About the Artist
Welcome! My name is Christy Johnston.
I specialize in model horse customs, but I love all animals and have created customs of cats & dogs. I grew up with dogs my whole life, and I've been riding horses since I was 5, although I've never owned my own horse. Despite hailing from Texas, I've ridden just about everything English - hunter pleasure, hunters, jumpers, and dressage. I've also worked with Arabians, National Show Horses, off the track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs), Warmbloods, and even ponies! As a child, I collected Breyer model horses that looked like the horses I'd ride. I also loved to draw, and almost all of my creative work revolved around horses until I started studying graphic design in college.
In my professional life, I ended up pursuing marketing and SEO and felt the need to scratch my creative itch. As an adult in my late 20s, I decided to try combining my passion for creating and my passion for animals into one - and so I became a model horse artist! I completed my very first custom Breyer in early 2023 and I have been creating since. I attended my very first BreyerFest in 2024 and someday, I hope to return again. In my journey as a model horse artist, I've taken classes from other artists, sought out a multitude of tutorials, and most importantly learned from my mistakes. It has been a learning curve, but I am enjoying every minute of it. My current method of choice involves airbrush acrylics, pastel pigments, hand-painted acrylics, and colored pencil.
Image shows a young me on an Arabian show horse named Explosive.
Image shows two fluffy cats - Casper (left) and Stella (right).
Behind the Name
Why Castella Studios?
My love for animals knows no bounds - it was only fitting that I named my artist studio after my two beloved felines, Casper and Stella. Stella is my first cat whom I adopted in 2020, and I adopted Casper later on that year. I created my studio in 2023 and since then, I now have a third cat in my household named Tarzan who is just as loved. My pets mean the absolute world to me, and as of (late) 2024 I plan on making customs of each cat for my personal model collection.