About The Artist:

Kim Abney

Kim was raised on the family farm in East Tennessee, in the shadow of the Smokey Mountains, where she developed early most of her present interests. She started riding at the age of three and currently has both a horse and a mule. Other interests include drawing and painting, the American West, Native American Culture and history, medicine, caving, whitewater kayaking, hiking and exploring in general.

She started drawing horses freehand before the age of three with an ink pen and has never quit. At the age of seven she was requested to draw horses at various community meetings, and was showcased doing the same on a local TV program, “Walleen’s World.” Beginning at the age of six she entered the county fair open art competition (all ages and media) annually, and consistently won 1st and 2nd place awards. She topped off this phase of her artistic career by winning best of show in the area high school competition her senior year, against stiff competition.

In college she pursued another of her lifelong interests by majoring in Biology while working at a local veterinary clinic. She later became a student worker at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital, now named UTVMC (University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center), where she obtained a job in veterinary research upon graduation and currently is employed there as the laboratory supervisor for the Endocrinology Service. Throughout this period she has continued to draw and paint. Many of her works reflect her love of the American West, Native American History and wild places.

In 1990 she began to do commission work, including a portrait of Our Golden Dutchess, World Champion 5-Gaited Saddlebred and two times Grand Champion; many illustrations for the Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse; the cover art (oil on canvas) for the first three annual issues (1992, 1993 and 1994) of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeder’s Guide; numerous veterinary-related illustrations for pamphlets, slide presentations and medical illustrations for veterinary book chapters and one cover for JAVMA. In 1992 and 1993 she also produced 4 prints for the Walking Horse and Saddlebred markets, as well as equine notecards. She has since limited her commission and print work and has begun to focus on illustration for The Sandtower and other novels.

Much of her present work is in pen and ink, and oil on canvas, both of which she began working with as a child. Other media as the whim hits include pencil, watercolor, acrylic, pastels, colored pencils, and clay sculpture, (and even glass and flint knapping). Really it’s all the same thing she says!

Favorite artists from wilder frontier days include Remington, Schrevogel, Russell, and Leigh. She also enjoys the works of more contemporary artists such as Terpening, Lovell, Lyman and Terbush.