Jeanne Mellin, equine author and artist, is passionate about horses.  She has authored numerous books, including several about the Morgan Horse.  Her 1955 classic "Pidgy's Surprise" was recently re-released after having been restored and updated for today's young readers.  When not busy caring for her own horses, Jeanne can be found, pencil in hand, drawing them. Jeanne works in the English tradition of Herring, Stubbs and Munnings. Her paintings, prints, and bronzes of horses are clearly linked to the tradition of realistic animal paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Like many of the earlier English painters, Mellin's work often combines formalist composition with emotional intensity. Each of her animals is an individual in its own right. As Mellin says, "I create the animal so that it will look as if it will move an ear, lift a foot." Mellin's long and intense relationship with horses as a breeder, trainer and judge gives her a unique insight into the individual personalities of her subjects, no matter what their breed or discipline. Her practical experience, her formal training at Rhode Island School of Design, and her frequent painting trips to England have made her a remarkably successful equine portraitist. Art by Jeanne Mellin has been exhibited in England at the Tryon Gallery (London), the Kaiser Gallery (Cirencester), and the Cleveland Gallery (Bath). In the United States her work has been exhibited at Saratoga, The Kentucky Horse Park, and at the American Morgan Horse Institute (Shelburne, VT). In 1992 a limited edition of twelve bronzes of the famous Justin Morgan sold out before being advertised, and in 1990 a bronze of the Dutch Warmblood Preferent Stallion Roemer was cast by Mellin and presented to the Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands by Roemer's owners. Art by Mellin is owned by some of the most important collectors of equine art in Europe and America today.

Moonbeam Children's Book Award for "Pidgy's Surprise: The Little Pony with a Big Heart"