Process

Detail of Underpainting

I work in a series of contradictions. I usually start with no idea of where I am really going. However, sometimes I start with a colour., and sometimes that colour changes. I always start a painting on canvas with an underpainting of colour washes.

Detail of Underpainting

The colour washes are applied in thin layers. In places there will be one or two layers, in others there will be several. These washes start to build a landscape, a road map of lights and darks and of movement. They give direction  and are in no way indicative of the colour that will be applies over them.

Once this has been achieved  I spend a great deal of time looking at it from all angles. I place them upside down, sideways, and mix them up. Often times a triptych will become a diptych or a single canvas.

Detail of Underpainting

Triptych

40" x 78" 

I search for the movement that suggests the figure that should be there. Once this has been established I can start painting.

So really, my underpainting a series of underpaintings.

Ruby Slippers Effect

Primavera 

Oil, Acrylic and Charcoal

on Canvas

40" x 60'

7950.00

Why does anyone buy an artwork? The answers are as varied and as complicated as the people who made the purchases. However there is a common thread in most than a of the replies, "It makes me feel good."

When I create a painting it is like following that thread in the maze. It takes surprising twists and turns that lead me along. At the end it has developed in to a work that has it's own vibrational signature. It may be joy, or longing, vibrant and invigorating or calm and restful.The possibilities and combinations are endless.

Each individual who views the painting will see something, feel something a little bit differently and in some cases completely different.

This is what I call the Ruby Slippers Effect. It is your memories, your experiences, bits of you that are called forth when you look at a painting and feel something, or not.

I have brought forth a touchstone, a piece of art that causes you to pause, and reflect, and feel. You my dear are the one, you have the magic, and you had it all along.

All the Angles

                                  Detail of a Work in Progress


I have consider this painting that I am working on from all the angles. I have considered each hue and value. I have agonized over each colour. The thickness of the lines have undergone scrutiny, not to mention their length, their direction, whether or not the intersected.

It has all been evaluated, not once, or twice, but again and again.

You see each time I add or remove something it affects everything.

Titled

Against the Wind

Unofficial Photo until I can get to the Photographer

Against the Wind

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Graphite

17.5" x 23"

Sold

Official Photograph

Titling a painting is a funny thing. I never want something to be too specific as I don't want to constrict the viewers experience, I want to enhance it. So it needs to be a open ended.

I usually think of the title hours after I have left my photographers. He will ask me for the title and I don't have one, so we will reference it by materials and subject or color. I have quite a few files titled blue pony or red horse.

Everyone once in a while someone will be taking to me or I'll be listening to the radio and a word or phrase will catch my attention and that's it! The title of a work I have just completed. Or it will lead me on a little course of seemly random thoughts that bring about the title.

Last night via email chat someone asked me the title of this painting. I didn't have one yet. During our exchange she mentioned that her horses' Jockey Club name was Against the Wind. Voila! Titled!

Thank you Anne.

Mad about Yupo

Comin' In

17.5 x 23

Mixed Media on Yupo

Sold

I LOVE the surface of this paper. Yupo is a synthetic paper made by a company in Virginia. It has soft and velvety texture. It accepts the charcoal and will then release it, leaving only a ghost of the line. A line like the memory of a dream.

I have been using acrylic, and gesso, and charcoal, and water-soluble graphite on it. I have been working with a limited colour palette, and yet I feel there is so much to still explore with in these boundaries. It's intoxicating, I love being a painter.

Light and Dark

Untitled

26" x 20"

Mixed Media on Yupo

Sold

I have been experimenting with Yupo. It is a synthetic paper and responds quite differently than traditional paper. I have been fooling around with it from time to time for that 8 or so years.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that it was time to complete a painting on the Yupo. I used Golden Acrylic along with water soluble graphite, ink, and vine charcoal.
This is the result. A horse in shadow with light illuminating the lower half.

Into the Blue; Work in Progress

Detail of Work in Progress

One of the hardest things for me to do is to stop editing. This is completely different for accessing the painting. The self editing becomes a problem when I start to question to the point of becoming paralyzed. It hinders the process.

The goal today is to paint and only paint.

Day One to Twenty Three; A Brief Look at the Process

The initial drawing in charcoal is always so exciting. It is like the morning, fresh and full of possibilities.

Next I commit to the lines with paint. With this paticular painting I use acrylic Van Dyke Brown mixed with a little Phthalo Blue.

The painting process begins. At first it goes quickly.

A point is reached where every mark no matter how small, every colour no matter how subtle affects the painting. This is where the conversation between painting and painter begins.

Finally, there is nothing left to be said, at least for the moment.

This painting, "Irish Linen" is off to the photographers.

It's More than the Money

Lilies of the Field

Sold

Yes, when someone purchases a painting or print from me I am delighted to be able to pay the heating bill for my studio, or buy more canvas, but it's more than that. It means I have made a connection. A part of the buyer has seen something that translates into a message that we both understand.

Painting isn't simply about composing some pleasing shapes and colours onto a canvas, anymore than music is about arranging some pleasing sounds. It is about communication.

As the artist my communication begins with myself. What am I interested in? Why? How do I feel about it? What lies underneath the surface? How do I express it? Am I adding anything to this conversation? These and hundreds of other questions dancing in and out of consciousness as I start to paint. One question however always stands out. What is the essence of this thing I am trying to communicate?

Eventually as I work the inner chatter quiets. I get out of the way of myself and allow inspiration to take over. I paint in a state of aware meditation, and on a good day in a state of grace.

When I am sure that my physical hand is no longer needed I place the work into the public arena. It is in this place where I will see if my art will strike a chord with another. If I have been successful in communicating that elusive nonverbal moment when you heart leaps and you are left breathless. That feeling of passion. That understanding that you are on the edge of something deep and magnificent. If I have found a kindred spirit.

So, when someone buys a piece of art I have created, yes the money is nice, but the knowing that someone understands and feels it too is beyond all riches.

Bittersweet

"Bittersweet"

Oil on Canvas

34" x 34"

Sold

I finished this painting earlier this week and had Tom Alexander photograph it for me. He does  beautiful work and I am able to see the painting square inch by square inch it I wish.

There is something bittersweet about finishing a painting. You are ending your involvement with it as an artist, as a creator. The new relationship with it is hard to describe. There is a good deal of satisfaction in gazing at the finished work and a bit of pride, but there is also a edge of sadness, of longing to be involved in the process of painting and creating. 

And so, there is only one cure for this malaise, today I start a new painting.

Lighting and Living with Artwork.

L'Air du Temps

hanging at

 Hidden Light

L'Air du Temps

photographed at 

Tom Alexander's Studio

40" x 60"

Oil on Canvas

$7950.00

Color is so subjective and reactive. This is the same painting photographed by the same photographer. The top painting was photographed hanging at Hidden Light. The warm wood tones really heat up the color in the painting. Notice how creamy the white of the horse is and how much stronger the yellows and reds appear.

The bottom painting was photographed in the studio and is a very true representation of the original art work. The light in the studio mimics sunlight and allows for the full spectrum of color to be shown.

I love it when someone who has purchased one of my paintings sends me a photograph of it hanging in it's new home. It takes on a different persona, one I feel is a reflection it owners.

Thank you Tom Alexander for always photographing my artwork true to form.

Roses and Violets

Untitled Horse in Roses and Violets

Oil on Canvas

34" x 34"

$3750.00

When I start a painting I have a very general idea of where I am going. No set destination, no completely formed picture in my head. I like it that way, it keeps it interesting for, the not knowing. The discovery of lines, and shapes, and color combinations.

This just such a painting. I knew I wanted the composition to be dynamic, but I had no idea what color this horse would be.

I love a good surprise.

Unframed verses Framed

"Spring Romp"

Unframed

When I frame a piece I do it to suit the painting and my taste. I do this because I maybe living with this painting in my home for weeks, months, even years before it catches someones heart and they acquire it.

I have never regretted it once.

"Spring Romp"

4250.00

Framed

ArtWalk Opening May 2nd.

L'Air du Temp

40" x 60"

Oil on Canvas

$7950.00

First Friday Art Walk at Hidden Light, May 2nd from 6:00 - 9:00 pm.

Hidden light in located at 427 South San Francisco Street in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Autumn

from the " In Search of the Superlative Horse"series

Mixed Media on Paper

with 23 karat Gold Leaf

22" x 30"

$1250.00

The colours in this painting always remind me of the rich hues that are such a part of autumn.

In the Frame

"In the Frame" is a painting I finished last week. Still on the easel in my studio and hanging in my booth at the Event at Rebecca Farm in Kalsipell, Montana.

The painting is Oil on Canvas, 35" x 35", and is being received very well.

Cover of the Chronicle of the Horse

"L'air du Temps"

Oil on Canvas

40" x 60"

$7950.00

When I first picked up an issue of the Chronicle of the Horse I wanted to be on the cover! It reminds me of the song by Dr. Hook and Medicine Show , "On the Cover of the Rolling Stone", that's the feeling!

So over the years I have been fortunate enough to have my work grace the cover. You never now when it's going to happen. So this morning when I went to see who was on the cover it was me! Or rather my painting.

This is a very nice way to start the day.

Poetry & Ponies Redux

Mixed Media on Canvas

10" x 10"

Sold

I have this small painting hanging in my bedroom. I love it. It's quiet and cause to to enter a reflective state. The same state I was in when I painted it.

I am also surprised that it is still in my possession.It is quite charming and always draws it's fair share of admirers when shown in public.

 This is not the first time I have reposted this, and it may not be the last time either. 

Poetry and Ponies revisited,

I spent a good deal of time driving this weekend.I really do some of my best daydreaming and pondering while I driving.I was thinking about painting and language.I love a well turned phrase.I love listening to or reading a well crafted story,one filled with succinct sentences that evoke a place or events that make me believe that I may have experienced it myself.
Why is that?
I think that maybe it is a human longing to belong to a tribe,a group a family.A desire to belong and be understood.A desire to believe"I am not alone and my life matters".
So why do I paint?
This week I believe I paint to bear witness to what I love.I want to share what I love.I want it to be understood,that I was here and for a brief moment that is my life,I loved horses.

Lovely Little Horse

Mixed Media

SOLD

One of two paintings that has always been referred to as "The Green Pony", they are part of the "In Search of the Superlative Horse" series.

Mixed media which includes- watercolour, graphite, ink, and 22 kt gold leaf on 300 lb Saunders Waterford Watercolour paper. 11"x 15"

The frame is hand gilded 22 kt gold leaf. Double matted under glass. 18" x 22"



To purchase or for more information please email  me at tanner@ctannerjensen.com . or phone or text 928=460-0065

Winter Pastures

Winter Pastures"
 Sold
 Mixed Media on Cradled Artist Board
 11" x 14"

I was rearranging my studio and decided to move this mixed media piece to another wall. This one is a mystery to me too. I love it and can't believe it's still for sale.