Poignant Gestures
“Often I have to lose the image in order to find it again. I focus on shape and color relationships. If I manage to capture the poignancy of a gesture or of the expression in the eyes, I am happy.” - Kathryn Keller
Kathryn Keller
2020
Working on paper and canvas, Alexandria, Louisiana artist Kathryn Keller uses a variety of drawing and painting media to capture interior and exterior scenes with the propensity to stir a sense of longing within. Drawing and painting wherever she travels, Keller brings us along on these journeys by sharing depictions of lands near and far within these gallery walls. There is a sense of immediacy and connection to these rendered places, one that we have all felt at one time or another.
Kathryn Keller’s “Train Sketches” are a small but important window into her world. For the last forty plus years, Kathryn has traveled primarily via train when she leaves her home in Alexandria, Louisiana to visit family, friends, or to go on vacation throughout the US.
Each of her watercolor “train sketches” are done during the three-minute stops at each train station from the start of her journey to her final destination. While traveling predominantly throughout the south, Kathryn, through her work, gives light to a number of small southern towns and landscapes.
While art serves many purposes for many different reasons, one of the most important facets of art is that it captures the reality that is around us. Each artist interprets this reality in his or her own way. By working only from what she sees around her and doing it in short windows of time, Kathryn brings to life these passing realities, giving us a unique glimpse into this reality.
Kathryn Keller’s “Train Sketches” in her own words
“When we stop at the train station, I have two or three minutes to capture the scene before me in the window. I find it both limiting and freeing. Limiting, in that I don’t have a choice about what to draw and I have to be quick about it. Freeing, in that I don’t have a choice about what I have to draw and I have to be quick about it! The decision is made for me. One of my difficulties as an artist is determining my subject when possibilities are endless. Oh, and when we pull out of the station I get to color!”