Nancy and Silver.

When she was a girl, Frank did not just love horses, she thought she was a horse.

“My best friend Peggy and I galloped around my dining room table on our hands and knees. We galloped with scarves sticking out of our pants to look like tails.”

The artist – who holds an M.F.A. in photo-printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.F.A. in painting at Ohio Wesleyan University –  has lived in Telluride since 1989.

 

“Never did I guess that when I began to travel the world to ride horses in different countries and cultures would my passion for the horse bring me success in the studio. What amazes me most about the partnership with a horse is that they allow us on their backs, but that is exactly what creates the tension in my paintings; the partnership between equine and human.  The images are larger than life yet intimate, and hopefully capture the beauty and power and grace of the horse, yet the horses are bitted and bound with reins.  The human factor is always present, but never within the frame except perhaps a suggestion, like a caressing hand… It is the special agreement and the spirit of both which make the paintings shine with light and life,”Nancy B. Frank, featured artist.

Frank never liked empty spaces on canvas, so she photographed her horses to fill the screen and, subsequently, the picture plane, with haunches and heads, manes and tails, glossy coats, bits, and reins in extreme close-up.

And in doing what she does in the unique way she does it, Frank reigns supreme: her horse images are fraught with the dynamic tension embodied by these powerful, proud creatures, bound up with tack, yes, but only seemingly submissive. Collectively, Frank’s images packs a wallop: her horses also clearly mark the moment the artist came into her power, the result of finding her natural subject and creating work that is very very good – and owning that fact.