BeaconArts@the Bank for September – “Love & Whimsy: Watercolors by Kate Vikstrom.” Now through Sept. 29.
I choose to work primarily in watercolor because of the element of surprise. The artist must be willing to let go of control, taking a back seat to the movement and caprice of paint in water.
Occasionally someone asks, “When are you going to paint something real?”
Well, at times I do paint something they would call real – a bare winter tree, a red rose. But I would have to say there is one specific place I am always attempting to show you. That is the place where water and sky seem to have no hard edges; where earth, water and air intermingle. The mists that move within that space allow the painting to evoke emotion and touch upon the mystical. This is a metaphor for all of life, in which there are no clear boundaries between friend and stranger, heaven and earth, love and poetry.
My style was most significantly formed by studying the Impressionists, who were intent on conveying an “impression” or feeling about a location as opposed to its exact details. Several years ago I spent three months living in Paris where I explored their works–and their cafes–every day.
I moved to Beacon this year after living nearly two decades in Southeast Alaska and four years in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. My work reflects these locations – where people feel a spiritual synergy with great bodies of water – and I am experiencing this connection in a new way here in the Hudson River Valley.
I work as a graphic designer as well. And as is true of so many artists, I embrace more than one art form. I’m a jazz/cabaret vocalist, and my premier CD release, Grown-Up Lullabies, has been described as “torch singing with the sweetness of a May thrush.”
Please visit my website www.KateVikstrom.com to view watercolors, collage, house portraits, graphic design, CD and music information, and my Youtube channel.
1476 Route 9D
SwappingFalls, NY 12590
845-831-0300
Mon-Fri 8:00am – 5:00pm
Sat 8:30am – 12:30pm
