Allied Artists presents On Location in the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore July 13 - November 3, 2019

I'm pleased to have three paintings included in this group exhibition.

On Location in the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore 

July 13 - November 3, 2019

Opening Reception

July 13 4PM - 6PM

Please note: Santa Paula Art Museum charges a $15 admission fee for the premier, $10 for museum members, however the first Sunday of every month is free for all visitors.

Santa Paula Art Museum

805-525-5554

Artists' Panel Discussion for 'Four Million Angels'

DATE AND TIME

Sat, February 17, 2018

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PST

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LOCATION

Annenberg Community Beach House

415 Pacific Coast Hwy at Beach Coast Way

Santa Monica

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Please join us for a panel discussion featuring artists of Four Million Angels. This exhibition examines the people who fill the streets of Santa Monica on a sunny day. Whether they are visiting the Santa Monica Pier, the 3rd Street Promenade, Angels’ Attic, Bergamot Arts Center, a concert at McCabe’s Guitar Shop or Santa Monica State Beach, a diverse cross section of Angelenos will be in the crowd. Given the dramatic presence of the ocean, the four million people that live in the City of Los Angeles find Santa Monica to be one of our greatest magnets. The artists in this exhibit make work that reflects a passionate interest in the people of Los Angeles and speaks of our universal experiences. Four Million Angels investigates the City’s history, environment, lifestyle, psychological range, architecture, and geography. We hope to trigger a dialogue about the essence of our unique population and elicit a better understanding of who is beside us in line at Pacific Park.

Featuring artworks by Mark Steven Greenfield, J. Michael Walker, Kathi Flood, Michael Massenburg, and Katherine Kean.

Register here: Beach=Culture: Artists' Panel Discussion for 'Four Million Angels'

The exhibition will be on view from January 18 through April 30, 2018.

Four Million Angels

Width of a Wave   Katherine Kean
oil on linen, tryptych   18 x 72 inches

I am pleased to be part of Four Million Angels at Santa Monica's Annenberg Community Beach House, featuring artworks by Mark Steven Greenfield, J. Michael Walker, Kathi Flood, Michael Massenburg, and me.

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6 PM - 8 PM
Annenberg Community Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Hwy, Santa Monica, CA 90402

Tickets are free but space is limited and reservations are required. Tickets are  available at Eventbrite.

This exhibition examines the people who fill the streets of Santa Monica on a sunny day. Whether they are visiting the Santa Monica Pier, the 3rd Street Promenade, Angels' Attic, Bergamot Station, a concert at McCabe's Guitar Shop or Santa Monica State Beach, a diverse cross section of Angelenos will be in the crowd. Given the dramatic presence of the ocean, the four million people that live in the City of Los Angeles find Santa Monica to be one of our greatest magnets. The artists in this exhibit make work that reflects a passionate interest in the people of Los Angeles and speaks of our universal experiences. Four Million Angels investigates the City's history, environment, lifestyle, psychological range, architecture, and geography. We hope to trigger a dialogue about the essence of our unique population and elicit a better understanding of who is beside us in line at Pacific Park.

The exhibition will be on view from January 18 through April 30, 2018.

PSA 90th Annual at Whites Gallery

Sheltering Cloud, Restless Land, Desolate Tree
©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 16 inches

I am honored and pleased to have two paintings accepted into Pasadena Society of Artists' 90th Annual Exhibition, juried by Scott Ward, Executive Director of the Armory Center for the Arts. The exhibition opens to the public this weekend at Whites Gallery in Montrose.

PSA 90th Annual Juried Exhibition 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015 - Wednesday, December 30, 2015 

Opening Reception: 
 Saturday, December 5, 2015 2pm to 5pm 

Whites Art, Framing & Restoration 

2414 Honolulu Avenue

Montrose, CA 91020 

Juror: Scott Ward, Executive Director Armory Center for the Arts 

Scott Ward has been the executive director of the Armory Center for the Arts since 2001. Prior to coming to the Armory, he was the executive director of the Palos Verdes Art Center from 1997 to 2001, and executive director of the Downey Museum of Art from 1987-1996. He has spearheaded a dramatic expansion of the Armory’s exhibition and education programs in the underserved neighborhoods of Northwest Pasadena. Ward also has extensive experience as an administrator, educator, curator, lecturer, panelist, executive coach, and artist. He has served as a speaker and panelist for National Guild of Community Schools of Art, The Wallace Foundation, and the City of Denver. As a grants panelist, he has served multiple times for the National Endowment for the Arts, The California Arts Council, and Los Angeles Metro. He taught Fine Art Photography at Loyola Marymount and was the University Art Gallery Director at CSUSB. He received his B.A. from the University of California in aesthetic studies, and earned his M.F.A. in photography from California Institute of the Arts.

Whites Art, Framing & Restoration
2414 Honolulu Montrose, CA 91020
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 9am to 5pm
(818) 957-4071
www.whitesfineart.com

Sheltering Cloud, Restless Land, Desolate Tree

Sheltering Cloud, Restless Land, Desolate Tree 
©2015Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 16 inches

Driving the Chain of Craters Road, that starts at the volcano and ends at the ocean (for now) is one of my favorite drives of all time. I find it as amazing as driving on Highway 1 heading to Big Sur, but far less crowded.

As you descend you follow the trajectory of past lava flows, and as you go the weather changes. On this trip it was cool and misty at the top, then rainy, then partly cloudy, then sunny and hot and windy, and back to warm and mild.

There are many places along the way to turn off and follow trails, see vistas, explore lava tubes. I love that there are no services of any kind until you go the 18 miles to the bottom. You're on your own here. Just you and the wild.

On the Easel

Here are some process shots of work in progress. Above, a storm in the Angeles Forest underpainting.

The storm painting with descriptive color layers. It's coming together fairly quickly. Another refining layer or two might finish it.

The first color layers of clouds over the Chain of Craters Road and a detail of the turbulence below.

Chain of Craters clouds painting further along. These clouds are complex. I suspect it will take some time to untangle all the shapes. 

  

And finally, a small volcano painting in the underpainting stage.

Someone's Desert Sunset

D's Desert Sunset ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Every now and then someone will send me an image, usually a sky, that strikes them in a particular way, and ask me to paint it. I'm happy to do that when the subject is already aligned with what I have set out to do. The painting above is one such painting, with a few details added from my imagination.

Beach Day's End

Beach Day's End ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 20 inches

“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” 

 - Rachel Carson

Bar Harbor Sketch

Bar Harbor Sketch ©2015 Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

“Surely joy is the condition of life.”  - Henry David Thoreau

I've taken major liberties in this sketch of Bar Harbor; moving Bar Island on the horizon to the left and further away, and eliminating the pier that to me obscures the landscape. This also demands a color study. I think the mood will live in the pearly gold of the sky and the glimmering mauve of the water - if I pull it off.

Angeles Forest Storm Wide

Angeles Forest Storm Wide ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 8 x 16 inches

There are times when the local landscape is especially inspiring. In this painting it's the mountains and skies of the Angeles National Forest.

In these links you can see the initial sketch and middle painting, and a companion painting.

Magic Island

I'm back from visiting the Big Island Hawaii. I travelled first to the Kona side, to the beautiful Mauna Lani Bay. The air was soft and warm, and not too hot. On the way there I could see the summit of Mauna Kea covered with snow.

A couple of days later, rested and refreshed, I drove north and then east and then south past Hilo to Pahoa. 

Along the way I found waterfalls and tropical gardens. In Pahoa I went to a Robert Moss dream workshop: The Temple of Dream Healing, which was like a journey - or series of journeys within a journey.

After the workshop disbanded I went to the Volcano and stayed on the crater. At night, and at dawn and dusk, I drew, painted and photographed the glow from within the crater. I got a couple of lucky shots of  nēnē flying over the crater.

In the daytime I explored the area around the volcano and drove the Chain of Craters road, tracing the history of the lava flows all the way down to the ocean and back again.

These 3 x 5 and 4 x 6 inch studies are reminders, that I'll use along with memories and reference photos to paint by.

Showing Metal

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint, aged one month

I have been wanting to try drawing with silverpoint for ages. An artist friend suggested it to me years ago. I have a light touch, which serves me well in watercolor and oils, but for which I must compensate by using very soft pencils. With metalpoint drawings it doesn't matter so much how hard one bears down - the mark will be about the same. 

I decided to try it out with a tiny drawing of very familiar subject matter.

All the marks one makes in silverpoint are indelible. There is no erasing. Metalpoint drawings are ethereal at first and darken with age as they oxidize. You can see a slight difference in the early drawing above, compared to the same drawing photographed again about a month later.

A quality I like about metalpoint is that one piece of metal lasts a long time and I don't find myself taking trip after trip to the sharpener. Without a stylus, metal to work with can be found in the silverware drawer or coin pocket. I also like that the finished surface has a silvery sheen when the light hits it. Silverpoint is difficult to photograph - the scans here are blurry from the light bouncing around, and the drawings look better in person, which I think is true for much, if not all artwork.

Angeles Forest Wide Sketch

Angeles Forest Storm Wide Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 5 1/2 x 11 inches

"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail." - John Muir

Angeles Forest Storm Sketch

Angeles Forest Storm Square Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 6 x 6 inches

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." 
- John Muir quoted by Samuel Hall Young in Alaska Days with John Muir (1915) chapter 7

Home Sweet Home

I will be exhibiting two paintings at Laura Segil Fine Art's Home Sweet Home Group Exhibition that starts this Saturday, July 19.

   

 Marsh House Katherine Kean 

oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Billowing Clouds Go By and By Katherine Kean 

oil on linen 16 x 20 inches 

 Home Sweet Home 

Saturday, July 19 - Saturday, August 30 

 Segil Fine Art Gallery 

110 West Lime Avenue 

Monrovia, CA 91016 

626-358-5563 

 Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 1-6pm

Walking Whiting Woods

Whiting Woods Trail 2014 Katherine Kean
graphite 10 x 8 inches

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." - John Muir

This view from the trail at Whiting Woods looks north. If you stand at the edge you can make out the very vertical streets that run from the Crescenta Valley all the way up to the edge of the Angeles Forest; Dunsmore, Pennsylvania, Ramsdell, New York. If you look directly down you see Dunsmore Park - seeming to look a lot closer than the climb up makes a person feel. Like so many of the trails in these parts the way up is steep.

My favorite time to go is late - as the sun is falling and the day is cooling off. It's wonderful to watch the lights come on bit by bit in the neighborhoods below.

Beach Day's End

Beach Day's End 2014 Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea

I don't spend nearly enough time visiting beaches, but when I do, I relish the feeling of being sun drenched, wind touched, and a little bit salty and sandy at the end of the day, don't you?

Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!

The Representational Artists Conference 2014

Little  more than an hour away from Los Angeles, Ventura, CA was the location for TRAC 2014. Feeling lucky that it was nearby, I bought tickets, booked a room, got a cat sitter for Zabrina, and off I went. There were people from all over the US and a dozen countries all gathered together to share ideas about representational art. 

Odd Nerdrum

Roger Scruton

Organized by Michael Pearce, key speakers were Roger Scruton and Odd Nerdrum along with notable presentations from art world scholars and practitioners, among them Michael Zakian, Jan-Ove Tuv, Brandon Kralik, John Seed, Michael Pearce, numerous others. In fact, one of the sad things about conferences is having to choose to hear only 14 presentations out of a possible 40 some papers.

The presentations were broken up by painting demonstrations and field trips to local exhibitions, including Women by Women at the Kwan Fong Gallery, where we were in time for a talk from Ruth Weisberg and Resonating Images at the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art.

Women by Women Kwan Fong Gallery

Resonating Images William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art

 My head is quite full of intriguing ideas, images, and philosophies about what art is, or is not, or was, or was not, or maybe will be. It is an ongoing conversation. 

Traveling Art Returns

Vent ©2012 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 10 x 10 inches

Maine Tides and Rocks  ©2012 Katherine Kean
oil on linen   8 x 10 inches

Rapidly Changing Conditions  ©2012 Katherine Kean
oil on linen   20 x 30 inches.

These three paintings recently returned from exhibiting with Paint America. As part of their Paint the Parks exhibition they went to the Jefferson National Expansion Monument, a 91 acre memorial that is part of the National Park System and receives approximately 2,500,000 visitors annually.

For the exhibition the paintings hung in the Old Courthouse, afterward traveling to the Coutts Museum before returning home.

All of the paintings in this exhibition depict one of our nation's 390 areas supervised by the National Park Service. Rapidly Changing Conditions and Vent are portrayals of Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park, and Maine: Tides, Rocks represents Acadia National Park.

All three paintings returned unscathed, safe and secure, each in it's individual strong box and in probably the most pristine condition I've ever received work back in, no doubt owing to the expertise and professionaliam of the National Park and the Museum staff.

Circling Storm Clouds, Angeles Forest

Circling Storm, Angeles Forest II ©2013 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches 

 "Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail." John Muir, Our National Parks

Living on the edge of a National Forest, and the steepest mountains in the US,  I am often reminded of John Muir, the "Father of the National Parks" and a person who considered the mountains his true home. Muir Woods in Northern California is well know and more locally is Muir Peak (elevation 4688') in Angeles National Forest north of Altadena.

On a Sierra Club Outing, author Albert Palmer tells of a conversation he had with John Muir on the trail. He asked Muir, "someone told me you did not approve of the word "hike" Is that so? His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch accent he replied: " I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them." - John Muir, as quoted by Albert W. Palmer, The Mountain Trail and its Message (1911) pages 27-28 - excerpted in A Parable of Sauntering .