Kristen Garneau: Grace

Kristen Garneau: Grace

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Kristen Garneau: Grace

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Kristen Garneau: Grace Exhibition Dates: November 2 - November 30, 2018 Reception for the Artist: Saturday, November 10, 5:30 - 7:30 pm Front Cover: After the Storm, (detail), 2018, oil on canvas, 66 x 78” Back Cover: Haybales, (detail), 2017, oil on linen, 30 x 34”

Photography by Black Cat Studio: Jay Daniels Essay and catalog design by Donna Seager

Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com All Rights Reserved

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Behind me, the crickets, and in the weeds, the wind. While before me, the sea, the seals, and the sounds of the fishing boats.

Below me in repose, the town in its sound and soundless sleep, and in a single moment of gladness, alone in that world of mist and myth, I found myself overcome with a feeling of grace, and I was suddenly a priest, was suddenly a monk, was suddenly someone neither good nor bad. I was everything and nothing, both whole and unwhole: a leftover piece of some onetime great and fallen god that had its home in the tossing grass, that shared all of the space from here to the darkest corner of the starlight skies.

And with my feet spreading wings over the dew-wet grass, through the mattress of needles in the thick pine forests, the soles of my feet pounding hard upon the earth, feeling a part of some gigantic and tremendous ancient thing, feeling part of a universe that was as close to me as the simplest stone or as far from me as the farthest star, I turned and made my way home.

From John Steinbeck’s View from the HIll

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After the Storm, 2018 oil on canvas 66 x 78�

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Kristen Garneau: Moments of Grace

Living in Marin County, Kristen Garneau is no stranger to beautiful landscapes.

The Pacific beachfronts, the rolling hills of west Marin and the majesty of Mount Tamalpais have provided enough beauty to attract painters like William Keith since the great American migration west. Garneau, however, does not fit the genre of plein air or landscape painter. Her concern is not with describing specific places in paint, but to render the image down to its pure essence to convey her personal experience of it. She is fascinated with the shifting light and weather – magical moments when the sun filters through mist and clouds at sunrise, sunset, dusk and dawn – flashes of mystery and grace.

In her first one person exhibition after a hiatus of five years, she has, in her words, “zoomed in” on the natural world she captures on her canvases, exploring the raw mystical experience she sees in these transitional hours of the day. In “After the Storm,” at 66 x 78” the largest painting she has ever created, Garneau closes in on an expanse of beachfront with bands of sky, water, seafoam and sand in horizontal bars of color bathed in glorious, unsettled light. In the suggestive breadth and masterful handling of the paint she is able to share the startling sensation of the rugged coast as it recovers, as if healing itself from the lashes of rain and wind.

In “Lifting Fog II,” darkened trees contrast with a white mist of fog rising to meet the first glow of morning, greeted by bits of golden light along a ridge.

For Garneau, the paintings begin with one of these epiphanies in nature, but the finished works are the result of careful studio practice. Surfaces are formed by layers and layers of paint and forms are simplified. In this way Garneau owes as much to abstract expressionism as any other tradition. She is speaking the language of paint, layering and modulating her compositions to more fully express the metaphysical properties and emotional impacts of the scene.

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Cloudburst I & II, 2017 diptych, oil on canvas over panel 60 x 68�

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Works like “Moonlit Fields” or the elegant “Snow on the Snake II” are tonal and Rothko-like in their ability to create power by the positioning of one area of color beside another.

In addition to Rothko, Garneau cites Gottardo Piazzoni, the late San Francisco landscape master, whose influences can be easily seen in the dramatic power of her restrained palette. Like Piazzoni, Garneau revels in the ever-changing light that bathe these dramatic times of day.

Kristen Garneau grew up in Contra Costa County. She spent her time riding horses in the watershed lands observing the constant variations of nature.

Although she attended CCAC (the California College of Arts and Crafts) for two years, it was later that she began to mature as an artist and develop her own skills and vision. Aided by guidance from her mentor, Chester Arnold, she softened her palette and began to concentrate on the orchestration between shapes and open space.

As quoted in the 2013 essay by Alan Selsor, “The desire for discovery has always motivated the artist herself: “I have matured as a painter, but in a sense I am still that young girl riding horses in Contra Costa – that young girl who is happiest when she is out there in a wonderland of the imagination.

There is magic in the landscape. Yet, this magic can be easily overlooked, unless you take the time to stop and open the senses.”

Perhaps Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was getting at that sense of grace and magic when he wrote,

The sun sinks more and more behind the horizon.

Bam! he throws his last ray, a streak of gold and purple which fringes the flying clouds.

There, now it has entirely disappeared.

Bien! bien! twilight commences.

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Haybales, 2017 oil on linen 30 x 34�

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July Sunset Near the Coast, 2016 oil on canvas over panel.

36 x 46�

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Lifting Fog II, 2018 oil on linen 38 x 36�

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Mist and Myth, 2018 oil on canvas over panel 48 x 48�

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Moonlit Fields, 2017 oil on canvas 54 x 60�

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Muir Beach Storm, 2018 oil on canvas 24 x 24�

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Off Felder Creek, 2017 diptych, oil on canvas over panel 34 x 60�

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Outside Madera, 2018 oil on canvas over panel 36 x 46�

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Rain at Cowtrack, 2016 oil on linen 16 x 20�

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Snow on the Snake II, 2018 oil on canvas over panel 34 x 60�

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Winter, 2016 oil on canvas 18 x 18�

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KRISTEN GARNEAU Exhibitions 2018

Solo Exhibtion,”Kristen Garneau: Grace”, Seager Gray Gallery Seager Gray Gallery, “Natural Inclinations” Mill Valley, CA

2017

Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA M.A.L.T., “Ranches & Rolling Hills”, Nicasio, CA

2016

M.A.L.T., “Ranches & Rolling Hills”, Nicasio, CA

2015

M.A.L.T., “Ranches & Rolling Hills”, Nicasio, CA

2014

Seager Gray Gallery “A Sense of Place”, Mill Valley, CA M.A.L.T., “Ranches & Rolling Hills”, Nicasio, CA

2013

Solo Exhibition, Kristen Garneau: Boundless, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA Ranches and Rolling Hills: Landscape Art Show, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Nicasio, CA Golden Retriever Foundation Art Auction, Wichita Falls, TX Henry’s Fork Foundation Auction, Island Park, ID Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA

2012

Materials, Group Exhibition, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA Henry’s Fork Foundation Auction, Island Park, ID Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA Golden Retriever Foundation Art Auction, St. Louis, MO Ranches and Rolling Hills: Landscape Art Show, Marin Agriculture Land Trust, Nicasio, CA

2011

Miniatures, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA Fresno Art Commission Art Auction, Fresno, CA Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA Henry’s Fork Foundation Auction, Island Park, ID Ranches and Rolling Hills: Landscape Art Show, Marin Agriculture Land Trust, Nicasio, CA Local Landscapes, 4-person exhibition, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA

2010

Ranches and Rolling Hills: Landscape Art Show, Marin Agriculture Land Trust, Nicasio, CA Surface/Tension: H2O, Bay Model Visitor Center, Sausalito, CA Henry’s Fork Foundation Auction, Island Park, ID Solo Exhibition, 255 California St., San Francisco, CA Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA

2009

Ranches and Rolling Hills: Landscape Art Show, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Nicasio, CA Tiny. Group Exhibition, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA Fresno Art Commission Art Auction, Fresno, CA Solo Exhibition, Bay Model Visitor Center, Sausalito, CA Henry’s Fork Foundation Auction, San Francisco, CA Painting Large, Group Exhibition, San Marco Gallery, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA

2008

Marinscapes, Group Exhibition, Larkspur, CA Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA Solo Exhibition, Mill Valley City Hall, Mill Valley, CA Art of Nature, Group Exhibition, Sausalito Art Festival, Sausalito, CA Bolinas Museum Annual Art Auction & Fall Fandango, Bolinas, CA Fresno Art Commission Art Auction, Fresno, CA

2007

The Shape of the Land, 142 Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley, CA Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA On the Strait Edge, Hilliard Architects, San Francisco, CA Wild West Marin, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Olema, CA California Centered: the Environment, Merced County Arts, Merced, CA

2006

Solo Exhibition, Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA Small Works Show, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA Solo Exhibition, Rotunda Gallery, The Sequoias, San Francisco, CA Toby’s Feed Barn, Invitational Group Exhibition “Art on the Farm,” Pt. Reyes, CA

2005

Visual Cadence, Group Exhibition, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael, CA

2004

Solo Exhibition, The Depot Bookstore and Café, Mill Valley, CA

2003

Mini Show, Invitational Group Exhibition, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA Artisans Gallery, National Juried Exhibition (Marian Parmenter, Juror),

Mill Valley, CA Falkirk Annual Juried Show, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA

2002

Scenes of Mill Valley, Artisan’s Gallery, Mill Valley, CA (Honorable mention, Philip Linhares, Juror) Falkirk Annual Juried Show, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA

2001

Operating Systems, Group Exhibition, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA Small Works (Kenneth Baker, juror), Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA

Bay Area Landscapes, (Honorable Mention), Artisans Gallery,

Mill Valley, CA

Falkirk Annual Juried Show, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA 2000

Spring Show, 2-person Exhibition, Ringsize Designs, Fairfax, CA

Education

California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA. Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA. College of Marin, Kentfield, CA. (Studied with Chester Arnold for 12 years)

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