Kim Ford Kitz: Into the West at Seager Gray Gallery

Kim Ford Kitz: Into the West

Kim Ford Kitz: Into the West April 2 - April 30 Reception for the artist: Saturday, April 6, 5:30 - 7:30 Front Cover: Kim Ford Kitz, Point Reyes Vision, (detail), oil on canvas, 2018, 16 x 20 in Back Cover: Kim Ford Kitz, Forget Me Not (detail), oil on canvas, 2019, 40 x 50 in

Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Avenue Mill Valley, CA 94941 415-384-8288 seagergray.com All rights reserved.

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Email us at art@seagergray.com

To paint is not to copy the object slavishly, it is to grasp a harmony among many relationships.

Art is a harmony parallel with nature. _ Paul Cezanne

Kim Ford Kitz: Into the West In her first solo show, California, at the Seager Gray Gallery in 2016, Kim Ford Kitz emerged as an artist with a fresh new way of seeing the Golden State, from its agricultural valleys, wine country hills and Southern California beaches to its redwood forests and the steep streets of San Francisco. Three years later, Kitz has moved to Inverness at the western edge of the continent and her exhibition “Into the West” closes the lens geographically to zoom in on the area along the coast from the glory of the city to the natural beauty of West Marin Point Reyes, Inverness and the Tomales Bay. “West Marin was calling me for quite some time,” said Kitz, “I found myself hopping in the car and heading that direction more and more for inspiration. When I saw the house available in Inverness, I thought why not go for it. I am so happy that I did and that the beach, beautiful trails and quaint old towns are so close me now.

I am discovering new places all of the time and visit my favorite haunts as always.” West Marin is to Kitz what Provence was to Cezanne or Collioure to Matisse- a place to explore through the medium of paint. If it is her goal to convey her visual sensations of color, light and space, she is succeeding magnificently, producing works of compelling tactile quality and colorful beauty.

In works like Bolinas Diptych, or Coastal Roots, Kitz accomplishes a “harmony parallel to nature” by expressing the essence of the visible world through the use of color and reduction into basic underlying shapes. She finds that she can get closer to the mystery and beauty of a place, not by describing each element or blade of grass, but by understanding relationships between color, light, form and space. In works like the exuberant Forget Me Not, the cluster of blues energize the space around it. The effect is dynamic and the large scale captures a vibrancy mere replication could not achieve.

“In my quest to evolve my current style even further” says Kitz, “I find that it is pushing more and more into abstraction. I climb up rugged hills to find those “pay off views” of meadows with native wildflowers or the hypnotic movement of ocean waves or go up to city rooftops to snap photos of buildings and steep urban streets. Then I am able to translate the experience into my own visual language.” In her most abstract works –Euphoria and The Cove, she departs almost completely from describing any particular scene and aims instead at the sensation of being there, the mesmerizing panoply of color light and form enveloping the senses.

A California girl, who moved from the beach towns of Newport and Carona del Mar to San Francisco when she was still quite young, Kitz comes by her West Coast aesthetic honestly and draws inspiration from the renowned Bay Area artists who came before her, like Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud, David Park and Joan Brown. She loves her paint and has spent many years learning how to move it around the canvas or panel in order to express the vibrancy of the world around her, each painting a joyful act, a testament to time well spent.

Bolinas

oil on canvas on panel, 2019 72 x 72 in

- Donna Seager

Coastal Roots

oil on canvas on panel, 2019 52 x 44 in

Dawn

oil on linen, 2018 24 x 24 in

Euphoria

oil on canvas on panel, 2019 48 x 36 in

Forget Me Not

oil on canvas, 2019 50 x 40 in

Half Moon Bounty

oil on canvas on panel, 2018 50 x 40 in

Hillside Study

oil on canvas, 2018 36 x 30 in

Ocean Study - Limantour oil on canvas, 2018 10 x 10 in

Meadow Light oil on panel, 2018 12 x 12 in

Pond Study

oil on panel, 2018 12 x 12 in

Point Reyes Vision oil on panel, 2018 16 x 20 in

Point Reyes Aerial Study oil on canvas, 2018 12 x 12 in

Point Reyes Study oil on panel, 2019 8 x 8 in

Red Posey

oil on panel, 2017 50 x 48 in

Rose Still Life oil on panel, 2019 16 x 8 in

Sage Brush

oil on panel, 2019 42 x 60 in

Stinson Gardens oil on panel, 2015 40 x 30 in

White Barn

oil on panel, 2018 16 x 16 in

Tennessee Valley Diptych oil on canvas, 2019 36 x 96 in

The Cove

oil on canvas on panel, 2019 36 x 36 in

Where They Stand oil on canvas, 2018 24 x30 in

City Scapes

Black and White Russian Hill oil on canvas, 2018 24 x 36 in

SF Hills

oil on panel, 2018 48 x 36 in

Waterfront

oil on panel, 2018 24 x 48 in

SF Study

oil on panel, 2019 7 x 5 in

Kim Ford Kitz EDUCATION BFA, Painting and Drawing, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, Ca EXHIBITIONS 2019 Into the West, solo exhibition, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA 2018 Kim Ford Kitz: Small Works, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley 2017 Bolinas Art Museum Auction, Peace Barn, Bolinas, CA One California Street Exhibition, San Francisco, CA With Liberty and Justice for Somr, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA Academy of Art, Alumni and Faculty Auction, The

Cannery, San Francisco, CA 2016 California, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA artMRKT Fair, San Francisco, Ca, Seager Gray

San Francisco Views, 475 Sansome St.

San Francisco, CA 2015 Composing Chaos, O’Hanlon Center For The Arts, Mill Valley, CA 2014 All in the Family, Seager Gray Gallery,

Mill Valley, CA

A Sense of Place, Seager Gray Gallery,

Mill Valley, CA 2013 Stinson Beach Gallery, Stinson Beach, Ca

Drawing Show, Artworks Downtown,

San Rafael, C CA 2012 Summer Salon, Seager Gray Gallery,

Mill Valley, CA 2011 Academy of Art Faculty, Alumni Auction

The Cannery, San Francisco, CA

Summer Salon, Donna Seager Gallery,

San Rafael, CA 2010 Sausalito Art Festival Bay Model Exhibition Sausalito, CA

Nature’s Treasure, Santa Cruz, CA

Sundance Kabuki, San Francisco, CA

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Fresh Paint, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA Gallery Artists, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA Anniversary Exhibition, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA Bay Area Influence, Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA Anniversary Exhibition, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA New Works, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA Spring Show, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA Solo Exhibition, Bacchus, San Francisco, CA Abstraction, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA

SPECIAL PROJECTS 2018

Set Designer, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”, Ross

Valley Players, Ross, CA 2014 CRATE & BARREL, Limited addition print

ANTHROPOLOGIE, Corte Madera, CA 2010-2015 PAVE people/art/venue/extra,

Artist Run Initiative 2008-2015 Set Design and Technical Direction,

YES Theater Company, Marin, CA 2006-2010 Set Design and Art Direction, Stapleton Theater Company, San Anselmo, CA 2007-2009 Lead Scenery Painter,

Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael, CA 2004 Public Mural Project, Memorial Park, San Anselmo, CA

Set Design, Town Players,