York artist Lincoln Lightfoot stands by his racehorse alien abduction mural in the Knavesmire pub beer garden
THE racehorses have left the Knavesmire turf after the final meeting of the 2026 season, but now they are vanishing from Earth too in Lincoln Lightfoot’s new mural for The Knavesmire pub in Albemarle Road, South Bank, York.
Lincoln has applied the protective coating to complete the large mural in the beer garden of a pub under new management, where Lincoln now has a studio above the pub.
“They’re hoping to draw in more people and hold more events, and I’m delighted to be playing my part, with hopefully everything I’ve got in storage going on show in the pub too,” says Lincoln, whose surrealist retro art depicts scenes reminiscent of 1950s and 1960s’ B-movie poster art in familiar northern locations, often in York.
“The new mural depicts several bewildered racehorses being abducted from the racecourse! I particularly like the first three horses, but I like each one for different reasons, catching their muscles against the rays of light thrown over the horses by the UFOs. I was trying to make them look like George Stubbs’s Whistlejacket, the painting that was once on show at York Art Gallery – though maybe one eye is still too big on one of them!
A close-up of the teeth in Lincoln Lightfoot’s equine mural at the Knavesmire pub
“I got a bit carried away with the teeth for the last two horses, spending quite a lot of time on them where they even became quite ‘cartoony’! I was thinking of Francis Bacon’s paintings, but obviously not as disturbing, but those teeth do add humour.”
Lincoln loves the scale of the mural, a work so large that to capture it all in a photograph he had to use a drone. “It definitely brightens the place, and there’s something about producing a large piece of work in such a short period of time that’s exciting for me. There’s skill in working to create a piece of that size when you first have to pen it out and block it,” he says.
“I used a mix of spray paint and masonry paint, mixing set colours and then sealing it with a graffiti-proof varnish, which will make it really shine in the sun.”
The pub managers gave Lincoln free rein on the mural project. “They just wanted something to brighten up the beer garden, and I wanted to make something as colourful as possible for them, but I also thought I should do something to fit the location, near the racecourse.
Wall eye: A racehorse caught in an alien spacecraft’s ray of light on the Knavesmire track in Lincoln Lightfoot’s mural
“My thinking is I want to people take photos of the mural to put on social media and then make people want to go racing because of the imagery. I like how murals make art accessible, bringing it to the people.”
Lincoln, by the way, has attended race days on Knavedsmire. “I used to go quite often, but weirdly, given it’s so convenient now I live so nearby. I haven’t gone as often,” he says.
He looks forward to using his pub studio. “I’m excited as I do want to work towards a new exhibition, creating plenty of new works, rather than a trickle, as I do feel people have seen a lot of my current work now,” says Lincoln.
“My plan with the drone is to use it to paint with the Doodle Grid method, using it to make photos for a new body of work of giant paintings of creatures in York. Hopefully, there’ll be many reasons I can use a drone for my art.”
Those new works will not however be featuring in the 2027 York Open Studios. Despite being a regular participant in recent years, Lincoln has not been selected for next April’s two weekends. Yes, you read that first here. A decision as bizarre as one of his paintings.