Painting “alla prima” or “at the first” is what thrills Kathleen most about painting. Capturing the essence of a scene on location in one quick and energetic session when possible is the idea but she often takes those on location smaller paintings and develops them into larger ones in her atelier. Kathleen uses a combination of palette knife and vigorous brushwork with bold colors to express her translation of the scene..
Kathleen’s love for painting landscapes began as a young girl growing up in New Mexico where she first started painting in the beautiful environment of northern New Mexico. Like many artists, she was moved by the spectacular vistas and colors that you see in nature on a daily basis when you live in the high desert areas of this state.
After starting out as an art student in college, Kathleen took academic and professional paths that led her toward the business world but never lost her passion for oil painting and trying to capture the beauty of a landscape. In recent years, she has become obsessed with the spirit and challenge of plein air painting. She loves the spontaneous nature of this form of painting and the effort of trying to capture the momentary impression of a place, time of day and the weather that is occurring at a moment’s notice.
Check out more at the artist website fineartamerica.com/profiles/kathleen-strukoff.
