Featured Artist Kelley Batson-Howard

Artist Kelley Batson-Howard’s minimalist landscapes flow with color, texture and pattern. Enjoy more of her paintings by visiting her website.

 

 

At eighteen, I was the bohemian, rebellious girl who would have bounced off to Paris to live on the Left Bank and become an artist without giving a second thought. College did not free that girl but instead forced her in a different direction—a direction that put that her in a box and locked her away living a different reality for almost forty years.

 

 

In 2017, life took that box and smashed it to pieces. I found myself at a crossroad and made the decision to reconnect with the bohemian artist girl I had left behind.

 

 

That risk led me to the ultimate bliss life provides—finding your soul’s purpose! That decision led to a journey of self-discovery about both me and the process of painting.

 

 

I go daily to my studio where I get to create, and see it as a great opportunity. I get to see how the paints react on the canvas; how they react with each other, and the textures and patterns they create by adding different mediums along the way. I get to stay with it until the picture in my head shows up on the canvas.

 

 

With life as my teacher, I have the benefit of being free of the rules and experimenting until it feels right to me. That rebellious nature is still in there, breaking rules I never knew.

 

 

I’ve discovered I love painting bold colors with acrylic paint. I’ve no time for oils to dry in my ever eager effort to make up for time lost not creating. There is so much inside waiting to get out. I’ve discovered I paint both calm and action with equal abandon. Both are important to me.

 

 

I’ve discovered I tend to paint impressions in time—glimpses of memory, flashes of light and patterns all using many layers of transparent paint and making marks into paint.

 

 

I’ve discovered I paint from a place of emotion that I must share with the viewer. I want to evoke in them a flashback to a memory, a place, a time or a feeling they want to reach out and touch.

 

 

I’ve learned I want to leave the world a more beautiful place by sharing the peace and happiness in my soul I find while painting. I’ve learned there are those in the world who enjoy my perspective and are inspired by my work. That is gratifying.

 

 

And most importantly, I’ve learned the eighteen-year old bohemian girl is still there if you will let her out to follow her dreams. Sometimes life’s best gifts come in broken boxes.

 

Artist Kelley Batson-Howard invites you to follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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