After a childhood of drawing and painting in Montana, Kenneth Yarus pursued formal education at the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York. Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that he wasn’t a city person. “The Met was my escape,” he says. “I’d go after work and school and go to the American Wing to look at paintings from Moran and Bierstadt. I’d stare at them for 20 minutes at a time and feel like I was back at home.”
Standing Steadfast, oil, 36 x 48”
Soon, Yarus returned home to Montana, but those hours in the Met had given him a clear idea of what he wanted to paint. “I didn’t care if I ever saw a human again. I knew I wanted to be in the mountains and paint the mountains,” he says.
This July, Yarus’ mountainscapes will be the subject of a solo show at Coeur d’Alene Galleries titled Steadfast,which opens July 14 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m.
Fated to Fall, oil, 20 x 20”
One painting that will be on view is Fated to Fall, which depicts Virginia Falls in Montana’s Glacier National Park. It’s a location Yarus has visited many times, and this painting depicts the falls at the height of spring snow melt, when the waterfall is at its most powerful.
“I’ve always been interested in the story of water and its various forms. It starts as ice and snowpack in the glaciers, and then the waterfalls and rivers carve out the landscape,” he says. “When I’m at the waterfalls, I always think of that exciting journey that the water is on, and how it’s fated to make its way back to the ocean, but it’s all starting right here.”
Fortress of Ice and Stone, oil, 30 x 20”
Another piece on view is Fortress of Ice and Stone, which depicts a view from near Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Though Yarus is a frequent visitor to Glacier National Park, he found the scale of the mountains and glaciers in Canada to be something else entirely. “It all seems much bigger, and the glaciers are much more visible. Seeing the grandiose glacier hanging off the cliffs with the waterfalls coming down, it was like the pure romance of the mountains,” he says.
The glacier, suspended up in the mountains, gave him the impression of a fortress, and he knew the stunning view had to become the subject of a painting.
A Peak in the Wilderness, oil, 30 x 40”
Coeur d’Alene Gallery partner Buddy Le describes Yarus’ work as having a more contemporary Hudson River School feel. “His vast landscapes with dramatic lights and shadows are surreal and Ken’s control of values exemplifies his talent,” he says. “It’s a rare trait to draw your viewer into a painting and make them feel like they’re standing on a cliff’s edge with their breath taken away by the majesty of the mountains.” —
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