NANCY B. FRANK about
Nancy B. Frank has worked successfully in mediums as varied as wooden jewelry, sculptured cakes, painted furniture and photography, but she feels she has finally hit her stride as a painter of horses.
"I wasn't just a horse crazy kid, I thought I was a horse, snorting as I cantered 'round the playground. When my family drove past a nearby horse farm, I would hang out the window, excitedly exclaiming, HORSES! Little did I realize then that one day I would be riding my own horse in the mountains of Southern Colorado, and that, by chance, he would be born and bred in that very barn I passed as a child."
Although Frank ultimately earned an M.F.A. in photo-printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after receiving a B.F.A. in painting at Ohio Wesleyan University, she routinely shied away from horses as a suitable subject matter. Many people respond to the power and grace of the horse, but Frank thought it cliché.
This changed when she took a horseback riding trip to Uruguay in the fall of 2006. When the gauchos were bringing in the horses after a mid day siesta, Frank caught over 50 images in a matter of minutes with her new digital camera. Until this time, the artist's two primary disciplines-B&W photography and painting-had never been able to merge in the studio.
Frank found herself finally painting horses in the way she -with her photographer's eye and her horse lover's heart-truly saw them. Her extra large canvases are close-up and tightly cropped, painting manes and reins and parts of bits and bridles. From them one senses both the power and the restlessness of the animal, and the intimacy of his relationship to his rider.
This is what creates the tension in Frank's paintings. While the human isn't physically visualized, his presence is felt, whether kindly or not. The spirit of both shines with light and life from the canvas.
Having re-discovered
her passion, Frank sees no end in sight. She has already made
travel plans for her next horse series, and for the next one after that.