Ken Steinnerd Fine Art

Spring Works Before the Storm
Spring Break Before the Storm - Print
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Edition Size 75 - $85.00
Print Size - 9 ½" x 13 ½"

“Spring Works “ is a ranch term related too the work done in the spring including gathering cattle, sorting cows, bulls and calves, branding, vaccinations, castrating bull calves and moving cattle to spring and summer pastures. This painting depicts cattle being gathered and moved all before the real possibility of weather moving in to make it all more difficult. It was a joy to paint and I want to thank Linda Sherrill at Justus Photography for the use of her photograph and inspiration!

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Flowering Prickly Pear

Flowering Prickly Pear
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 7 ¾" x 10 ¾"

Every summer in the southwest we get a bloom of beautiful cactus flowers and one of my favorites is the Prickly Pear. Although I have never consumed the pads they are purportedly good for you. I will have to ask some of the “old timers” here how to prepare them and how do they taste. In the mean time I will enjoy the vibrant color they add to the landscape.

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Ready to Ride

Ready to Ride
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10¾ " x 7¾"

This painting reminds me of our family when our two daughters were teenagers. Both of our girls participated in Equine 4H and horse shows in Alaska. During the summer we were camping at fairgrounds in Alaska as the girls participated in show events. At the end of the day they were covered with dirt and happy. It was and is good memories for all of us.

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Serenity in Turquoise

Serenity in Turquoise Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10½" x 7½"

This painting reminds me of my youngest daughter Sarah and the many horse shows she participated in growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Our family was activate in the horse culture and shows in the Interior of Alaska when our girls were growing up. During horse shows the kids that were not showing in the ring would congregate on their horses along the arena fence watching their friends show and talk. Sarah loved this aspect of showing talking to her friends as they sat on their horses. To make this an enjoyable experience she needed a horse that would stand quietly along side other horses. She did not always have a horse that was so willing to cooperate and stand quietly. I can still see her laughing and have fun with her friends in this manner.

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Ancient One Ghost Ranch
Ancient One Ghost Ranch Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10½" x 7½"

The Ghost Ranch is part of a 1766 land grant and has a fascinating history. The canyon was first inhabited by the Archuleta brothers, cattle rustlers who enjoyed the coverage and invisibility that the canyon provided as well as their ability to see for miles down the valley. They created two jacal homes and would move stolen cattle throughout the night to Box Canyon. Stories abound of people staying with the Archuleta brothers who along with their property had gone missing never to be seen again. One day one of the brothers claimed he had buried some stolen gold for safety. The second brother killed him, and kept his wife and daughter hostage until they admitted to knowing where the gold was hidden. A group of local men then came to the ranch and hanged the remaining brother and his gang from a cottonwood tree that still stands next to one of the casitas at the Ghost Ranch. Visitors who stayed in the casita claim that they could hear voices of a man and a woman fighting.

Artist Georgia O'Keeffe visited the ranch and fell in love with the geography. Soon thereafter, she split her time between New York and New Mexico. She enjoyed having alone time and the Ghost Ranch was a key geographical feature that could be often found in her paintings. The area is beautiful with ancient red rocks and cottonwoods that line the Chama River.

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A Moment of Reflection
A Moment of Reflection Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 7½" x 10½"

Numerous times I have had this experience when a young man canoeing and fishing Blue Lake a mountain lake in Sitka, Alaska. I remember loosing track of time and fishing very late into the evenings having the mountain lake to myself and being totally at peace.

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Fishing Vessel Josephine
Fishing Vessel Josephine Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10½" x 7½"

My wife Jana and I moved to Sitka in southeast Alaska in the 70’s. Sitka is an island community off the coast of Alaska approximately 900 miles north of Seattle, WA. It is an unbelievably beautiful place with tall Sitka spruce trees covering the mountains and neighboring islands. The wildlife, marine and land, was breath taking with eagles, seals, whales, deer and a variety of saltwater fishing which was fantastic. Many families made their living commercial fishing in boats like the Josephine. Wooden boats constructed in the first have of the 20th century. In the spring the fishing captains would pull their boats from the water and sand and paint and make the necessary repairs and then head for the water trolling for salmon. It was a common sight throughout Southeast Alaska. Wonderful memories I would not trade for anything.

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Great Day on the River
Great Day on the River Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10½" x 7½"

I want to thank my friend Jim McCann for the use of this photograph. Spending decades of my life in the Interior of Alaska I developed a passion for fly fishing on rivers especially the Clearwater and Chena Rivers and many others. I loved the countless days spent fishing for grayling in peaceful solitude along the banks of such beautiful places. I clearly remember one very cold late fall day, the last day for fishing that season. The water was freezing in the rod line guides and the fishing was slow and cold. Water levels were low as snow was already falling in the higher elevations. I was fishing and telling myself “just one more cast and I will call it quits for the season” when a river otter came walking up the bank on the opposite side of the river @ 30’ away. He watched me for several moments and then dove into the river where I had been casting my fly trying to catch my last grayling for the season with little luck. Seconds later my competition returned to the riverbank and sat there eating his grayling. After gloating and eating in front of me he dove back into the river to get a second course and sure enough came to the surface with another grayling. The otter sat on the bank eating and surely laughing at my poor efforts watching and listening to me as I told him what an “asshole” he was for showing off! The otter experience was not as humiliating as a previous encounter with a bald eagle I encountered years before on another fishing trip on a river outside of Sitka, Alaska. Fishing from the river bank I had left a string of trout on the bank and was fishing a short distance away. A bald eagle taking advantage of the distance between me and my caught fish launched himself from his perch in a nearby tree to pounce on my fish. I ran over to scare away this winged thief but the eagle would not yield to my cursing and took off with my catch. Returning to Sitka that same evening in my boat I nearly ran into a whale that surfaced right in front of me. The local wildlife was 2-0 that day in Sitka. It was wonderful.

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Jacal House South Mountain
Jacal House South Mountain Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 9½" x 13¾"

The Spanish word “jacal” came to refer to a specific type of construction used in the Southwest from pre-territoral days to the 1930s. Local sourced wooden poles were vertically driven into the ground and fastened together to make outer walls. Both the inner walls and outer walls were seasonally plastered with adobe. The jacal was normally from eight to ten feet wide and twenty to twenty-five feet long. It most often had one room, perhaps divided with a hanging cloth. The ridgepole was ten to fifteen feet from the floor. The size was limited by the materials available. The steeply pitched gabled roof made adding rooms impractical. For the poor, the jacal was often a permanent home, but for the more well-to-do it was looked upon as temporary shelter until a better house could be built. The remains of this more extravagant jacal ranch home is located on the slope to South Mountain outside Cedar Grove, New Mexico.

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Pueblo Bonito Chaco Canyon
Pueblo Bonito Chaco Canyon Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 9½" x 13¾"

Pueblo Bonito is the most thoroughly investigated and celebrated cultural site in Chaco Canyon. Planned and constructed in stages between AD 850 to AD 1150 by ancestral Puebloan peoples, this was the center of the Chacoan world. That world eventually covered a vast area of the present-day Southwest, including the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, and portions of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. For over 300 years, Chacoan Culture united many diverse peoples within its sphere of influence. This painting is of the Grand Kiva at Pueblo Bonito. The scope and detail of the hand formed and built rock construction if phenomenal. It is a beautiful and fantastic place to visit.

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Piper's Little Bird

Piper's Little Bird Print
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Edition Size 75 - $120.00
Print Size - 10½" x 16½"

Airplanes and flight is another significant interest of mine. I have been interested in this subject most of my life and completed a MS in Aviation Safety and learned to fly in graduate school. Once married and starting a family my wife was “not so keen” on my continuing to fly and I have been “grounded” since. I have a dear friend who owns the Piper airplane in this painting. She flies all over interior Alaska in pursuit of her interests and I much admire her for pursuing her dreams.

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Reverence

Reverence Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10½" x 7½"

Religious or spiritual truth is another subject of great interest to me. For the greater part of my life I have been in pursuit of knowledge of the truth on this subject. I have been blessed with spiritual revelations that have added growth and learning that continues to encourage me in this pursuit. This painting shows a woman deep in spiritual reverence in her pursuit of a relationship with the Divine.

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Contemplation

Contemplation Print
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Edition Size 75 - $60.00
Print Size - 10¾" x 7¾"

This painting, “Contemplation” is another reflection of my life interests. I began meditating 45 years ago and continue to this day. This practice is the anchor of my spiritual interests and has opened unimaginable doors in my life. The subject of his painting is deep within his spiritual practice and living his truth.

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Baking Bread
Baking Bread Print
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Edition Size 75 - $70.00
Print Size - 9 ½" x 10 ¼"

One of my favorite places to visit in the fall is located near Santa Fe, New Mexico. El Rancho de las Golondrinas (Ranch of the Swallows) is a historical ranch now a living history museum. I enjoy visiting and using the opportunity to photograph many of the activities taking place with the idea one of them would become a future painting. That is the case with this painting titled “Baking Bread.”

When the Spanish arrived in the southwest they brought with them the knowledge of the earth oven. The earth oven has been in use in various forms for thousands of years and is still used in the southwest. You see them everywhere.

I have watched how they are used and read more but I will leave the instruction and use of the earth oven to those who actually use them today.

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