There is a lot of superb art being made these days. This column shines light on a trio of gifted individuals, all of whom will — by coincidence — participate in Plein Air for the Park (July 13–17), a prestigious competition organized by Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
KATHRYN MAPES TURNER (b. 1971), Grace, 2015, 40 x 30, oil on linen, on view at Trio Fine Art, Jackson Hole (August 17–September 3)
KATHRYN MAPES TURNER (b. 1971) creates “paintings that capture my subjects’ essential spirit and energy, and that tap into the inherent nature of our emotions. I don’t want to re-create photo-realistic representations.” With paintings like Grace, illustrated here, she is clearly achieving these goals. Turner is part of the fourth generation raised on the Triangle X Ranch in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. She grew up on horseback, discovering the charms and challenges of nature, but she also relished her school’s weekly art class; as a teenager, she painted alongside such local talents as Conrad Schwiering, as well as visiting ones like Ned Jacob, Skip Whitcomb, and T. Allen Lawson. This passion led to her to major in studio arts at the University of Notre Dame, the curriculum of which encompassed a semester in Rome, a mecca for artists if ever there was one. Turner went on to study at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., earned an M.F.A. from the University of Virginia, and worked as a classroom art teacher and at the Smithsonian Institution. She returned home in 2000, landing first at Jackson’s National Museum of Wildlife Art and then shifting to art full-time. “The valley of Jackson Hole evokes expression,” Turner declares. Her native region is renowned for its scenic beauty and dramatic light, yet she is also fascinated by the “innate connection among the physical and spiritual elements shared by this landscape and its inhabitants.” The latter include animals both wild and domesticated, and indeed Turner has won particular applause for her sensitive portrayals of horses. Hardly a homebody, she travels widely to such favorite locales as Italy and coastal California, and explored the Grand Canyon this spring. Today Turner works in watercolors and oils, drawing and painting outdoors and in the studio. Her images range in appearance from meticulous to ethereal, though a luminous softness now predominates. The key to continued growth, Turner believes, is experimentation: though she consults all phases of art history, she has lately been studying such abstract expressionists as Willem de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler, focusing on their “unorthodox paint applications.” Though still representational, recent works like Grace feel more abstract and emotive, so it will be fascinating to see how this evolution unfolds. Turner gets direct feedback about such shifts from her collectors at Trio Fine Art, the Jackson gallery she has co-owned and operated
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with fellow artists Jennifer L. Hoffman and Bill Sawczuk since 2005. She is represented not only by Trio (where her solo show, Light on the Land, runs August 17–September 3), but also by Authentique Gallery of Art and Design (St. George, UT), Chamblin Jones (Lexington, KY), and Long View Gallery (Washington, DC). Coming up soon are a solo show at Jackson’s Center for the Arts (August 24–September 20), a donation to the Western Visions Show and Sale benefitting the National Museum of Wildlife Art (September 15–16), and a major painting offered in the Jackson Hole Art Auction (September 16–17).
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