrait.. This is work is less finished than Mel's usual works and the result is rather impressionistic. Mel's usual works were very polished and realistic in style, though the subject might be fantastic, such as centaurs playing polo.
This painting is unsigned and undated, indicating that Mel did not consider it to be completed. The formal portrait is dated 1958, so the horse painting would be from about the same time.
Mel worked at Disney studios for some years, left them, and many years later came back to be in charge of the art work for "The Lion King". He loved horses , played polo for many years, drove carriages.for some years. He and his wife, Louise, were wonderful people, free spirits, and very good neighbors.