Archives for Stats, Kathryn

Essential Elements

“I’m self-taught,” announces Kathryn Stats, painter of sun-washed desert landscapes and vivid still lifes, then quickly adds, “which didn’t mean I didn’t take any lessons; it means I didn’t graduate in anything!” Stats’ artistic journey was unconventional from the start. “I have a great uncle by marriage [LeConte Stewart], who was a fine, fine, well-thought-of artist,” she says. “I rode horses in the summer from morning until night in the same county he lived in. We had his paintings on our walls, and I tended to see landscapes through his eyes. I really think that had an influence.” Initially, that
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Celebrating America’s National Parks

On August 25, 1916, with a stroke of a pen, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act that created the National Park Service—and that would result, 100 years later, in the protection and preservation of 59 national parks, encompassing approximately 51.9 million acres in 27 states. That act was inspired, in large part, by the Hudson River School painters, who eagerly painted the majestic landscape of the West. Perhaps best known is Thomas Moran, who became famous for his paintings of the Rocky Mountains and whose Western landscapes are credited as being critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In
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Nature’s Magic

Waves dancing gracefully toward shore. Aspens rising from the snow. The glow of sunlight on canyon walls. Moonlight casting a mystical glow on the land below. There is no beauty like that we find in nature—with the possible exception of an artist’s rendering of those scenes. Debra Joy Groesser (Nebraska) Laguna Cliffs Oil 14″ By 18″ Kathryn Stats (Arizona) Old Highway 6 Oil 12″ By 18″ Carol Swinney (Wyoming) Desert Sojourn Oil 16″ By 20″
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