When Elizabeth Graves thinks about the subject of the next painting she will create, she just steps out her back door at her Shades Of Oak Ranch in Clear Lake, Minnesota.  Elizabeth has always loved horses and they were a very strong part of her life throughout her school years, and continued to be while she was a licensed cosmetologist and taught at a beauty school in Staunton, VA.  She moved on to managing a Thoroughbred farm there, where she was also co-owner of Walnut Creek Farm for many years.  Elizabeth is now a popular national horse show judge, clinician, as well as a respected trainer of both horses and riders, specializing in gaited breeds.  Throughout her life, she expressed her creativity through two and three dimensional art mediums, and whenever she can, she paints her beloved animal friends.