Throughout Kathryn Stedham’s career, one major theme has prevailed—expansiveness. The painter grew up in Virginia, sailing and taking in the limitless nature of the Atlantic Ocean, only to find herself out West—a different, but oddly similar expansiveness. Beginning in late August, Stedham expands her purview even further as part of her show of new work, Spirit of the West,hosted at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe.
Kathryn painting in her studio.
“In this new body of work, I have begun exploring painting more from memory,” she explains of her landscape and figurative subject matter. “Drawing from and trusting my backlog of painting experience, and experience ‘looking,’ I have begun to explore more of my inner landscape…Looking outside of the literal subject matter. It’s more about the mood and the feeling.”
Stedham notes that she painted Clouds of Goldpurely from a memory of a brilliant cloudscape near Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. “I especially enjoyed the energy of this golden cloud emerging from a darkened sky,” she says. “It was late in the day and the weather was rapidly changing before me and I found myself captivated by the golden hour light that bathed the entire landscape in lush, warm tones. We see a lot of these types of phenomena here in the Western landscape. In this painting, I wanted to capture that feeling and immediacy in this enchanted view.”
Clouds of Gold, oil on linen, 30 x 40”
Initially, the artist felt that it was going to be quite an undertaking to try and capture what the “spirit of the West” really means, while also having “large shoes to fill,” she says. “What draws us to the West? Everyone has a different answer to that question. When you think of spirit, what is that? It’s something unexplainable; ineffable. It’s a ‘you know it when you see it’ kind of feeling.” Instead of shying away from the challenge, Stedham embraced the show title, tackling it head on. “I get to explore this theme in each painting,” she remarks.
Stedham achieves her impressive scenes—taking subject matter from her surroundings in Santa Fe—beginning with a process that combines plein air with studio painting. “For most of my paintings, I spend time observing my subjects in the field, out plein air painting and/or making sketches, taking photos and notes about color and composition, and any impressions,” she shares. “I combine these studies in the studio and just begin painting [using my signature alla prima style]. Though my current works are mostly modernist in nature, I was trained more than three decades ago as an academic realist painter. Therefore, I mostly still adhere to the principles of traditional oil painting, which includes painting from life. Practice and study were the standards by which I gained knowledge of my subjects.”
Home Free, oil on canvas, 24 x 30”
We see Stedham’s expertise and passion for observation play out in stunning pieces like Rio Grande at Pilar, which also happens to be the first painting she created for the show. “I have imagined and studied painting this view for many years,” she says of the scene depicting Pilar Cliffs (Spanish for pillar). “The cliffs raising up out of the valley, juxtaposed with the Rio Grande, a recognizable artery of the Western landscape, simple yet profound. Historical artists such as Ernest Blumenschein and Ila McAfee have also painted this distinct scene. There is no wonder that there are these places in the West that effectively touch your soul.”
Besides her love of spacious views, Stedham was drawn to the American West because of her passion for rock climbing. “I moved West to be closer to the natural world,” she explains. “When I paint these rock formations and the mesas and cliff faces, I understand them on a close and intimate level because I climbed all over the world for about 20 years [before settling in Santa Fe].”
Magic Mesa, oil on canvas, 18 x 24”
This connection is recognizable through works like Magic Mesa, a painting that started as a demo, and depicts a familiar but nameless mesa at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. “I pass through this scene on my way into the ranch and have painted it on more than a few occasions as it is a soul-stirring shade of warm and cool reds that I have not seen many places,” Stedham says. “On this occasion, the sky differed from our usual azure blue with the clouds and sky casting an atypical glow upon the landscape. Moments like these are fleeting and I ventured to capture a bit of this special magic of the West.”
Canyon Riders Study, oil on canvas, 16 x 20”
For This, Moon on Shining Rock, another spectacular mesa and cliff view, “I approached this painting a bit differently, like a still life of sorts,” she says. “It is of a pathway near Ghost Ranch that heads along a rocky edge. What I liked about the scene was the immediate foreground being in dark shadow. Then the light enveloping the formation before me, with it’s delicious yellow and rose tones. The moonrise set the tone and all the elements feeling unified within the scene but uniquely distinct at once. I think that this is the first time I’ve viewed my work, particularly a landscape, in this way. I paint and hike often in this location so maybe it because it is so familiar. I think that it’s scenes like these in the West that are not always seen but felt—in the true spirit of the West.”
Rio Grande at Pilar, oil on canvas, 30 x 40”
Yet another passion of Stedham’s arises in the Blue Rain show, and that is the inclusion of horses and other figurative elements seen in pieces like Home Free. The painting is of a Spanish mustang rescue project that the artist assisted with in 2012, and “[shows] four bachelor stallions of the six horses we rescued, along with a mare and her foal,” explains Stedham.
She continues, “My interest in art actually emerged from my early passion for horses and not the other way around. I vividly remember the first time I saw a horse; I must have been around 4 or 5 years old. I saw it from my bedroom window, in my neighbor’s front yard, and was instantly mesmerized by its powerful presence. From there, as a child, I began piecing together drawing horses, at first it was mostly their heads, then I began studying their anatomy from books and other artists’ depictions. This early obsession then translated into interest in other forms and then into life drawing while in school. And even after a lifetime of exploring other subjects and styles, I never strayed too far from my original muse, horses.”
This, Moon on Shining Rock, oil on canvas, 30 x 36”
Overall, in her brave quest to capture her own version of the “spirit of the West” through more than 20 paintings, Stedham discovered the emergence of freedom. “The freedom to explore, the freedom to imagine, the freedom to trust,” she says. In order to grasp the full complexity of such an intimate, special series, both Blue Rain Gallery and Stedham encourage everyone to view the show in-person, from August 25 to September 9. —
Kathryn Stedham: Spirit of the West
August 25-September 9, 2023
Blue Rain Gallery
544 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 954-9902
www.blueraingallery.com
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