Kathryn Stedham is largely known as a Western landscape painter and while this subject matter is still central in her work, the artist is constantly expanding her scope. In addition to her more traditional landscapes, her upcoming show at Blue Rain Gallery will feature architectural works, wildlife paintings and possibly even some figurative pieces.
“When I do pieces that are reflective of the Southwest, I try to think about all facets of the Southwest,” says Stedham. “I want to take a well-rounded approach. It’s not just about landscapes, it’s about lifestyle.”
Perched, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.
Perhaps the most significant recent shift in her work is her process, moving away from painting exactly what she sees in plein air, and embracing the nebulous, driven by a desire to make viewers question whether a scene is real or imagined.
“Did I see a falcon sitting on a rock?” she asks, referring to the painting Perched.“Was I standing there or is it a composite of many memories and experiences?” This piece is very much a departure from her earlier work. The falcon is front and center as in a portrait, while the landscape is secondary in the background.
Low Moon Ghost Ranch, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.
Some of Stedham’s new pieces were executed through more traditional methods and are very much indeed actual places. Low Moon Ghost Ranch, in which a full moon rises over Orphan Mesa, is located near Abiquiu, which the New Mexico artist calls one of her heartlands. For Las Trampas, a picture of the iconic 18th-century San José de Gracia Church between Santa Fe and Taos, Stedham relied on reference material from the many times she has painted the building on location. “To me, it’s one of the most special churches of its kind,” she says. “It is so earthen. I love the imperfect lines. It’s really apparent where people formed it with their hands—it’s almost like looking like a pot.”
Sky World (study), oil on linen, 10 x 12 in.
Stedham is a classically trained realist painter, but considers herself a contemporary modernist, connected to many painters of the Southwest that have come before her, modernist and otherwise. Exemplary of the modernist style, defined by simplified forms without losing evidence of the artist’s hand, is Sky World. “For this take on it, I distilled it down and made a modernist painting out of it,” says Stedham, who has painted the rock formations many times from life. “I painted from memory, which allows me to be more interpretative. I want to show the viewer my impression, my feeling, of the place [and] what about it evoked in me the desire to paint it—not an illustration of it, but the essence of the place. That’s been my creative journey. I’ve always wanted to paint that way, I’m just pushing it more. Everyone has their own vision of things, this is my vision.” —
1760 Las Trampas, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in.
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe Street » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 954-9902 » www.blueraingallery.com
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