Biography
Farrier, trainer, teacher, and ardent philosopher of the horse, and lifelong explorer the meaning of Life, Travers grew up on a mixed farm with 4-H, livestock and horse shows, she never recalls NOT being creative. Drawing and writing, building award winning decorations, signs and sculptures, from childhood to her early twenties all the while failing conventional art classes and a family that insisted “that horses and art make nice hobbies, dear, get a real job.” But inner longings and definite independent, stubborn steak inexorably pulled her out of retail management and on down the road less traveled. Australian Outback, then guided outfitting in the backcountry of BC, to professional farrier, adding horse trainer and clinician later for a rich and fulfilling couple decades until, one day, all sneaky like...her art came stomping up from the basement, demanding to be expressed.
She gazed at it bemusedly and decided to take a painting workshop, and, well, one thing led to another and soon she began creating commissions for her horse clients, loving the challenges and wonder of pigments and paint and light. But it wasn’t until her Muse threw her under a violently reactive horse and was trampled severely on an isolated ranch that she sat up and began to take notice that this urge to create was demanding a much larger degree of attention.
Travers is an active member of the FCA and Women Artists of the West and paints predominately in oils with a deep love and awe for her subjects and the wonderful metaphors and lessons they reflect back to us with pieces of her art calling not only Canada home, but several US States, and Portugal.
While born and raised on Vancouver Island, she escaped decades ago and now calls the high sagebrush hills outside Kamloops, BC home and shares space with her three horses, 2 dogs, and various paintbrush friends.
Artist Statement
I am hopelessly drawn to the power, elegance, dynamism, and expressions of horses, bulls and well, most all animals and I strive to ‘find’ my subject’s essence and express more than “just any ole critter”. Woven through that has been my inexplicable quest for the Meaning of Things; I see so many metaphors and layers in the creatures we share this life with which reflect back to us for our own learnings.
I find such wonder at the pure and ridiculously artistic forms of these beings, it’s just the most crazy challenge to recreate them on canvas and I know the rest of my life will be devoted to exploring how on earth to do that elegantly with oil paint. It’s that shimmer of light, refracted and glistening upon hide, or deep in an eye that looks through you to places far away, the flick of an ear, the richness of time, whether worn leather or a fine silver bit.
When I first sketch out each piece on canvas, I write a dedication to the animal, with my intention and nod of respect. This then is painted over, with my fond hope that the intention carries through into the piece. From there, the beginning is the hardest for me before I’ve connected with the soul of both the subject and the work itself, I wrangle the paint around some, continue with the layering process and finally surrender thought...then something always happens that still takes me by surprise. I am fascinated by words, their often multiple meanings, or origin and the picture that words paint as well, so the title feels very much a part of the process.
When the painting is complete, laugh if you will, it simply says “Done, put down your brush, step away from the easel.”