Natalie Ash combined her artistic talent with her love of animals into a mural at the Ramona Junior Fair.
Over the past seven years, the 20-year-old Ramona Stars 4-H leader has raised several goats and a few chickens. Her boyfriend, Oliver Booth, also 20 and a 4-H leader, has been a beekeeper.
Together with Natalie’s younger sister, Hope Ash, 18, they just finished a large mural of farm animals and home economics designs on a building that will be used for food sales at the Junior Fair.
Natalie said she wanted to paint the mural to promote the Ramona Stars 4-H. The mural also serves another 4-H goal — to renovate the food booth where snacks like corn dogs and brownie sundaes are sold during the fair.
“Everybody loved the idea for a mural,” Oliver said. “We wanted to paint the food booth and fix it up inside to make it nicer and newer.”
Since being promoted to a 4-H leader two years ago, Natalie said she has had more authority to get the mural done.
“I feel like I have more freedom to do it this year because I’m a leader now and I’ve grown my skill in art during the past few years,” she said.
Her inspiration for the mural design came from all the animals involved in the 4-H group and a desire to incorporate agriculture into the painting, she said.
Along with goats, a dog, butterflies and bees, the mural depicts a calf to represent the fair’s beef group, chickens and a goose as part of the poultry group, a pig for the swine group, a lamb for the lamb group and assorted fruits and vegetables to represent horticulture. Home economics is reflected in the mural with a sewing machine and a camera.
“I hope when people see it they will think of our group and all the animals the kids have raised along with all the effort and hard work that goes into that,” she said.
She also painted a pair of longhorn cattle and geese at an AirBnB in San Diego Country Estates in 2020, and would consider painting other murals in town if the opportunity arises.
Natalie is also pursuing two associate’s degrees at Palomar Community College — one in studio arts and the other in art history.
She aspires to become a professional artist and show her work in galleries. Ideally, she wants to be an equestrian artist and has already won first prizes for two of her horse paintings in the Ramona Junior Fair’s home economics contests in 2018 and 2019.
Hope, who is aiming for a medical or nursing career, has been helping out with the mural. She entered two paintings in the fair’s Home Economics contest this year — a barnyard scene and an abstract work. She’s also showing three dairy goats and a meat bird pen consisting of three chickens.
One prized goat named Copper, who was bottle fed after its mom died, has turned into the “most friendliest goat you’d ever met,” Hope said.
“I’ve been showing animals ever since I joined 4-H,” she said. “I think I enjoy dairy goats the most because they’re beautiful animals and are very cute. You can keep them for several years and watch them grow and mature. They’re not like meat animals that have to be sent off every year.”
Hope, Natalie and Oliver all said they have appreciated the community spirit and friendships in 4-H. Hope says she’s learned a lot about animals and agriculture, and Natalie has led arts and crafts projects for youths ages 4 to 18 as the leader for the visual arts group.
“4-H exposes you to a lot of different things that you wouldn’t think you’d be interested in,” said Oliver, who works as a water pump technician at Booth’s Pump Service in Ramona. “It’ll surprise you what catches your eye. You learn things about yourself and other people in groups that you wouldn’t have expected.”
