Wellington, FL – October 21, 2004 – A new tradition for the 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival, scheduled for November 30 through December 5, 2004, at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, Florida, will be launched this year with the release of a unique poster specially created for the show by artist Rollin McGrail.

The well-known image used by the National Horse Show since 1883 (a drawing of a bob-tailed horse with a rider in a top hat and hunt coat jumping a fence), has been re-vamped by Rollin in her own well-known style. The limited edition of 100 posters signed by the artist will be released on November 30, the opening day of the horse show. The posters are priced at $35 each and will be available only at the National Horse Show Souvenir Booth next to the front gate at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club. Rollin’s illustration will also be used in a window display version of the poster, which will contain text about the show, while the 12” x 10” limited edition souvenir poster on top quality paper features only the artwork and show title.

To establish the tradition of a unique annual poster for the National Horse Show & Family Festival, a new artist will be selected each year to create a version of the classic 1883 image in his or her own style. Elizabeth Headley of Stadium Jumping, Inc.’s Business Development & Community Relations selected Rollin McGrail to be the first featured poster artist because her work is well known in New York as well as Wellington.

“Using that same image was fun and brings continuity to the project,” explained Rollin McGrail. “The treatment is engaging in a sort of quest for excitement. He is the hunt master in traditional pinks. It’s all a fresh feeling. With brush and black ink I created the horse and rider and added some hounds. I wanted to incorporate my watercolor technique with my more illustrative work, which I use for magazines and newspapers. The poster was created by developing successive stages of watercolor glaze and then a spontaneous hint of splattering to give the feeling of a starry evening as in a dream – even his eyes are closed. After 120 years of the same poster, Elizabeth Hedley and I decided that the departure from such a long-standing tradition should be gradual and that my recognizable style would make the subtle break-away.”

Rollin’s trademark images in ink and watercolor are recognizable for content as well as style – her images often kindheartedly lampoon the rich while harkening back to the era of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick and Nora, and the early New Yorker magazine years of Peter Arno. Her emphasis is on a strong use of black, which sets off the color and classic vignette composition. Rollin’s work has been shown in art galleries around the globe including Paris, New York, and Barcelona, but the majority of her artwork is aimed at national newspapers, magazines, and book publishers. Rollin has regularly published illustrations in The New York Times and currently illustrates the bi-weekly business column of The Washington Post. She is also a frequent contributor to major magazines including Vanity Fair and Newsweek. Her illustrations have also appeared in best-selling books such as Toasts (Crown) and The Pleasure Of Your Company (Clarkson N. Potter). The 2004 Special Issue of Forbes magazine featuring the 400 richest people in America contains 20 images created by Rollin.

A former resident of Paris and Manhattan, Rollin McGrail has lived in Wellington for 15 years. She and her husband Frederic Roy, publisher of polo’s The Morning Line, have two children. Well-known Wellington venues have displayed her work, including Beyond the Barn, Idlewild Stables, Palm Beach Art Studios, and The Players’ Club. Examples of Rollin’s artwork are available for view at www.RollinMcGrail.com.

The 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival features topnotch hunters, jumpers, and equitation riders in contention for national titles. The show also presents the 3rd Annual Zada Enterprises, LLC Dressage at the National scheduled for December 3-5. Tickets for the 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival are available in a variety of passes and packages and can be reserved by calling 866-NHS-SHOW or on the web at www.nhs.org.

For tables in the Diamond Horseshoe Club at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, contact the Special Events Office at (561) 753-3389.

For more information, about the 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival, write to National Horse Show, PO Box 386, Greenvale, NY 11548. E-mail: NationalHS@aol.com; Phone: (516) 484-1865; Fax: (516) 484-1982. Web: www.nhs.org.