Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Becoming Kathy Durst Artist By Viewing Her Work

By Marcia Marks


Kathy Durst artist was educated at the University of Texas at Austin. Born in Redwing, Minnesota, she grew up in Rockford, Illinois and went to an all-girls school. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts and an all-level teaching certificate in Visual Arts. Having retired from teaching, Kathy was invited to display a selection of pieces from her ark-full of painted collages at her first solo show at the Ross Gallery in 2014.

With 25 years of teaching under her belt, there is unlikely to be a medium or method to which she has not been exposed. Most of what is available for viewing on the Internet is composed of paper painting collage. Her "Roseate Spoonbill" exemplifies what can be achieved with deft usage of paints and carefully chosen scraps of colored and textured papers.

"Zachary Zebra, " "Koi Joy" and "Jenny" are beautiful examples of the heights and depths of color and detail that can be achieved by having fun with simple materials and techniques. "Yulka" is particularly brilliant. Here, we see an empty 2-litre soda bottle beneath a floral print. Difficult, if not impossible, to produce using simple brushes, paints and a blank canvas.

The beauty of this technique is that the materials are cheaply and readily available and the method can be taught to the under-fives. Ms Durst, with a level of maturity and experience that comes with retirement age, is a virtuoso. View some tutorials of paint collage on the Internet and you will be more able to fully appreciate what the artist is about.

Most of the subjects of Durst's work that you will find involve animals; this is the theme of her Ross Gallery exposition. In the whimsical, "Take Me Along, " you see two scuba divers working their way through a sea of atlas cuttings and musical notes. They look really happy. Try THAT with a set of watercolors and paper.

View a few of her efforts and you will be itching to start producing your own masterpieces. Spend time losing yourself in the detail and really study her imaginative use of colors and textures. You will soon be clearing a space in your home for your own "studio" and hoarding interesting scraps of paper to the amusement of your friends and family.

Her "Rose, " is a different kettle of fish. Apart from being a departure from animals, it may or may not be another example of the painted paper collage technique. It could be. She is that good. The blossom is in shades of flamingo and coral, with little splashes of the main hues dotted around in the surrounding foliage.

Kathy Durst artist's use of stencils and textured paper in her collages gives her work depth and character. For most of the rest of us, our results would turn out more like a hastily put together Mothers Day present. Find out the date of her next show and pencil it in. You are going to want to pay her a visit.




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