Trails to the Tetons

Artist’s Statement
Kathleen Frank has hiked through the West and Southwest photographing magnificent natural vistas for future paintings. To reach a sought-after vantage point, Frank is never timid about climbing and trudging and scrambling, going up, down and over rocky outcroppings, plunging down an arroyo or sprawling in bushes to reach a bird’s-eye view. The Tetons Range in Wyoming, with its alpine terrain and extraordinary flora, reveals rich panoramas. This painting began with a saturated red-orange backdrop. The main imagery is applied with distinct brushstrokes of brilliant color. Hints of the red background peek through like a woodcut. While the foreground is rife with native plants, the grandeur of the Tetons is captured in the distance, animated by swirling clouds. With pattern and repetition primal to her, Frank finds a glint of logic and order in complex jumbled landscapes. Her paintings celebrate the light and design in all its strangeness and beauty.