(Reprinted with permission from Greenhouse Fine Art Gallery)
Even though one can identify her paintings from across the
room, the defining characteristics of Kathryn Stats’ work are not easy to
isolate. Her subject matter ranges from the roses that crowd her backyard to
the snow in the nearby mountains. The southern Utah red rocks and northern Utah
farmland are often subjects for her intricate compositions, which often defy
the rules, but magically, always work. However, it’s most often her treatment
of light that draws you to her work. The red rocks of southern Utah glow in the
sunlight and turn mysteriously somber in the shadows. Sage and alfalfa fields
are rich enough to seem almost fragrant, as are her brilliant flower studies.
Her skies are filled with the promise of the reflected light below, which is
always precisely located to make the composition work. “I love the fall,” she
says. “The low angle of the sun lights the bottoms of the changing leaves with
colors that really set me free.”
It is that freedom that makes her work so enjoyable. Her
love of color, her unerring sense of proper light and her skillful brushwork
make her strong, deliberate paintings feel effortless.
Born in Idaho in the mid-1940s, Kathryn Stats has lived most
of her life in Utah. Though her family moved often during her childhood, she
spent her teenage summers in Kaysville, Utah, with her grandmother--the
sister-in-law of the famous Utah landscape painter LeConte Stewart. Surrounded
by the rural landscape outside and his wonderful paintings in the house, it
isn’t surprising that Kathryn would eventually start to paint. In her late
twenties, living in Brazil with her husband and children, she began a career
that has been both successful and gratifying. Her earliest lessons came from
the books of such painters as Emil Gruppe and John F. Carlson. She later
studied with Utah artists Ken Baxter and Frank Erickson.
Her floral studies and the distinctive landscapes that have
become the hallmark of her work are in private and public collections
worldwide. She has also garnered numerous awards from the growing list of
exhibitions in which she has shown her work.
Her most recent awards include “Award of Excellence” and
“Artist’s Choice” Horizon Gallery, Jackson, Wyoming, 2004; “Purchase and Merit
Award” Springville Museum of Art, April Salon, 2003; “People’s Choice” and
“Artist’s Choice” awards, Rising Star Juried Invitational, Wickenburg, Arizona,
2002; “Best Oil” in the Maynard Dixon Country Invitational, Mt. Carmel, Utah,
2002; “Purchase Awards” Desert News Art Show, 1983 and 2000; and “People’s
Choice Award” Merrill Johnson Gallery, Denver, Colorado, 2001.
"I think a good painting is like a good musical
composition." Kathryn states, "It has harmony and rhythm, contrast and
theme, sometimes even soloists. Those elements rarely just occur in a natural
landscape. I find that I emphasize with detail and color, omit some things,
mute others, even rearrange elements to create a composition that conveys my
visual experience, my joy, to the viewer. It is this challenge that keeps me
painting."
"The reason you keep doing it ---painting every day ---
has to do with the viewer. You want the viewer to experience the same joy you
feel---and nature sometimes makes it hard. So it’s a process of adjusting, of
emphasizing, softening, even omitting, to make what you paint convey the right
message to the viewer. Sometimes it’s a long process---other times the problems
are easy to solve---but always---it’s a joy.
_________________________________________________________
One-day Hood River Plein Air Workshop with Kathryn Stats:
http://www.kathrynstats.com
WHERE: Hood River, Oregon (exact location TBA)
WHEN: Saturday, Sept 6, 9:30am - 4:30 pm
COST: $100 --limited to 15 students
Send total payment, make check payable to Kathryn Stats:
402 E. Arlo Avenue, Sandy, UT 84070
(Please include all your contact information, including email address).
402 E. Arlo Avenue, Sandy, UT 84070
(Please include all your contact information, including email address).
Each student is expected to bring their own easel (plein air
set-up) and supplies (confirmation and supply list will be emailed to you upon
registration).
Kathryn's one-day Plein Air workshop will include
interpreting the subject, simplifying the landscape and matching color to
a value (keeping with that value, neither lightening nor darkening it).
The Arizona Republic writes, “Kathryn Stats is a Utah artist
whose best landscapes are a complete pleasure. The paint in them is
given over to the subject and you know that Stats doesn’t feel the need for any
gimmicks to get her point across. Direct, honest, and sensuous,
these are the work of a genuine painter.” Kathryn Stats seeks to combine
light, shadow, design and rhythm to create a provocative work that speaks to
the awe and respect we have for nature. She is equally at home with
floral and still life painting.
Questions?
Contact Columbia Art Gallery 541-387-8877
Contact Columbia Art Gallery 541-387-8877