Kathrine Ransom - Featured Artist May/June 2024

The Art of Grieving

I love painting on bigger surfaces, because, for me, it gives so much space for creativity--land and seascapes take space after all. It’s important to me that my paintings produce as much of an experience as well as a work of art. For me, large-scale art offers a more immersive experience to viewers as well.

That said, at many galleries including Splash Gallery, larger paintings are literally, not always a great fit. But I always enjoy the challenge of capturing a moment in time that expresses a feeling of place in a much smaller format. The feature window provides me with such a challenge.

This past year has been one of my most challenging as I have navigated my way through the grief of losing my father. While I walked in this hollow space, I painted many dark and brooding pieces but along the way, stretched into some new formats and techniques. Through this journey of grief and art, I can now more clearly see the way my rational brain took over, thinking about balance, values, color and texture, about edge and dominance. As the one-year anniversary of his death approached I could see a marked difference in my palettes and the smaller pieces feel more like studies, so they have a spontaneous feel that I really like.

I hope you like this collection that will be in the Splash Gallery feature window for a couple of months as well as on the walls and other local and regional venues. At this time of this writing, I feel a bit lighter and I have prepped several new large canvases and panels that I will be working on as the colors and life shifts once again.