Kathryn Cotnoir
My work generally is an extended interpretive response to my surroundings. I use various media – especially drawing, watercolor or acrylic – sometimes in combination – to address the Northwest landscape. I respond to the dramatic spaces created by the interactions of plants, topography and water. I often make drawings outdoors and on site. These experiences continue to inform the feeling behind my work. I develop my paintings from the drawings afterwards. Using both approaches, the Willamette Valley and the Pacific coast have offered me favorite and enduring subject matter. I listen to this landscape for its own tales to tell. Compositions are stories. For example, trees gather on the border of a field, appear as though engaged in an animated discussion regarding their long-held position as stewards of the meadow. An forest’s determined pattern may be expressed through line and shape, charcoal and paint; a choir of color emerging.
