Horse Artist: Sculptor Patricia Crane, Bio Background

Early background Of a Horse Artist

Once upon a time, only a few decades ago, there was a 2 yr. old child who wanted to trade her Easter basket for a horse, and then a 12 year old who walked out the door and bought her own first real-live horse but then had to go home to tell her parents what she'd done in such a way that they would support her new role in making this horse a part of the family ever-after. I'll bet you the reader, even know someone just like this!

No real need to go into the years where birds, rabbits, free Easter Bunny chicks, field mice, and stray cats and dogs were found everywhere, needing help, and all the efforts to heal, feed, or just love them.

Then there were the early riding years, and the intense and constant search to learn, and the search for the best person or people to learn from. Sound familiar? Finally, serious even national competition, with all the glory and the heartaches too. Eventually there came the opening of a public lesson and training stable of one's own, and all the depth of work and steadfastness, along with the innumerable relationships with other horse-people, both professional and personal. A 'life with horses', dedicated to horses is really not that unusual. There are many such children that continue this love, throughout a life time.  
The untold story though, and the thread running through the particular life of Patricia Crane.. the creation, without wondering why, of artwork of the horse, both horses known and imagined. It began with being handed clay at a young age, and forgetting the available toys, using the clay to make just one horse, with legs and all, then 'galloping' the little clay horse across the floor. All fine and good, you say? But when the little horse fell apart from the active galloping of its clay legs, would you sit there ignoring all else, and rebuild the clay horse so the two of you could go galloping again? The parents though it weird -- doesn't she get it, that if the legs gallop, the clay will fall apart? Why does she just sit there and keep remaking the clay horse over and over? Why indeed. It's hard to explain why, other than the clay horse was almost as real as a real horse.

Recognition of the Horse Artist

So it was not so strange that after years of pastels, bronze and other media besides bronze, that it was the installation of the first life size bronze, that brought international recognition to the sculptor Patricia Crane. ( This was the portrait of the famous Saddlebred, Supreme Sultan, as the frontispiece for the American Saddle Horse Museum, at the KY Horse Park in Lexington , seen in clay in the photo above).




It's just a clay-and-horse thing, after all, and the honesty of the work, the vivid capturing of the spirit and movement is the heart of the sculpture. Then one but gracefully adds a very sensitive attention to detail and precise anatomical accuracy enhanced by a 'felt" relationship between human and animal. This is the trademark of work by this sculptor.

Over the years working as a sculptor, Patricia Crane has devised a personal system of measurement which has proven invaluable in realizing her personal vision. Integrity of form and structure to carry and express the heart and spirit of horses deep within themselves is the very core of the visual language of this well-known and collected sculptor.
Recent trends in the world of sculpting have often attempted to emphasize a sense of movement at the expense of structural reality, an approach which Patricia deeply feels prove ultimately disappointing. The heart of the individual animal informs and creates expression through a body conformed precisely for that purpose. The finished work of Patricia Crane could, if alive, move like the real life counterpart, and the viewer experiences the energy and essence of that particular animal.
Patricia Crane has long enjoyed world wide appreciation, as a sculptor for her much beloved work, which may be found in museums, and in both public and private collections throughout the world including the United States, South Africa, Haiti, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, South Africa, England, Canada and New Zealand.

Crane has received a Commendation from the Governor of Indiana and has been recognized by the award of Kentucky Colonel by the State of Kentucky, for her services in that state as a sculptor. Patricia Crane bronze sculpture is even used by the United States Equestrian Federation and the national United Professional Horseman's Association as perpetual awards for high achievement in the world of equine competition. There is also the Alvin Ruxer perpetual memorial trophy presented yearly at the KY State Fair World's Championship Horse Show.

One simply never knows what a horse-crazy kid might do with that love, or offer to others, through their lifetime.

The Genre of the Horse Artist

The work of a horse artist is considered part of a genre, respected only in modern times but prevalent throughout history. From early cave paintings, the forming of early house hold tools, burial tombs and ritual artifacts as well as early jewelry, horses and artwork have traveled side by side through the centuries along with the joined histories of this wonderful creature with humans.

As the centuries passed, the work of each horse artist became more sophisticated along with the depiction of the form of the animal, moving from abstraction to realism, to a time when many artistic styles were and are readily available. The one thing constant in the creation of this genre has been the feeling that motivated the artist, artisans and crafts people.

Not until the middle of the eighteen hundreds, relatively recent in the course of history, has the genre of depicting the horse become accepted in the circles of fine art. Prior to this century and even well into the century, famous artists whose imagination was captured by this animal, and for whom the expression of this feeling naturally found its way into their work, were called "horse artists" and the term was meant to be rather demeaning.

However as the trend continued, and indeed some hugely talented artists who were also credited by the world as being vastly talented, did paint and sculpt the equine as a subject, the opinion of the critics and collectors shifted to accommodate what was unstoppable anyway and such expression became more widely accepted as worthy of the time of the serious artist.

In truth, from the days of Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance, famous artists were well-depicting various steeds in their life-time body of work. Degas, Reubens, Gerricault, Toulouse-Lautrec and so very many of the world's most famous, contributed to the ongoing trend, long before such a term came into usage. The sculptors did their part too, as most kings and any depiction of war included horses, not to mention the beginning of racing and sporting artwork that was the real point at which such a subject became popular, if not yet highly rated.

By the time Patricia Crane was born, it was ok to draw, paint, and sculpt the equine as a focus of a career in the arts and almost everyone was verbally admitting that the motivation of all the centuries of human artists whose imaginations were captured by this incredible animal, was in the end result understandable, since all along it was the very spirit of this creature, the essence of aliveness, grace, power and beauty that had always caused the outpouring of expression by each artist in all of the many types of artwork and forms they practiced and through which they expressed their own spirit. The once mostly unspoken, but always felt, age old partnership between men and horses flourished and the value of the horse artist formed a niche - a genre that continues.

Horse Artist Patricia Crane and Four Decades creating artworks of the horse.

A few examples of the work of Patricia Crane, which have spanned forty years or so to date, are offered below with links to the appropriate areas of this website:

Sporting  Art The Sporting genre deals with the Thoroughbred and the warmblood in hunting, jumping, racing, etc.	Western Horse Art The Mustangs and cowhorses of the American West have long inspired a niche all their own. This mustang is shying from two quail.	Saddlebred Horse Art The form and speed of the Saddlebred is of great beauty, speed and elegance.
Compositional Sculpture - Individuals at ease; two broodmares and a stallion. Bronze has been the medium of choice for sculptors through the ages and holds a special alivenesss very nicely.	Monumental Sculpture for Museum. The stallion Supreme Sultan is buried beneath his bronze portrait which stands at the front doors of the Saddlebred Museum.	Life Size Bronze for Kentucky Horse Park: Steps explained in the creation of a bronze; for the International Museum
Arabian Horse Art The grace and beauty of the Arabian, makes a perfect subject!	Porcelain Sculpture Porcelain is yet another material with a long history, that also lends itself to sculpting. The form of Raku, in the porcelain area of the site, is a rare form of ceramics!	Resin Horses Resin is a very modern material and there are several resin sculptures to view in this site section.
Lithograph and Prints Lithography is a respected method of producing of high quality prints. The litho shown is of rare value to the collectors of Crane's work.	Miniature Sculpture Miniature toy soldiers have been a favorite of collectors for years. Only 3 and a half inches tall, this set portrays a show ring victory pass.	Supreme Sultan Pastels The  medium of Pastel was used by a horse artist as long ago as the days of Degas. A few commissioned pastel portraits are shown on the stallion, Supreme Sultan's page.