South Okanagan artist creates horse from horseshoes

The South Okanagan’s horseshoe artist is at it again.

Kaleden resident Jean Ouellon recently completed another piece of art from his medium of choice — horseshoes.

Ouellon was commissioned to create a full-sized sculpture of a foal, which he recently completed.

The project took two and a half months to create, involved more than 300 horseshoes and weighs 188 pounds.

It was recently placed at its new home at a residence on Penticton's West Bench.

“I’ve received so many comments and likes on social media from the foal, it’s crazy,” Ouellon says.

The former millwright has permanent displays of his horseshoe work in front of the David Kampe tower at Penticton Regional Hospital, including a couple of bears and birds made of recycled horseshoes.

At the start of the pandemic last year, he created “Pearl the Pandemic Salmon” and prior to that had created birds, pigs and other animal creations out of discarded horseshoes.

Ouellon’s future projects include a downsizing of sorts, with the creation of a hummingbird sculpture.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to make it out of, but probably not horseshoes,” he says.

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