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.

Hearts

Heart I
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Here is a collections of hearts. Each one is composted of several printmaking techniques including Chine-collé and has then been altered with ink or oil pastel. Bright and colorful these small works add impact to any area.

Heart II

Heart III

Part of my Small Works Project they are each 4.75" x 3.75" matted to 10" x 8", so the will fit easily into a standard sized frame. 47.50 each includes shipping in the United States. Email me to purchase at ctannerjensen@gmail.com  subject line Heart.

Heart IV

Heart V

New Work

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Graphite on Yupo

17.5" x 23"

975.00

I have been working in the studio and have this painting to share with you. It is currently untitled so feel free to chime in with any suggestions.

Please remember that I am a lousy picture taker. ;)

Detail

Detail

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.

In the Still

In the Still

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Graphite on Yupo

20" x 26"

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I usually don't have a plan when I started working on a painting. This was clearly the case when I started working on this one. I would just apply a layer of acrylic paint down, wait for it to dry and apply another layer.

After awhile I was satisfied with the result. I set it aside. Every day or so I would pull it out and look at it. After a few weeks of this I decided I was going to finish it.

 I gathered my materials and was about to set to work on an entirely different image when I notice the first horse emerging out of the field of blues and greens. Gradually they all made their presences known.

This is the result of wandering and allowing.

To purchase please contact me or go to my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/457615114/in-the-still?ref=shop_home_active_2

Texture

Leap of Faith

Acrylic, Graphite, and Charcoal 

on Yupo

17.20" x 23"

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I have been working on Yupo for the past few weeks. It has a lovely smooth surface. The graphite and charcoal glide across the surface. It accepts the paint and also resists it. It is a fascinating and seductive material to work on.

Detail of Leap of Faith

Generally I do not incorporate a lot of texture in my work. I prefer implied texture, even when working on canvas. However, I find myself building and manipulating texture on the Yupo, both actual by building layers that have more body and implied by layering paint of different values and transparencies.

Detail of Leap of Faith

I have no idea where this is all leading me to, but I am enjoying the trek.

Mad about Yupo

Comin' In

17.5 x 23

Mixed Media on Yupo

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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.

It's Nothing Personal.

I am fascinated by the arrangements in medicine cabinets and junk drawers.

Leave me alone with your personal correspondence, a diary, journal, or stack of open love letters and I'm not going to read them. I not even tempted. In fact I probably won't even you if ask me to. However, I am going to open your medicine cabinet or pull out your junk drawer.

Oh don't worry. I'm not interested in exactly what you're taking. This isn't about learning anything about you. It's about me, I am interested in the shapes, colors, and composition of things.

Medicine cabinets, in most cases appear to be ordered. Tooth paste and dental floss sharing the same shelf. Bottles of medicine line up, their round and oblong pills inside. A razor lying next to a comb.

And the junk drawer. Heaven! A pair of scissors, one rusty nail, spare change, a piece of red twine curling around a toy giraffe. Wine corks, rubber bands, a shoe horn, measuring tape, a solitary lego, the plastic clip from a bag of bread. The colors and the random way they seem to have been shoved together to spend and undetermined sentence until the are needed.

They tell stories, these places where the things we don't consider until needed reside.

This is why I love creating collages. I like arranging color and shape, bits and pieces taken out of order and assembled into the beginnings of a tale.

Once upon a time there was a sheep who fell in love with a fish.


My collage may be viewed and purchased at my Etsy Shop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSuperlativeHorse?ref=hdr_shop_menu

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.

Horses Bathed in Violet Light

Amethyst Light I

Mixed Media 

24" x 30"

1195.00

Amethyst Light II

Mixed Media 

24" x 30"

1195.00

These are two would be a lovely addition to any room. They were beautifully framed by Hidden Light the Framing Department and are ready to hang. The frames are predominately silver with a warm wash that goes with gold leaf beautifully.

The painting were created with graphite, ink, watercolor, asian papers, and 23 karat gold leaf on 300 lb Saunders Waterford Watercolour paper.

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

Well Enough Alone

Balancing Act

12" x 12"

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I can never leave well enough alone. This is an Intaglio that also has Chine- collé. Could I stop there, no so it also I added watercolour.

The Raven Show

"and He had flown far"

Mixed Media on Canvas

20" x 20"

$1250.00

A Raven Show opens at West of the Moon August 2nd and as always will be part of the First Friday ArtWalk. This is the painting I will have in that show.

Mixed Media

from the "In Search of the Superlative Horse" series

30" x 22"

Mixed Media 

on Paper

$1500.00

I love making art and all that goes along with it. This means that my studio is a virtual archive of every art supply shop I have ever entered and every supply catalogue I have ever browsed. So it seems only fitting that I would create quite a lot of mixed media art.

I love the weight and the feel of Saunders Waterford Watercolour paper. It's still made in England, and although I've never been and seen this for myself, I've been told it's being made the same way it's been made for 100's of years. Anyway, it's lovely paper and I always start is with a whole sheet. I lay down a sheet of paper and mist it with water. Once it is damp I apply a veil of watercolour. While it is still damp I may throw a handful of salt or lay cling film over it to create a pattern. I repeat this process until I think it is ready for to be drawn upon.

When I draw I use a variety of pencils and pen & ink. Ink is amazing stuff. Waterproof or not, some made with shellacs, some made the same way for centuries. All have different qualities and react quite differently. One of their virtues is that I can't control them.

And so I draw. The surface of the paper helps me to decide what to draw and where. Once the drawing  starts I will bounce back and forth between it and more watercolour.

At some point I start adding bits of paper, acrylic lifts, and or 23 karat gold leaf. The gold leaf needs to be of a high karat so that it will not tarnish, which in itself would not be a bad thing, it is just that the change in color would effect the balance and intent of the painting. The gold comes in a variety of colours too, ranging from a deep reddish gold to a pale almost silver.

I sometime work on a painting for several days, sometimes several weeks. I work on different paintings at the same time so there is no way for me to ever know exactly how long each one took to create.

This painting is the result of just such a process.

To the Framer

"Temper"

from the "In Search of the Superlative Horse" series

Mixed Media on Paper

20" x 32"

por

This painting has been in my private collection for years. I had it framed for an Equine Art Show in Orange, Virginia in 2000 or 2001. The frame was damage in shipping but due to the ingenuity of the art directory they were able to stabilize it and hang it.

Yesterday I went to the framers and chose a new frame of it. Can't wait to see it in the next week or two.

Pony Up!

Mixed Media 

S695.00

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Mixed Media

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If you are interested in these paintings now is the time to "Pony Up" and purchase them. They are lovely and will add that extra equine elegance to any room they hang in.

These  paintings have always been referred to as "The Green Ponies", 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"

They are $695.00 each plus shipping.

Butterfly Garden

"Butterfly Garden"  

      Blue

10" x 10"

        Mixed Media & Oil

   on Wood

$225.00

"Butterfly Garden" 

Red

10" x 10"

Mixed Media & Oil

on Wood

$225.00

Every summer I am overcome with colour. It is everywhere! A virtual riot of colour starts in my jungle of a garden, where Sunflowers compete with Sweet Peas and Zinnias. Poppies still holding out, but promising to be spectacular in a few days.

"Butterfly Garden" Yellow was purchased from my studio before I took a picture of it.

I always start a floral or two in the spring and finishing them in the summer. Kind of like my garden.

Workshop August 12th

Mixed Media 

on Wood

4" x 4" x 2"

Collage and Mixed Media Workshop
West of the Moon Gallery
14 North San Francisco Street
Flagstaff, Arizona
August 12th, 2012
10:30-4:00
$75.00
All materials included
Limited to 10 participants.

If you have always wanted to create, but didn't know where to start, this class is for you.

Various techniques will be demonstrated to create texture and depth. A variety of materials will be used to explore composition and colour. Participants will be encouraged to experiment and have fun while making their artwork.

No previous art experience is required.

Participants are asked to wear cloths that they don't mind staining. Things could get messy!

There will be a lunch break so that you may experience one of our great downtown restaurants or bring a sack lunch.

Collages will be composed on a wood support that does not require framing. So you will be able to let your artwork dry and hang it on the wall.

http://ctannerjensen.blogspot.com/2012/07/collage-mixed-media-at-west-of-moon.html#

Collage & Mixed Media Workshop

Mixed Media Collage

on Wood

4" x 4" x 2"

Collage and Mixed Media Workshop at
West of the Moon Gallery
14 N. San Francisco Street
Flagstaff, AZ
928-774-0465

Sunday August 12th, 2012
10:30-4:00
$75.00
All Materials Included
Limit to 10 participants

If you have wanted to create, but don’t know where to start, this class is
for you.

Various collage and painting techniques to create depth and texture will
be demonstrated and students will be encouraged to experiment. A variety
of materials will be used to focus on colour and composition.
No previous art experience is required.

Participants are asked to wear clothes  that they don’t mind staining,
thing could get messy! 

There will be a lunch break so you can eat at one of our great downtown          restaurants or bring a sack lunch.

A wood support that does not require framing will be part of the materials supplied so that each person will be able to let their creation dry and hang it on the wall!

While all the materials will be supplied students may wish to bring
scissors, favorite bits of paper or fabric, photos, anything they may wish
to collage into their artwork.
Instructor may be contacted at tanner@ctannerjensen.com

Winter Pastures

Winter Pastures"
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 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.