An Artist in Full Bloom

WARBLER WITH QUINCE AND ROSES
Kathy Anderson
Oil on canvas
15 x 16 inches | kathyandersonstudio.com + turnerfineart.com

THE ARTIST
Kathy Anderson

INSPIRED BY NATURE
“Flowers have always been foremost for me. My mother was a gardener, and it seems like every time I wanted to paint anything, it was almost involuntary—I had to put flowers in there. I am an avid gardener myself, so I follow the blooming from spring all the way up until fall. I think the birds add an element of life that I love. I’m so passionate about animals, especially birds, that it gives me added joy to incorporate them.”

A DANCE OF COLORS
“I never start a painting thinking of a focal point. I always think of the movement around the canvas—like the dance and a way to keep you moving around the canvas. When I start a painting, I’m more thinking of color combinations. My approach to color is to keep my colors as clean and pure as I can—sometimes right out of the tube. Harmony is my approach to color; keeping a harmony in the painting.”

ON GARDENING AND CREATIVITY
“I try, especially with garden paintings and even with floral still lifes, for them to be very natural. I don’t want them to look like a stilted bouquet. If I paint in the garden, I want to see some dead leaves. I want it to look like what it really looks like out there.”

NEXT
Anderson’s work will be featured in a flower-focused group show, Given by Nature, at Jackson Hole’s Turner Fine Art gallery, May 16 through June 24.