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GREENSBORO -- Madison strikes the perfect pose.

The photograph shows her ears perked up, her neck and head in proper posture, her hair braided, her calm eyes gazing at the camera.

Paintbrush in hand, artist Jan Lukens moves his gaze between photograph and canvas as he painstakingly reproduces Madison's likeness in oil paint.

He wants to portray her perfectly, right down to her gentle, unassuming personality.

"I want my clients to be absolutely sure they are happy with their painting before I deliver it," Lukens says.

Whether Madison is happy or not, Lukens will never really know. Madison will never tell.

She's a horse.

* * *

In 1992, Lukens left an award-winning career in advertising illustration for an unusual niche in the art business: equestrian portraiture.

That's right. He paints portraits of horses. Their riders, too.

He will paint any horse but specializes in those competing in show jumping, the sport in which horses jump a series of fences.

For 16 years, he has painted some of the sport's best horses and riders from 38 states and seven other countries.

"Ever since I was a kid, my favorite thing was to draw people and paint people and animals," says Lukens, 55. "Horses have made it possible for me to make a successful career out of doing that."

Lukens' portrait of Chris Kappler and the famous stallion Royal Kaliber, silver medalists at the 2004 Olympics, is part of the U.S. Equestrian Federation collection.

He has captured on canvas 2000 Olympic team member Margie Goldstein Engle, a superstar in show jumping.

This year, he was the official artist of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., the country's largest show jumping circuit.

He has painted the daughter of newscaster Paula Zahn with her horse.

Boeing Company CEO Jim McNerney praises what he sees in Lukens' portraits of his daughters with their horses. They now hang in McNerney's home office.

"It captured the girls and the horses, as well," McNerney says in a phone interview.

Lukens is booked up for the next eight months. Among his upcoming commissions is an equestrian portrait of Princess Benedikte of Denmark.

Lukens carries on a tradition that dates back centuries when rulers commissioned portraits and sculptures of themselves with their mounts.

Although he himself doesn't ride, "I think horses are the most majestic animals on Earth that can be domesticated, the most beautiful and the most inspirational for an artist," Lukens says.

After nine years in New York and Connecticut, Lukens moved his career in May back to Greensboro, the town where he grew up, to be closer to his parents.

He paints in a rented studio in the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, the converted textile mill off Yanceyville Street.

But don't expect to find Lukens there year-round.

He spends two to three months at show-jumping events across the country where he paints and exhibits his work, hoping to snag commissions.

On this hot day in mid-June, he paints against time.

The next day, he will depart for a month of horse shows in New York and Ohio.

He wants to finish two portraits -- including Madison's -- before he leaves.

* * *

Even in elementary school, Lukens was known for his art.

At 10, he sold pencil portraits of the Beatles for 25 cents.

He earned an associate degree in commercial art and advertising from what was then Guilford Technical Institute.

For 15 years, he worked as an art director and freelance illustrator, winning several local Addy awards for design and illustration.

Two experiences spurred Lukens to change careers.

In 1991, he won top honors in a national competition of portraits of jazz great Thelonious Monk.

"I thought if I did that well, maybe I could do well with a career in portraiture," he recalls.

At the same time, illustration work for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company represented much of his business. He was one of several artists working on the controversial Joe Camel campaign, which would come under attack for allegedly marketing cigarettes to children.

That bothered him.

"One day I threw my hands up and said, 'I'm not going to do it anymore,' " he says.

Lukens had to create another lucrative artistic outlet.

"I didn't know there was such a thing as equestrian portrait painter," he says.

But he had friends who competed in horse shows and knew what the sport cost. If he exhibited his art around the circuit, he thought, owners might commission him to paint their horses.

So, he took horse paintings to two shows.

No luck.

A friend's advice made the difference.

"Paint a little girl on a pony and take that to a show," she told him.

At the next show, he received three commissions.

A client from Alabama offered to invite him to a party with other horse owners. Within two hours, Lukens had 13 commissions.

His career was off and running.

* * *

Those who commission a Lukens painting can expect to pay anywhere from $900 to $20,000 -- and wait up to two years.

His primary market is parents of young riders who want him to paint their children with their horses.

He has to paint those young riders just right.

"If it doesn't look like the child's face, it is just about worthless," he says. "And I am going to make it flattering. The next thing is the horse.

"I try to make these paintings more about the relationship between the horse and the rider, and I think people respond to that."

Impressed with the way Lukens paints people, some clients have commissioned family portraits -- minus the horse.

So, how does Lukens make a horse pose for a painting? He doesn't.

He paints from photographs, shooting dozens to get the right pose.

Someone holds the reins and tries to get the horse's attention, so that its ears stand up.

Its head and neck must have a pleasing posture, its eyes a nice expression.

"A horse looks spooked if the whites of the eyes show," he says.

Lukens starts with a pencil drawing on a blank canvas. He paints in large areas of color.

He then focuses on the details: the horse's mane, the bridle, the bit, the reins.

"I can get the entire canvas covered in paint and capture an accurate likeness pretty quickly," he says. "But the magic is in the details."

Bill Weeks of Southport, Conn., notices those details when he sees the finished portrait of Madison, the American Grand Prix Association 2005 and 2006 Horse of the Year, who is owned by his daughter.

Weeks is struck by how Lukens depicts the stitching in Madison's bridle, the natural light hitting the bit -- and the look in Madison's eyes.

"She's competitive but has very calm eyes that have the look of wisdom," Weeks says. "He has really captured the spirit of the horse."

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com