“Wandering imagination”

"What I like about my childhood is that I just enjoyed being outdoors and around horses, and sometimes I also liked wearing dresses like a normal girl": with this statement the Dutch artist Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen begins to describe her relationship as a child with horses.

Signe had a friend who lived in a farm, and they used to put a matrass, rugs and woollen blankets over a beam or balustrade in the barn. They used pieces of rope for reins and a bucket as a cap. These were imaginary ponies they created,and they took them away from rainy days or even from too hot ones, sheltering them in the dry cool barn.

Their imagination wandered in the company of the barn swallows, and the shadows on the walls were formed their landscape.

Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen was 27 when she finally got a real pony. Still today she can see him grazing outside her window: he's now 27 and they shared 20 years together. "He looks nothing like my imaginary ponies, but we have had more adventures together than my child self could ever think of."

Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen wanted to convey with this work a sense of travel: "Where are we going? And what do we need on our journey? Company and warmth! A place to rest your head, a friend to snuggle up to and the dream of what lies ahead."

It is quite contradictory to Sustermans painting with a boy sitting proud on his pony with long flowing manes and beautiful tack. Would that boy not love to ride bareback across the rolling grasslands and through the cool forest?

The pony in her painting has a cropped mane but a long-braided tail. A soft pink nose exhales a warm breath. The child is visibly filled with joy, dreaming, listening, feeling. The little girl is dressed in simple clothing inspired by Viking garb, bare feet, and a neat haircut like the one the artist had when she was around 5 to 8 years old.

It was the seventies turning into the early eighties, around that time Astrid Lindgren wrote Ronja Rövardotter, that then became a movie. When she was old enough to watch the film, Signe has always wanted to watch the part where the protagonists galloped on their ponies!

By that time the film "Black Stallion" also played and she wanted to be the boy who, without saddle and with arms outstretched, galloped happily on the beach.

Now Signe has her black horse as Black Stallon, her second horse and with him her dream continues: she clings to that feeling of freedom, of infinite possibilities, and a warm soft horse to hug in a barn as the swallows build their nest among the beams.

The artist and Equestrian Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen, spends her time either with her horses or in the creation of illustrations and costumes.

Her style is unique and imaginative. With subtle palettes but with an explosion of unexpected motifs, Signe creates a storyline waiting to be discovered in every work of art.

The Dutch artist studied theatrical design at art school, later fell in love with Scandinavian tradition, runes and Vikings, and built her home as far north as possible in the Netherlands. Pushed by the motto "free your inner Viking, explore and venture" she decided to get close to nature, horses and creation.

Her artwork includes more and more landscapes and human figures that horses can interact with. Now she is painting sequential works that maybe one day could come together in a book.

Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen, 1974, Dutch. Medium artist: illustrations in mixed media: primarily watercolour and pencil

www.releaseyourinnerviking.com

IG: Signe of Horses

YT: Signe of Horses

“Wandering imagination”, Medium: Arches hotpressed Satin paper, Mixed media (watercolour and pencil), 20x26 cm 8x10.
Signe-Sanne Oortgijsen is a member of the Paard Verzameld Collective.

Through international collaboration between Paard Verzameld and the Horse Museum Foundation, the painting will be exhibited during the Pratoni del Vivaro World Championships in September 2022.