Stacey Wescott / Chicago TribuneNick, a 22-year-old Appaloosa-Clydesdale, paints at the Danada Equestrian Center in Wheaton, Illinois. Nick has been taught to paint using the clicker method, which rewards behavior with a clicking sound and food. At left is Margaret Gitter, who clicks and gives Nick his treats. At right is Dan Neustadt, who assists Nick with the paintbrush.

WHEATON, Ill. —

There’s a prolific new artist in residence at the Danada Equestrian Center.

He can turn out six or more abstract art pieces during a 20-minute session.

He also weighs 1,600 pounds and once pulled carriages on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

He is Nick, a 22-year-old Appaloosa-Clydesdale, and he’s the latest horse at Danada to take up painting — with the help and urging of Forest Preserve of DuPage County volunteers and staff.

Nick first donned his hand-me-down painter’s beret in May when volunteer Maureen Murray of West Chicago chose him from the 19 horses on the farm to learn to paint.

Within three weeks, Murray and Danada equestrian assistant Margaret Gitter had Nick picking up the paintbrush with his teeth and painting the canvases they lay before him on a hay bale.

The trick? Carrots.

“He is entirely food-motivated,” said Gitter, who has high hopes that Nick will complete a few hundred paintings before the Danada Fall Festival, a celebration of horses, on Oct. 11.

Danada has had horses painting for about 10 years. Nick is the fourth. The painting project was started to give older horses something interesting to do. Nick has arthritis and is retired from the Danada riding program. Retired horses, Murray said, get bored and they like the attention and the treats.

Staff and volunteers quickly saw how much visitors enjoyed watching the works in progress, and they discovered that the paintings are a great fund-raiser. Nick’s artwork sells for $5 to $15. It is available at the equestrian center office and will be on sale at the fall festival.

Nick is an accomplished horse. Along with working on Mackinac Island in his youth, he led the equine drill team at Danada for nine years. But it’s more personality than skill that makes him perfect for painting, Gitter said.

“He’s a pretty easy-going horse. He loves the attention and he likes pleasing the audience,” said Gitter, who assists Nick with his painting three or four times a week.

After 20 minutes he starts to get bored, she said. Or maybe he has had his fill of carrots.

Nick paints with a one-inch-wide brush that has a thick foam pad duct taped to the handle so he can easily and comfortably grip the handle with his teeth.

One volunteer dips the brush in the paint. Another hands it to Nick, who grabs it and bends down to swipe the color on the canvas. Usually after one or two strokes up and down, he’s done and drops the brush or tosses it, sometimes toward the folks in front watching. He then immediately turns to the right where Gitter offers the carrot.

On a recent morning Nick had park visitors and volunteers cheering him on. The more praise he got, the more time he put into his canvases and the more his legs became splattered with the primary colors.

“He really rocked it today,” said enthused volunteer Jean Gotkowski. “He did a dozen when normally six is about his limit.”

Gitter said the horse was taught by using “clicker” or positive reinforcement training. Each time Nick does something right, he hears the click and gets a treat. At first he had to touch the paintbrush with his nose. Then his lips. Then he had to learn to hold it with his teeth, and then to hold it and put his head down. Finally he learned to swipe the canvas.

Care of the Danada horses came under scrutiny a few years ago when a group of volunteers questioned the health and handling of the herd.

Then-newly elected forest preserve commissioner Shannon Burns of West Chicago was charged with investigating complaints.

“Absolutely things are better there now,” Burns said recently. “Every point I identified as needing to be addressed was addressed before I left office.”

Burns, who was not re-elected in 2014, is an active conservation volunteer and still attends forest preserve board meetings.

Equine veterinarian David Heinze of Fox Valley Equine has been taking care of the Danada horses for two years and agreed with Burns, saying the horses are “very well cared for.” And he said horses benefit from activity.

“You don’t have to be a horse whisperer to know that horses like to have a job,” he said.