Lynn Kearny - Biography

Biography

Kearny grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The mountains, cliffs and canyons of northern New Mexico are in her blood. For 30 years her studio was in the Oakland hills of California, looking across the bay to San Francisco. During that time, she painted the coast and the Sierra Nevada. She has returned home to Northern New Mexico. Her studio is now in a hundred-year-old Albuquerque adobe near the Rio Grande. From here she goes out to do plein air paintings of the mountains, cliffs and canyons, or does finished studio pieces based on field sketches and reference photos from her travels in the Sierra Nevada, the Rockies and the many landscapes of the Southwest.

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Artist Statement

I express my love of the natural world in pastel paintings of western landscapes with a strong sense of light and rich, layered color. Using intense hues of soft pastel I gently build up layers of color, careful not to lose the texture it creates on sanded paper, which so closely echoes the textures of clouds, plants, rock, earth, and adobe. I want to translate the beauty and power of the natural world into a visceral experience for others. It may convey peace or inspiration, love or awe, joy of returning to a loved place, or a need to get out there and experience it directly. I hope it will also contribute to others’ desire to see the magic of the natural world preserved for us and for future generations.

The most important elements of my technique are form, color and texture. I find that stroking the side of a pastel across sanded paper looks exactly like rock, clouds, foliage and water. I find that lightly dragging one color over another intensifies the feeling of what I. These have become the cornerstones of my painting style. I learned from Kim Lourdier to start with a thumbnail value study of each painting, then to lay in the major shapes and values based on the study before looking back at the subject she’s painting. This enables strong composition and makes my paintings more compelling.