Kathleen Elsey - Fauvist Expressionist Painter and Workshop Teacher represented in galleries Chicago, Santa Barbara, America's Cup 2013, San Francisco, Summer of Sailing Painting, Kathy Gard

Kathleen Elsey Fauvist / Expressionist Painter

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Here are some short videos where you may learn about my painting process. Choose a thumbnail.

Old Mission with Olive Trees

Hendry’s Beach

I am the Mountain

I remember my first peaceful night during a recent stay on Sonoma Mountain where I lived for many years. That mountain has claimed me. Sometimes I think I AM the mountain. The hooting owls, the croaking frogs sing in surround sound. I bond with them all. The stars are the only sound tonight. I woke up but nothing woke me. No creatures, no whispering trees, no sound, no footsteps, no movement. I guess the stars woke me. Or maybe the darkness woke me. Maybe the comfort woke me. Now the horizon is coming alive with flickering lights and movement. The sky is waking with Prussian blue overhead and cerulean blue over the band of dark purple fog. The stars are fading making room for today. The owl is quieting. Now there is red and a yellow streak in the purple horizon. One last ribbit. No followers answer the lone frog. Today is coming alive. Looking east waiting for the sunrise the air fills with pink light and the owl is in the distance sounding a little timid. This is what it is like just before dawn.

This is what inspires me to make paintings like Valdez in the Hondo Valley and Peaceful Valley with Cows.

As I paint, my canvas becomes integrated with shapes and colors, carefully orchestrated yet casual and spontaneous.

Four Fellow Fauves

Pierre Mori, a fellow member of the NewFauves.com, recently visited California from his home in Montmorency, France. We had a four-fauve reunion in Los Osos with Ken Christensen as our most generous story-telling fun-loving fauve host. I had the rare opportunity of touring Ken’s studio chock full of his newest and most colorful works. I have long admired Pierre’s paintings, the colors, and the story that they tell. It was an exciting and motivating weekend, getting to know Pierrre and Susan Dunker and Ken as the four of us talked into the wee hours of the morning about inspiration, paint and our love of the early twentieth century Fauves. I painted the above canvas that weekend in Los Osos on an extremely energetic windy Sunday with a heart full of fauve friends.

”J’ai beaucoup apprécié nos amies new fauves et leurs travaux. En particulier la palette, les couleurs, la poésie des travaux de Kathleen Elsey. En ce qui concerne tes travaux, je t'en ai déjà dit beaucoup de bien, et à la réflexion je persiste. Tes couleurs plus chaudes donnent du mouvement aux scènes, leur donnent de la vie. Bref le talent des new fauves donne plus de force encore à notre amitié.”
Pierre Mori

”Rio 2” at Westmont Museum

This juried exhibition runs May 16th through June 22 with a reception Thursday, May 16th 4 - 6 pm in Montecito, California. See you there.

Rio 2 at Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum

Brain Power

It has been proven scientifically that the brain is improved by listening to music — studying pitch and tone as a musician does. Could it also be true that studying color, value and shapes through sensitive eyes, looking harder and learning to see as an artist does, can improve your brain quality and visual senses? I think so.

I look at the landscape thinking of the colors and values I am about to paint. Will it be dark and moody full of rich reds and browns, or will it be light and bright? I sketch the scene discovering more and more about what is before me. Finally, I pick up the brush and take off with paint. 25 stroke botanic garden Sometimes I do a 25-stroke study like the one here. As a Fauve, I allow myself to make up colors or exaggerate colors. This is what I love about painting. It is this impression of what I feel that I want to transform into paint. This is what painting really is.

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