This month, the Turquoise Raven Art Gallery’s main show is about one thing: Horses.
“I love horses … and I hate that sentence,” said Mary Fuller, the owner of the gallery, laughing.
Horses mean a great deal to a lot of people, especially in this area, Fuller said.
The connection can be emotional or rooted in healing. Even if it’s a utilitarian one, horses can be essential to people’s livelihood.
And once you’ve connected with them, it tends to be lifelong, Fuller said.
To celebrate, the gallery hosted a reception on Saturday. The “Horse” exhibit continues through Sept. 28.
Though the theme was fixed, the artists’ interpretations and subsequent creations were distinct, individual. No two horses were the same.
Some horses were spotted like cows. Others were akin to hippy flower children of the ’60s, with flowers adorning their flowing manes. Hand painted horses beautified the backs of jean jackets.
Some artists painted ponies on linen, some baked broncos into glass.
There were horses in black and white, horses in color. Some horses were blue, others yellow. Some shone with tinsel, others were plain. Horses stood still, while others ran wild.
“I love mixed media, because I can really go wild,” said Ginny Getts, an artist featured in the gallery, referencing her blue horse.
Mixed media is an amalgamation of materials to create a single piece. Getts said she used acrylic paint, Japanese paper, tissue paper, gold leaves and more to create her “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Getts’ work was a spectrum in itself, ranging from mixed media to graphite drawings. She said beginning with pencil is like a study: In that process, she sees values and details that translate into things like oil paintings.
“I love horses, as you can tell,” said Getts. “They’re beautiful, they have friendships.”
Bobbe Jones, another artist in the gallery, paints all her art on linen. She said she likes the texture linen provides.
Jones has done art all her life and didn’t start out painting horses at all. Antique trucks were her original muse.
“Horses have a lot of character, though,” said Jones. “There’s something majestic about them.”
Her work ranges from small, which she classifies as portrait-size, to large, which incorporates landscaping. She has a piece called “Getting There” that shows a man and his horse headed to the mountains.
In that piece of contemplation, she said, she let herself get lost and go free.
“I’m usually way more structured,” Jones said.
Rachel S. Beck emphasized freedom in the creative process of her colorful acrylic and oil painting.
“It’s a contradiction of terms, but it’s abstract realism,” Beck said.
Beck said she focused on hyperrealism for a while, but there was no room for error. It was confining. Stressful, even.
Abstract realism, in turn, is more fluid and accepting of a stray stroke or two. Plus, there’s so much freedom in experimenting with color.
Her piece is composed mostly of acrylic paint – 60% to 80% and finished with oil. It’s topped with varnish, which gives it its shine.
If hung in a window, the sun, I imagine, would do wonders in making Nancy Byers’ glass pieces shine.
The three at the Turquoise Raven Art Gallery were displayed on separate, staggered columns, supported by small, easel-like plate stands.
“Of all the hobbies and addictions, this is a good one,” Byers said.
Byers bakes the glass in a kiln she has in her garage. It gets up to 1,450 degrees and, once the glass is in there, takes anywhere from 18 to 36 hours to cook.
In one piece, the sun is moving across the sky, and you can subtly see the shape of a horse. Another, called “Pegasus,” is smaller and features a Pegasus with a blue mane and yellow and green wings.
The last of the three is a Tibetan Wind Horse. The horse is representative of the physical, emotional and spiritual; the wind is energy.
“It could be fiery energy as it streaks by in the sky,” Byers mused.
Another artist in the gallery, Sigi Field, spoke of energy when she explained her Chinese-influenced art.
Field used the word “chi” (also spelled “Qi”), which is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to describe our life force energy.
Chi, she said, is so important to an image.
In her art, created with the ancient technique of Chinese ink brush painting, the horses are depicted in motion, galloping or rearing.
Importantly, they’re set against a white background. Field said this gives viewers the opportunity to finish the painting.
Leaving art open to interpretation and allowing viewers to take something personal from it is central to David Rainey’s creation as well.
He’s an artist in the gallery and had previously been a graphic designer for 25 years. He said he wanted to have a different approach to the memorial of a horse.
From there, “it just kind of evolved,” Rainey said.
The piece is technically postmodern era, incorporating realistic figures in complex ways.
“A lot of people look at it and say what the hell is going on here,” he said.
To that, he’d say it’s meant to mean something different to everyone.
There are two pieces for sale from Charlotte Jorgensen, and her portion of the proceeds go to the National Mustang Association of Colorado.
Fuller said when things are meaningful to people, it comes to life in their art.
