About the Artist
ARTIST STATEMENT
The challenge facing all equine artists is how best to convey the raw power and sensuous feel of the horse together with the emotion it embodies.
When creating I am attracted by simplicity. Abstract lines, suggestive details, these conjure up the energy of each body of work. My aim is to give just enough information through line and texture to encourage the viewer's mind and eyes to finish the painting. It is this 'work' that creates the emotional power of the painting.
I began my career working with pastels, watercolor and more traditional mediums. However, I find myself increasingly drawn to the exploration of texture and color in alternative ways. Currently, the most satisfying are oil encaustic and mixed media.
The ancient discipline of oil encaustic involves painting in molten wax infused with oil pigment, bronze and gold leaf, and beautiful rice papers. Whilst the line of the subject is simplicity itself, the medium is surprisingly complex. The beeswax layers give tangible definition yet allow for a kind of opaque saturation with wonderful density of color.
My paintings are tactile. They leave you, the viewer, wanting to reach out and touch them. In the same way you might reach out to lay your hand on the flank of a powerful horse, with love, respect and a sense of awe.
The challenge facing all equine artists is how best to convey the raw power and sensuous feel of the horse together with the emotion it embodies.
When creating I am attracted by simplicity. Abstract lines, suggestive details, these conjure up the energy of each body of work. My aim is to give just enough information through line and texture to encourage the viewer's mind and eyes to finish the painting. It is this 'work' that creates the emotional power of the painting.
I began my career working with pastels, watercolor and more traditional mediums. However, I find myself increasingly drawn to the exploration of texture and color in alternative ways. Currently, the most satisfying are oil encaustic and mixed media.
The ancient discipline of oil encaustic involves painting in molten wax infused with oil pigment, bronze and gold leaf, and beautiful rice papers. Whilst the line of the subject is simplicity itself, the medium is surprisingly complex. The beeswax layers give tangible definition yet allow for a kind of opaque saturation with wonderful density of color.
My paintings are tactile. They leave you, the viewer, wanting to reach out and touch them. In the same way you might reach out to lay your hand on the flank of a powerful horse, with love, respect and a sense of awe.
Gabrielle's Bio:
Gabrielle England was born in Enfield, England in 1971. She moved to Seattle in 1975 because her Father was a professional soccer player, who came to play for the Seattle Sounders. Gabrielle is told her very first word was "horse". As far back as she can remember she drew them and evolved a passion for the beauty within all animals. At the age of 7 she was given her first Shetland pony, while living in Olympia, WA where she grew up with and around horses. Spending most of her free time with them, she studied their conformation, their movements, personalities and became inspired to capture their energy through painting.
Gabrielle enjoys realism and works primarily in soft pastels, creating portraits of horses and dogs. She received a scholarship to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she studied and found herself wanting to explore more abstract styles of expression. She created a remarkable series of abstract equine pen and ink designs which captured a minimal yet striking essence of the horse’s form and motion. These designs evolved into being sold and distributed as decals Nationwide. Her renowned line drawings were an inspiration for her movement into acrylic painting. Blending acrylics with pumice stone resulted in added texture and a sculptural style emerged as an aspect of her new works. Still moved by the desire to capture essence and motion, her intent was to allow for the details she expressed to invite the viewer’s eye to recognize subtleties within the space and form of her equine art and to finish the paintings themselves creatively.
Over 30 years ago Gabrielle found the ancient style of encaustic painting. Molten beeswax and resin fused with pigments that she applies to wooden panels. She finds the un-predictability of this fluid medium, forces her to work outside the comfort of knowing what will happen. Through use of a blowtorch, she melts each layer of the wax that is applied. Adding layers of shellac and burning it with a flame the three elements react, creating organic movement within the paintings large and small. Beautiful lace like effects, tend to draw the viewer’s eye to explore not only the images of horses, but layers of depth within each painting. She gets lost in time trying to push herself to express her primordial passion of the horse. Her encaustic equine works caught the attention of the Seattle Channel who featured Gabrielle and her art in a televised segment including interview and montage of some of her paintings and creative process. Aired on the show 'The Artzone with Nancy Guppy', the segment can be seen on Gabrielle’s website.
Selected Exhibitions
2006 Olympia Arts Walk, Spring
2006 Olympia Arts Walk, Fall
2006 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show
2006 Northwest Dressage Expo, Woodinville, WA
2006 Dressage At Devonwood, Sherwood, OR
2007 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show
2007 Dressage at Devonwood, Sherwood OR
2007 Gallery Contempo, “Oneness” Olympia, WA June ~ Group Show
2007 Gloria Day Luth. Church, Olympia WA ~ Solo exhibit
2008 Two Vault Gallery, Tacoma WA April-May ~ Featured Artist
2008 Hacienda de las Rosas Winery, San Diego, CA July-August
2008 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show, Auburn, WA July
2008 Olympia Art & Frame Olympia WA July ~ Solo Exhibit
2008 Reflections Gallery, Olympia WA September ~ Featured Artist
2008 Reflections Gallery, Olympia ArtsWalk, October
2008 Washington International Horse Show, Gaithersburg, MD. ~ Donation Oct.
2009 Batdorf & Bronson Coffeehouse, Olympia, WA December ~ Solo Exhibit
2009 DevonWood Equestrian Center, Sherwood, OR ~ 2009
2010 HITS-on-the-Hudson Equestrian Art Exhibition & Charity Auction, Saugerties, New York
2012 Olympia ArtsWalk - Breathe Studio
2013 Olympia ArtsWalk - Love-Peace-Raw
2014 International Equine Artist - Signature Member Status
2014 Mud Bay Coffee Co - West Olympia Jan-June. Solo exhibit
2014 Tsuga Fine Art Gallery - Bothell, WA Feb-Mar
2014 Art Zone with Nancy Guppy interview aired on Seattle TV March 2014 Gabrielle"s segment click here
2104 HITS Official Summer Program Cover Artwork - Saugerties, New York http://hitsshows.com/saugerties/
2014 Sept-Oct WA Department of Ecology, Lacey WA - Solo Exhibit
2014 Dec 6-7th - Donida Farm Equestrian Center Art and Gift Expo, Auburn WA - Dressage Through the Levels
2024 April 20-21st - South Sound Studio Tours - Olympia, WA
EDUCATION
Self Taught
South Puget Sound Community College
Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle WA
Studied under Simon Kogan, Larry Freemantle
Gage Academy of Arts, Seattle, WA Encaustic Intensive Workshop
Pratt Fine art Center, Seattle WA Modern Approach to Encaustics
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Flying Changes Magazine ~ Featured Artist February 2019
HITS on the Hudson - Cover Artist - July 2014
Horse Sport Magazine ~ Canada ~ Featured Artist October 2008
Horses Incorporated ~ Artist Issue October 2008
California Riding Magazine ~ Artist Issue 2005, 2006, 2007
American Art Collector ~ 2/2011, 3/2011
Horses In Art ~ Spring 2011
Western Art Collector ~ June 6/2011
Gabrielle enjoys realism and works primarily in soft pastels, creating portraits of horses and dogs. She received a scholarship to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she studied and found herself wanting to explore more abstract styles of expression. She created a remarkable series of abstract equine pen and ink designs which captured a minimal yet striking essence of the horse’s form and motion. These designs evolved into being sold and distributed as decals Nationwide. Her renowned line drawings were an inspiration for her movement into acrylic painting. Blending acrylics with pumice stone resulted in added texture and a sculptural style emerged as an aspect of her new works. Still moved by the desire to capture essence and motion, her intent was to allow for the details she expressed to invite the viewer’s eye to recognize subtleties within the space and form of her equine art and to finish the paintings themselves creatively.
Over 30 years ago Gabrielle found the ancient style of encaustic painting. Molten beeswax and resin fused with pigments that she applies to wooden panels. She finds the un-predictability of this fluid medium, forces her to work outside the comfort of knowing what will happen. Through use of a blowtorch, she melts each layer of the wax that is applied. Adding layers of shellac and burning it with a flame the three elements react, creating organic movement within the paintings large and small. Beautiful lace like effects, tend to draw the viewer’s eye to explore not only the images of horses, but layers of depth within each painting. She gets lost in time trying to push herself to express her primordial passion of the horse. Her encaustic equine works caught the attention of the Seattle Channel who featured Gabrielle and her art in a televised segment including interview and montage of some of her paintings and creative process. Aired on the show 'The Artzone with Nancy Guppy', the segment can be seen on Gabrielle’s website.
Selected Exhibitions
2006 Olympia Arts Walk, Spring
2006 Olympia Arts Walk, Fall
2006 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show
2006 Northwest Dressage Expo, Woodinville, WA
2006 Dressage At Devonwood, Sherwood, OR
2007 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show
2007 Dressage at Devonwood, Sherwood OR
2007 Gallery Contempo, “Oneness” Olympia, WA June ~ Group Show
2007 Gloria Day Luth. Church, Olympia WA ~ Solo exhibit
2008 Two Vault Gallery, Tacoma WA April-May ~ Featured Artist
2008 Hacienda de las Rosas Winery, San Diego, CA July-August
2008 Emerald Downs Equestrian Art Show, Auburn, WA July
2008 Olympia Art & Frame Olympia WA July ~ Solo Exhibit
2008 Reflections Gallery, Olympia WA September ~ Featured Artist
2008 Reflections Gallery, Olympia ArtsWalk, October
2008 Washington International Horse Show, Gaithersburg, MD. ~ Donation Oct.
2009 Batdorf & Bronson Coffeehouse, Olympia, WA December ~ Solo Exhibit
2009 DevonWood Equestrian Center, Sherwood, OR ~ 2009
2010 HITS-on-the-Hudson Equestrian Art Exhibition & Charity Auction, Saugerties, New York
2012 Olympia ArtsWalk - Breathe Studio
2013 Olympia ArtsWalk - Love-Peace-Raw
2014 International Equine Artist - Signature Member Status
2014 Mud Bay Coffee Co - West Olympia Jan-June. Solo exhibit
2014 Tsuga Fine Art Gallery - Bothell, WA Feb-Mar
2014 Art Zone with Nancy Guppy interview aired on Seattle TV March 2014 Gabrielle"s segment click here
2104 HITS Official Summer Program Cover Artwork - Saugerties, New York http://hitsshows.com/saugerties/
2014 Sept-Oct WA Department of Ecology, Lacey WA - Solo Exhibit
2014 Dec 6-7th - Donida Farm Equestrian Center Art and Gift Expo, Auburn WA - Dressage Through the Levels
2024 April 20-21st - South Sound Studio Tours - Olympia, WA
EDUCATION
Self Taught
South Puget Sound Community College
Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle WA
Studied under Simon Kogan, Larry Freemantle
Gage Academy of Arts, Seattle, WA Encaustic Intensive Workshop
Pratt Fine art Center, Seattle WA Modern Approach to Encaustics
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Flying Changes Magazine ~ Featured Artist February 2019
HITS on the Hudson - Cover Artist - July 2014
Horse Sport Magazine ~ Canada ~ Featured Artist October 2008
Horses Incorporated ~ Artist Issue October 2008
California Riding Magazine ~ Artist Issue 2005, 2006, 2007
American Art Collector ~ 2/2011, 3/2011
Horses In Art ~ Spring 2011
Western Art Collector ~ June 6/2011
Travel
Barbados 2018
Mexico,
Canada,
England & Wales,
France: Monet's Gardens at Giverney, Paris
Spain, Have visited Spain 25 times.
Italy, Venice, Florence, Rome
Egypt, Cairo Museum, Great Pyramids, Alexandria
Barbados
Antigua
British Virgin Islands
LINKS
Say it in Stones (Gabrielle's other business)
www.apetmemorial.com
Canada,
England & Wales,
France: Monet's Gardens at Giverney, Paris
Spain, Have visited Spain 25 times.
Italy, Venice, Florence, Rome
Egypt, Cairo Museum, Great Pyramids, Alexandria
Barbados
Antigua
British Virgin Islands
LINKS
Say it in Stones (Gabrielle's other business)
www.apetmemorial.com
All content © Gabrielle England Inc 1992 - 2024