At the Races: the Story Behind the Print (and a Kentucky Derby Gift Guide for People Who Appreciate the Hats as Much as the Horses)
If you grew up in Kentucky, the Derby is not just a horse race. It is a whole season. It is the hats that appear in shop windows in April, the Keeneland spring meet, the mint juleps, the fascinator debates, and the particular pride that comes from living somewhere the entire country pays attention to for one Saturday in May.
I grew up in Lexington, and when I sat down to create a Derby-inspired piece, it was not the horses I kept coming back to. It was the hats.
This is the story of how At the Races came to be — and why a row of mushrooms in the grandstand turned out to be the most natural subject in the world.
Why mushrooms? The idea behind At the Races
My artworks are built on a simple premise: what would fruits and vegetables do if they had somewhere to be? A banana dives into a pool. A peach enters a beauty pageant. Olives climb into a martini glass and call it a spa day.
So when someone suggested mushrooms as the next vegetable I should focus on, the Kentucky Derby was a natural fit.
Look at a mushroom from the right angle and you already see a wide-brimmed hat, a sculptural crown, the kind of statement headpiece that stops a conversation at Churchill Downs. The caps do the work. All I had to do was put them in the grandstand.
Growing up in Lexington, Kentucky
Keeneland race track sits on the edge of Lexington near the airport, and if you grew up there, spring and fall meets at Keeneland are just part of the rhythm of the year. The limestone fences, the bluegrass, the particular atmosphere of the infield in April. Horse racing in Kentucky is so much more than a novelty.
The Kentucky Derby takes all of that and amplifies it to a national scale. Churchill Downs in Louisville, two hours west, becomes the centre of everything for one Saturday in May. The horses are magnificent. But the grandstand is its own spectacle — a sea of colour, feathers, silk flowers, and audacious millinery that would make these mushrooms feel right at home.
When I created At the Races, I was drawing on that specific visual: the grandstand as a place where being dressed for the occasion is taken very seriously. Translated into art that becomes a row of mushrooms in their finest caps, watching the race with the quiet confidence of people who have done this before.
What the original drawing looks like
Like every piece in the ART BY Studio Movellan collection, At the Races begins as an original colored pencil drawing — worked by hand before anything goes near a printer.
The composition places a group of mushroom characters in a grandstand row, each wearing a distinctly different hat: a wide-brimmed statement piece, something more sculptural and upright, a classic Derby fascinator. They are dressed for the occasion. They have opinions about the race. You get the sense they have been coming to this for years.
The hats were the part that took the most thought — each one needed to read clearly as a hat, feel true to Derby fashion, and still look like it belonged naturally on a mushroom. Getting that balance right, where the character feels inevitable rather than forced, is the part of the process that takes time.
The finished drawing is printed with archival inks on 310 gsm Hahnemühle German Etching paper — matte, acid-free, and museum-quality. The paper's textured surface picks up the detail of the colored pencil work in a way that a standard photo print cannot replicate. Every print is hand-signed and stamped before it ships.
What one buyer said about it
The most satisfying thing about At the Races is seeing it find the right home.
One buyer purchased the print as a Kentucky Derby gift for a friend during Derby week. Their Etsy review said it all:
"Love this piece of art! Made for a great gift for my friend during the KY Derby. The paper and print quality was outstanding. Arrived in less than 2 days."
That is exactly what this print is for — something specific enough to feel personal, distinctive enough to be remembered, and well-made enough to be kept.
A Kentucky Derby gift guide for people who appreciate the spectacle
Not everyone at the Derby is there purely for the racing. Some of us are there for the fashion, the tradition, the particular theatre of it all. If you are shopping for that person — or if you are that person — here are some ideas worth considering.
The At the Races fine art print
The obvious starting point. At the Races is available in three sizes (5×7, 8×10, and 11×14 inches), printed on museum-quality Hahnemühle German Etching paper with archival inks, and hand-signed by the artist. It ships within 1–5 business days — well within Derby week if you order in time.
If you are buying this as a Kentucky Derby week gift, order at least a week before the race. Prints are custom-produced, and while we always aim to ship quickly, a small lead time means the print arrives ready to gift rather than arriving the Monday after.
→ Shop At the Races on artbystudiomovellan.com or Etsy
A beautiful hat
No Derby gift guide would be complete without acknowledging the hat. If your recipient takes their Derby fashion seriously, a contribution toward a custom fascinator from a local milliner — or a gift card to a hat shop they love — is the kind of gesture that gets remembered. The hat matters. The mushrooms would agree.
A classic mint julep kit
The mint julep is to the Kentucky Derby what the Aperol Spritz is to a summer rooftop — inseparable from the occasion. A pewter julep cup, a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, and a small bag of raw sugar make a beautifully packaged gift for anyone hosting a Derby watch party.
A Kentucky-made bourbon
If the recipient is a bourbon enthusiast, skip the national brands and find something from one of Kentucky's craft distilleries. The state has hundreds at this point, many with remarkable small-batch releases. It is a gift that doubles as a conversation about where it came from.
At the Races notecard sets
If you want to give something more modest in scale, the Studio Movellan notecard sets bring the same whimsical characters to stationery form — ideal as a hostess gift for a Derby watch party, or paired with the print for a more complete gift.
When to order for the Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby falls on the first Saturday of May. Here are the dates worth keeping in mind:
Order by mid-April for confident delivery before Derby week
Order by late April for standard delivery before race day
Contact us at art@studiomovellan.com for urgent requests — we will always do our best
Prints are custom-produced to order, which means they are made specifically for you rather than pulled from a shelf. That is what makes the paper quality and the hand-signing possible — and it means allowing a little lead time is worth it.
At the Races as a piece of Kentucky art
There is something that feels right about the fact that this print came from someone who grew up in Lexington. At the Races is not a print made by someone who has seen the Kentucky Derby on television and decided it looked fun to illustrate. It comes from genuine familiarity with what horse racing means in Kentucky — the culture, the tradition, the specific reverence for a well-chosen hat.
That context does not announce itself in the image. But it is there in the way the mushrooms carry themselves. They are not tourists. They are regulars.
If you know someone who loves the Derby, loves Kentucky, or simply loves the idea of fungi dressed for a formal occasion, this is the print for them.
Questions? Email art@studiomovellan.com