The Art of Sally Ranney
Graphites
pen & ink
oils
watercolors
The Tree of Hearts
I felt this tree long before I saw her. Her presence was so strong I stopped mid-step, holding my breath. I was walking a trail that traces the Chilean-Argentine border, high in the Andes of Patagonia. Wondering what I was sensing and about to encounter, I proceeded slowly and cautiously. Rounding a bend, there she stood. My heart first recognized this guardian of the forest before my eyes and brain could register her immense size, age and beauty. So awed, I voluntarily dropped to my haunches, watching and listening silently. Abandoning the hike, I spent the rest of the day embraced by her limbs and leaves cherishing the opportunity to have met her. Three years later, too old to withstand a heavy storm, she lay down after some 600 years.
13.5″ X 14.5″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 200, Giclee
“My heart has always lived in several places fully, and therefore my life is forever rich and blessed. I will never cease to be completely disarmed by the simplicity of nature’s beauty and humbled by the complexity of her genius.
I try to capture this in my art, but never will I succeed. I can only attempt to interpret through the eyes of an innocent forever in awe.”
Owl
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Rainbow Trout
Rainbow trout are exceptional creatures. This particular one we call “The Big Easy”. He likes to hang out in shallow waters near shoreline rocks. If caught, he is always released. I am fortunate to have such an accessible model.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Big Horn Sheep
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Patagonia Landscape
This is a stylized Graphites drawing of the view from my veranda. It stretches across the river and up the far hills to a vast horizon that lets my imagination run free. The mountain pass over which we ride our horses to get into Estancia Ranquilco is deep in shadow. Seldom do we have visitors, but once they do arrive, they never want to leave.
15″ x 12″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Mosquito Tree
I need some text for this image here.
Bird
I have no text for this magnificent winged one.
Lady
This is my beautiful, trustworthy mare in Argentina. She is much smarter than I am about almost everything. She can take me safely home on a pitch-black night, always knows which trail is the most direct route, and can manage an unruly colt like a professional.
18″ x 12″ Graphites
Bear
I need text for this animal.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Spiritrun
This horse has run through my dreams since childhood. Only recently did I try to capture it with Graphites in hand.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Who's There?
This is ‘Cowboy’, one of the best spirited horses I’ve ever had the privilege of owning. A gift from a dear friend, he had an insatiable curiosity – always alert to the slightest movement or noise – ever hopeful for companionship or adventure.
13″ x 14.5″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
New Blood
With the combination of a full-blooded, registered Arabian sire and “The Lady” coursing through his veins, Konapilca Chiripun (Mapueche for “straight arrow at night”) was born with both beauty and an ‘attitude’. Only two years old, these images are my hopes and perceptions for his evolving development.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Patagonia Flower
While building my house deep in the countryside of Patagonia, Argentina, I noticed every year in the rubble of construction a beautiful sunflower growing. I wanted to memorialize her resilience and persistence, knowing that soon she would have to give way to a veranda that would cover her ground. Before cement was laid, we scattered her seeds to the wind in hopes that her progeny would soon take her place.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Good Medicine
I have always been inspired by the simple essentials indigenous people use or need to create magic and medicine.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
End of Day
Text needed here for these boots.
Rock Study
Lombardi poplars in the background were imported by early settlers in Argentina. They are used as windbreaks and to line pastures and paddocks, making beautiful patchwork quilts of the ranches (estancias). They frame this stylized Graphites study of a rock formation near the Trocoman River.
12″ x 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Hollyhock Survivor
Hollyhocks are not native to Argentina, but they are loved for their hardiness. For years we have thrown seeds here and there so that their sturdy blooms could grace our hills. Many more die than survive, but this beauty lives on an exposed mound that overlooks the river, reappearing every year to greet the summer.
12″ X 18″ Graphites
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Walking Rain I & II
Rain in the desert is an intriguing phenomenon. Seldom does a storm proceed like those of the mountains or even the plains. In my experience they are generally brief, walking gracefully across the landscape, and occasionally hitch-hiking on the wind, bringing all living things to grateful attention.
9.5″ X 21.5″ and 14.5″ X 19″ Watercolor
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Olympic Cypress
Always attracted to the mysteries of trees, I found this one standing alone guarding a weathered shoreline of Olympic National Park. Its barren limbs testified to many years of bending to the shape of the wind, and beckoned me to come close for a while.
18″ x 12″ Watercolor
Signed Limited Edition of 50, Giclee
Angel’s Grove
I paint outside because only then can I fully appreciate the hundreds of subtle colors of the wind. This grove of aspen in the plateaus of the Uncompaghre Mountains of Colorado was constantly in movement – intoxicated by the breezes and singing softly like a celestial chorus primeval.
31″ x 27.5″
Oil done with palette knife
31″ x 27.5″ Oil done with palette knife