Katherine Ransom - Featured Artist July & Aug. 2022

Although, I was classically trained as an artist to capture realistic images, I was always more drawn to expressionism because of its loose, broad brush strokes, bright color pops and abstract styles. As my techniques grew, I was drawn to expressing rather than depicting physical reality and often societal commentary.

Nature is my spiritual center. My inspiration is found in the mesas, canyons and mountains of Colorado where I lived for more than three decades. I spent many years hiking and mountain biking in the solitude and magic of the Southwest's incredibly county. I was taken by the light and shadow and fast-moving clouds and how this sky changed the land around me.

It was during this time that I also got certified as a scuba diver and I began to travel throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas. The undersea world opened up a whole new realm which even made me wonder more at the land surrounding me, since it has once been covered in water.

Later when I moved to Southern California, I spent countless hours on the beach and in the water. It had an incredible healing power to renew my mind and body. I continued my career in marketing which was at times fun and exciting, but mostly very stressful. Exploring nature and continuing to paint were essential to and acquiring ideas and expressing myself on canvas.

I was pulled to the Pacific Northwest because of its proximity to the complex waterways of the Puget Sound, dramatic rivers and the abundance of lakes as well as the dramatic land including, volcanoes and the ever-changing sky.

Although I am a landscape painter, I strive to go beyond the replication of physical topography. For me, earth, air, water and fire are and not just themes set beside each other in the hope of compositional success, they are aligned into a relationship.