Kenneth Yarus tried out the big-city life, and while the year in New York City studying at the Grand Central Academy of Art was formative, the Montana native quickly learned that his heart, and sense of peace, resided in the mountains.
A Little Hope, oil, 20 x 30 in.
“New York was hard for my mental health,” explains Yarus, who was there in 2011 at the age of 21. For a self-described country boy like himself, it was utter culture shock. He would find solace at The Met among the great Hudson River School paintings. “I was looking at a Thomas Moran panting and just felt this insane sense of longing,” he says. “I realized that I was happiest, and everything I loved most about life is out there in the West. Give me all of that over a crowded a subway any day.”
Yarus returned to the area around Kalispell, Montana, where he grew up a 30-minute drive outside Glacier National Park, to a landscape the likes of which inspired many of the grandest of Hudson River School paintings.
“It feels part of my subconscious,” explains Yarus. “The clear gorgeous water, snow-capped peaks…it’s such a dramatic place. An exciting place.”
Higher and Higher, oil 18 x 14 in.
An upcoming show at Coeur d’Alene Galleries showcases nearly a dozen of new paintings by Yarus, most of which were inspired by Glacier National Park and the surrounding region. Attunement opens with a reception on June 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. and remains on view at the Idaho gallery through July 7.
The title of the show speaks to how Yarus’ intimacy with his subject matter elevates pictures of beautiful places into a relatable experience for viewers. Yarus hikes and backpacks through the terrain he paints, and the moments he chooses to depict are deeply meaningful ones.
The Way to Rest, oil, 36 x 48 in.
What Points the Way is a “6-foot-tall monstrosity” that is Yarus’ attempt to convey the grandeur of Glacier’s peaks, in this case Reynolds Mountain. “They’re steep, they’re grand and the valleys are very tight. You have to crane your neck all the way up to see the tops of the mountains in some places. Here I’m trying to build up the sensation of the grandeur of the mountains and sense of scale.”
In A Way to Rest,we see the lake that Yarus finally reached after a long, arduous day of backpacking. “Getting to that place of rest and feeling that sense of completion after a pretty rough day…that’s what you get out there—you may have to put in some work but then there are these moments of bliss.”
What Points the Way, oil, 72 x 48 in.
Similarly, A Little Hope captures an unexpected sunbreak after a long rainy paint-out. “We had finally given up and were ready to call it a day when the light broke through,” says Yarus, who reached for his camera. “I saw that moment and I loved it; it wasn’t the time to paint it, but I knew I wanted to.”
He adds, “I want my work to speak to that spiritual element, the way it feels to be somewhere. I’m trying to paint not what I see but what I feel when I stand there.” —
Coeur d’Alene Galleries 213 E. Sherman Avenue » Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 » (208) 667-7732 » www.cdagalleries.com
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