Inspiration

L'air du Temps

Oil on Canvas

40" x 60" 

7950.00

Available Now as a Limited Edition Print

Inspiration is a funny thing. It is the beginning point. The place you start from and the place when I am finished I return to and ask myself if I held true to the inspiration or did I take a wild detour and land in a place far away from where I started?

My introduction to Lipizzaners was very typical. I was captivated by the Wesley Dennis's illustrations in Henry's book The White Stallion of Lipizza, I watched Disney's The Miracle of the White Stallions and I was smitten. I wanted one of those beautiful white horses that could leap into the air and preform capriole!

At this point if someone would have given me a 30 year old welsh pony I would have been over the moon.

When you're young, dreams and fantasy have not been dulled yet by the realities of life. Your imagination has no boundaries. Your heart knows how to sing and how to fly.

If this painting gives you a glimpse back to when you clutched at your heart when you look at a magical white beast leap into the air, then I held to my inspiration.


This painting is now being offered as a limited edition print.

20" x 30" Giclée Print, Edition of 10, 495.00 shipped in the US

13" x 20" Giclée Print, Edition of 25, 275.00 shipped in the US

contact me at ctannerjensen@gmail.com to purchase

Prints Available

Leap of Faith

I had hoped to be going to n equestrian event with my art, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. I had printed a few extra of "Leap of Faith" and held back two of "In the Still" (only 5 were printed). Since I won't be going anywhere they are now available at my Etsy Shop The Superlative Horse.

In the Still

Each giclée print is 16" x 20" with a 2" white border for a total size of 20" x 24", and is signed.Printed on smooth watercolor paper with archival ink.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Double Edged Sword

Untitled

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Graphite on Yupo

17.25" x 23"

975.00

One of the best things about being an artist is that there is no one telling me what to do. One of the worst things about being an artist is that there is no on telling me what to do.

The freedom is amazing! I can explore things, ideas, media, anything and everything. I can revisit the past or plunge into unknown territory. I am the one who sets my own parameters and can remove them or change them at will. It is boundless!

This sort of freedom can also become a hinderance. With all the possibilities, how do I choose one to start? How do I focus on one idea, one notion, and stay with it when there are so many other ideas dancing around demanding attention?

To be honest, I don't know. Some days I don't. Some days I clean and sort things. Some days I stretch and gesso canvas. Some days I do paper work. While, all these things need to be done, some days I do them to avoid choosing.

Most days however, I just pick my media and begin to work. 

Most days are good.

SaveSave

Farming and Painting

Spring Romp

mixed media on paper

Framed 

34" x 42"

4250.00

I have long believed that I have the heart of a farmer. I love the smell of the soil and planting things. I can send hours choosing seeds, and bulb, and trees from catalogues and spend countless more drawing diagrams for where to plant them.

How to amend soil fascinates me. What to add to your compost to make it better for area is intended for is a subject I am enthralled with, and lets not even get started about my love for my earth worms.

Why do I think this gives me the heart of a farmer and not a gardner?

Well it's only those things in part. You see like a farmer I work tirelessly at what I love. I choose colours and canvas with care. I spend hours noticing which paint brand has more transparency than another. What happens when I mix this with that. How do get this effect or that on this surface.

And then there's light. I can become quite delirious when describing light. The mere thought of good light makes me swoon.

A farmer, you must understand is also a gambler. Willing to put all of their hard work into what they do and be at the mercy of external forces. One good hail storm will flatten a wheat field. New mown hay lies there at the peril of rain until it is baled. It's biblical in nature, all the misfortune that call lay waste to good crop.

And then there is the market. You have the most beautiful crop of white peaches that you have ever seen. People, however are buying strawberries. The peach buyers  ask "Do you have any cling free peaches? I am not sure I will like white peaches, even though they are beautiful and fragrant." You smile and know they are missing something, something you possess in spades, you are will to take a risk!

Days, weeks, and months may go by without a sale, and you are nagged by that practical voice in your head regarding why you keep at it. The answer is simple, and clear. I do what I do because it is what my heart desires and when it is good, it is glorious!

I have the heart of a farmer.

Doubt

Untitled

Ghost Serigraph with

Watercolour, Ink, and Graphite on

Rives BFK

Image 10" x 14"

Framed 20" x 24"

750.00

There are lots of days when I am in the studio riddled with self doubt. Questioning what I am doing. Questioning why I am doing it. Questioning if it matters.

Then a painting sells.

There is a rush. A feeling of yes, someone recognized me. Me. Not my skill, not my ability, not my choice of materials, but me. The me that was and is always there. The me that I had no hand in creating. The me that has connected with something I don't understand. Something that is beyond the word of defining and lies in the field of feeling. Something only the heart glimpses and the artist wants to share.

And someone else felt it too!

Always More

Detail of Work in Progress

"The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing" James Joyce 

Aesthetic arrest.

This is what I am striving toward.

Fresh off the Easel

Ghost Horse

Mixed Media on Panel

15" x 15"

1250.00

This painting took years and moments to create. 

I had a panel that I had been adding and subtracting color to for years. Literally years. I have memories of this particular panel that are at least 8 years old.

Sunday I was looking at it. I really like the color. I started adding lines with a pencil that became the outline of a horse. I started mixing paint and applying it to the surface and then removing it. I added more lines with colored pencils, I added more paint, and so it went on.

Yesterday morning I looked at it and thought it was finished, so I left it alone. Today I believe it is ready to share with you.

The Month of August

Wednesday morning I loaded up my car with paintings and drove into town to deliver artwork to Criollo.

Once there I unloaded the paintings, several large paintings. At this point the panic starts to settle in. Do I have enough paintings, do I have to many?

How are we going to arrange these?

The self doubt seems to be a constant companion. A much smaller voice to be certain, but still that little nag. There was no need for it. Kassidy was up and down on the ladder securing and adjusting the paintings and as if my magic it was all hung and looks fantastic.

You will have to stop in Criollo, 16 North San Francisco Street in Historic Downtown Flagstaff to see  the show. It is up through the month of August.

Big thanks to Diane Rechel for taking these lovely photographs.

Irish Linen

Irish Linen

40" x 60"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Sold

A few years ago I was driving down from Virginia to Carolina Horse Park. I don't remember which event it was, but it was in the spring. The weather was that particular spring mix of rainy, partially cloudy, gusty, and gloriously bright blue skies with billowy clouds. It was all that spring can be on the drive down.

I drove down primarily on two lane roads and through dozens of small towns. The farm land was starting to reveal summer's promise. The further south I was the more vibrant and alive with color the land became.

Finally I was almost there and the last hour or so of my drive made the whole trip worth it. Horse farms where everywhere. From acres and acres with large barns and fancy arenas filled with jumps to small places with a run in shed and two horses and a pony in the front yard. The grass was verdant and against fences and next to the houses the azaleas where in full bloom. Pinks, whites, and purples clustered together, and it didn't stop there.

The dogwoods in every variety and colour and size where out doing themselves. Vying as it were, for your attention with spring flowers in yellow and blue and red. It was amazing.

However the true star of this was the wisteria. That creeping, woody vine that you either love or hate. It can be impossible to cultivate in your garden or take hold and take over. This day it was climbing up telephone poles and clothing hillsides in violet. The hues were muted by veils of cloud and rain and then would be sharply revealed in shafts of clear sunlight.The racemes of purple appeared to be almost two feet long. It was stunning. It was romantic. It was a bit of the old south revealed it her fecund splendor.

My memories of that trip are all in greens, lavenders, and creams. So when this canvas started to take shape it transported me back to that spring day. I hope it transports you too.

Before Day One

Before I started Day One there was the unglamorous work of creating the support.

I assembled the stretcher bars and cut the canvas.

Then I stretched the canvas and stapled it to the frame.

At this point I gessoed it, waited for it to dry and sanded the surface. I do this three time.

Then I started applying thin washes of acrylic colour. I do several times until I achieve a surface that I am ready to paint on.

This all happens before Day One.