Artist Commentary: I began "Perpetual Presence" by a layer of squares and rectangles of handmade papers with Gesso. Then, once this layer dried, I added the colors red, magenta, and orange in various tones, shades, and shapes. I did not plan to add the form of the horse initially, but the horse began to appear and became part of the composition during my process. The horse brought a magical quality to this painting that I could not achieve with just colors and textures. Still, this painting is equally about the warm, exciting reds to form the horse's shape and violet and blues to define the horses' shadows. Then, for the highlights, I applied a soft white.