Letting instinct take over

Annabel Thornton BA Honours, SWA, ASEA Full member of the Society of Women Artists Associate Society of Equestrian Artists

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We meet the equestrian, wildlife and landscape artist Annabel Thornton, who explains how she lets her work take its own path

DOWN A LITTLE WINDY ROAD, over the humped back bridge that crosses the River Weaver, and away from the main thoroughfare that takes drivers to Audlem in Cheshire, enquiring visitors will find the equine, wildlife and landscape artist Annabel Thornton.

She lives in a fairy story of a house, and tucked out the back in the peace and quiet to allow creativity, is her studio and gallery; and this is where her magic happens and where the artist, who recently won the prestigious David Shepherd Wildlife Artists Editor’s Choice Award for “Lone Bee”, can let her mind and artistic talents wander free.

Thornton featured on the front cover for our December issue with her striking image of “Finish Line” and we promise all our front cover artists an interview in the June-July issue in return for the use of their images.

We definitely end up on the best side of the deal, and this spring we combined an onward journey to Chester for Cup day with a visit to meet Thornton. Taking in a day’s racing with the opportunity to view wonderful pieces of art seemed a highly attractive day out. We were not disappointed – on arrival at 20, Salford we were transported to a world of equines, wildlife, dancers, colour and creativity.

Thornton, understated and almost surprised by the quality of her work, showed us around her one-person studio which is, as to be expected for such a busy artist with a broad remit, full of her own work in progress (very few finished pieces, they are all sold) as well as bits and pieces she has collected, including art, sculpture, knicks and knacks.

“I adore sculpture, and I like unusual things, I have odd things around, I like collecting,” she admits.

The studio is very much Thornton’s happy place and the artist spends most of her days and working hours ensconced in the room with her dogs and preferred sounds playing, which are selected daily from a play list that she writes on the wall.

“I like to get into here,” she adds. “I get the music on, the dogs are permanently with me asleep on the floor and I then just paint. I go from the house to the studio and I don’t have to worry about my appearance for work – I am always covered in paint, I have paint in my hair most of the time!”

The paint was absent for our visit as she was out of her work attire, but the urge she has for her work still radiates: “I am very lucky to do something that I love and a subject matter that I love, I am passionate about wildlife and animals.”

MANY OF HER PAINTINGS are full of colour and fun, but there is also a unique and evocative set of black and white monochrome works. She enjoys the use of texture and when chatting as to how she finds the inspiration for her approach, you get the feeling Thornton just works very instinctively, letting the painting evolve as the image develops. Conforming to a form or a style or a plan is not something on the Thornton repertoire.

“I set out with an idea in my head,” she admits, then laughs, “but it never ends up like that because I always change things! If I don’t like something, such as a line, then I’ll move it. I’ll change things all the time, and then sometimes if a painting is still here, I’ll go back again and alter it again.

“With the black and white pieces, I am just trying to capture peace and serenity and the calmness of horses. I start with the monochrome, but then might add a flash of colour.

Neck And Neck

“With the coloured images, I just have this feeling – I might add layers and then I might take all layers off again!”

Of the techniques she explains: “I tend to I use acrylics and oils, but I like using pencil with the pieces as well and work within the paint. It means you get some texture. I love texture and I love pattern, as well. And I like adding a strong colour, a real bold colour, perhaps a colour that viewers would not expect,” and with a cheeky grin, she adds: “And I just love adding in a bit of gold!”

She never lets herself get too carried away with the bling: “For some of the pieces it is kept subtle; it is just all about trying to capture that moment, whatever I am trying to get across with the painting and the feeling.

“With the works focused on movement, I will use a lot of flicks of the paint to create speed; I will use differing techniques with whatever I am trying to create. I think it is probably very instinctive, and I just know what I want to do once I start. I go with the flow.”

While racing and painting of thoroughbred is a relatively new part of Thornton’s life and work, horses have always been a mainstay, her grandparents and her parents had horses and she rode from a young age. She has a mix of five ponies and horses at home and her 13-year-old daughter Eesha is out every day and at weekends competing.

Thornton believes that her equine background and day to day involvement has been integral in her ability to paint horses, giving her innate knowledge to form the basis of her work.

Galaxy Golden Boy

Farrier's Visit

“I think because I ride and we have the horses, you have a feel for them, the movement and know just where the legs and body parts should be,” analyses the artist. “You are always looking and getting a feel for them. I have always been interested in nature and the human form. I like movement, I like horses and racing, I like the structure.”

Horseracing has always offered artists a rich seam, both creatively and financially, but there is still a hint of surprise in Thornton’s voice when she reports that, unsurprisingly, her thoroughbred work tends to sell “straight away”.

“I just love the way a thoroughbred moves,” she adds. “It’s just unbelievable. It is beautiful. Racehorses are so graceful, powerful but they are also so kind.

“That’s something I love about all horses that they have got that kindness to them. You can see why horses are being used for the ground-breaking work with mental health welfare, they are just so calm.”

Thornton, who was always passionate about art at school, gained her degree at the Cheltenham College of Art and since then has always been a self-employed artist, it is a job that works for her and pays its way. Her art is shown and sold in several galleries, but the digital world has seen many of her sales now coming direct via the world of Instagram and the online community; with a teenager in the house she has an immediate tech help line, Thornton admitting she is not the most proficient in the sphere of social media.

TO HELP FACILITATE these sales the artist has set up an inhouse gallery for any in-person visitors who make their way down her windy road, and it is very important to Thornton that her work is accessible and affordable for all. She rarely takes prints from her originals, keen that people can buy that unique piece of “real” art, that they can feel something tangible with their piece.

“I want to try and encourage more people to buy art and love art, and buy originals, too,” she says. “It’s nice if people can have an original rather than a print, it is a big difference.

"You get so much more from knowing that it is the only piece created, that it’s got the paint marks, the artist’s touch, and I just think it’s lovely.’

She admits she is always exploring new ways of “doing”, her work is constantly evolving; a viewing of her collection confirms a variety of styles and topics, and she feels that is currently taking a more “contemporary” slant.

“I want to cultivate my work all the time,” she explains, “I’m always looking to develop, I’m always looking to produce that next piece and to get something else and new from it, find an approach that I can take on to the next stage. If an artist is always open to new ideas, then work evolves and changes.”

Young Whippet

She ponders a moment: “I suppose I might end up going back to very tight drawings, but I very much doubt it, I am too untidy for that and far too messy!”

Morning Workout

She explains her current focus a bit further: “My work is becoming more contemporary; I like to be able to ‘suggest’ a movement rather than draw that movement – perhaps ‘suggest’ that a leg is there. That can be with a line or just via a movement in the paint.”

A“HINT” can’t be made without a real understanding of form.

“It is important to be able to know the structure, and to be able to draw that structure, and where the right position is for something, before being able to move on to more approach. Because you have a better feel, you should be able to know where the bits should be and can offer that ‘suggestion’.

“I think there’s always something I can do differently. That’s probably why I am developing a ‘looser’ approach. I think that once you feel as though you’ve reached the peak, then you’re not going to learn anything new.”

Although Thornton works in such a fabulous location, designed for the creative process, she does admit that sometimes she gets an artists’ block, and when that requires her to completely walk away.

“I don’t force it then,” she explains. “No, I leave the studio for the day, and I’ll do something else – I’ll do the garden or go and do the horses. And then I’ll come back to it. But once you’ve got artists’ block, it’s a horrible feeling, and it can last for days even weeks.

“I can then go to the extreme – I’ll remove much of the image and just leave some of it By fetching out some of the image, then I can see which bits I do and I don’t like. It is quite interesting way to approach a piece.”

Judging by the quantity and quality of superb pieces she has produced artists’ block must come rarely to the talented painter.

Thornton is keen to see where her work life artistic journey takes her, and while excited to see that happen, she is also prepared to let it unfold naturally and under its own direction, and let that path find its own, possibly winding, course.

Lone Bee