Signature Card Kathleen Cook

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ART PHILOSOPHY

 

 

The overwhelming motivation that leads me to the easel every time has always been the effects of light. What keeps me there, during all the solitary hours, is the desire to capture the three dimensional quality that light creates on every surface it touches. This magic of trying to make painted things on a flat sheet of paper appear dimensional and touchable has led me through all the twists and turns I have taken in learning how to draw and paint for over 30 years.

Sunlight, moonlight, spotlight, candlelight, backlight, theatre light, afternoon light, almost no light. There is something thrilling about being alert to the lights and shadows in God’s world, to analyze them in terms of color, value, shape, design and then to use all my accumulated knowledge to respond to them in the language of the artist.

 

 

 

For me that language is best expressed with pastel. A medium that is like "working with the stuff of butterfly wings", so dazzling can be its effects of color and light. Though I have an acquaintance with other media, no other seems as satisfying to me as pastel for its ability to layer veils of pigment, to capture the luminosity of flesh, to be as versatile in application or as expressive of each individual artist's personality and point of view.

I am a realist painter, but in the modern approach. Though I am fascinated by the skill necessary to capture people and things as they really are, I strive to reach beyond the obvious to give my paintings a fresh, unexpected point of view. My paintings explore a diverse array of emotions and moods, some dark and somber, others light and whimsical.  Many of my paintings, especially the still life works, tell stories---they are composed in such a way as to draw the viewer into them, inviting the viewer to get involved in the story and often to come to their own conclusions, which might be something completely different than I intended. This “silent conversation” between me and the viewer is a unique way to communicate--visually---though  words are never spoken.

 

Camoflage Doggy