Kathryn Metz
A few words from
the Artist... Elkhorn
Slough is a rich, varied and challenging source for artists,
with its numerous, lyrical views of moving water, colorful
land, mountain backdrops, atmospheric skies and wildlife.
Exciting changes continually take place: light, skies, tidal
shifts and weather, creating a choreography of versions as
rich as the season's own. Even during a clear day the sun's
changing course dramatically alters colors and tones. Full
painting days are ideal to attempt several responses and to
have time for walking and bird watching. Several
years ago the opportunity to work with continuity from dawn
to dusk became possible for Mary Warshaw and me, when we
rented a house overlooking the slough for several weeks
during the colorful winter season. Mary, who has been
painting the slough for a number of years, introduced me to
its unique beauty the previous year. Although I had been
drawing landscape sites in California and Europe and taking
images into paintings and prints in my studio, this began my
plein air painting. In the slough residence we were able to
study changing weather and light, observing and working with
transitions and contrasts that steadily follow one
another. Soon Marta
Gaines and other artists joined us; we continue to work
individually or in groups along the roads, marshes and paths
of these and the Watsonville sloughs. We benefit from the
companionship, stimulation and kindred souls striving
nearby. In such company one more easily braves chill breezes
and remains to resolve a page to a tolerable state, not
missing dramatic skies and moody grays. After work, as we
pack up our kits, seeing other interpretations of what we
had witnessed together, enriches still more such a
day. Any observer
with thirty minutes of quiet and careful looking and
listening in and about a marsh can gain a new appreciation
of the forms, movements, sounds, plants and creatures of
these magic places, and will want to save them undisturbed,
as we do.
Please contact Kathryn Metz for more information: kmetz@cruzio.com
Kathryn Metz Gallery
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