Current Issue:
Spring 2004
Mare and Foal
Oil, 72 x 48 by Katie Upton
Clydesdale 4
Oil, 96 x 72 by Katie Upton
- The Hugely Delicate Paintings of Katie Upton - by Lea Rakali
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Indeed, her horses look right out at the viewer, seeming to pose for
their moment in the spotlight. She uses light and shadow to accentuate her
unique, angular drawing style. The painting focus is the play of light on
surfaces and particularly the way light illuminates the protruding muscle,
bone and resulting form.
Upton simultaneously exaggerates some of her horses' most endearing features while simplifying others, creating fresh images which seem almost animated. The liveliness of her paintings is enhanced by her use of pure, clean colors in minimal combinations of two and three hues.
The paintings are large in scale and are somehow imposing and reassuring at the same time. The sublime compositions consume space while casting an air of calm. These charming portraits remind us that the horse is a personality, too.
Katie Upton is still as horse crazy as she was as a little girl. She lives in Santa Barbara with horses roaming around her yard. Her paintings and prints are on view at Mission Creek Studio Art Gallery in Los Olivos, California, Woodstock Folk Art in Woodstock, Vermont, Dearborn Reider Fine Art in Boulder, Colorado, and Susan Street Fine Art in Solana Beach, California. To visit her studio web site, go to www.katieupton.com.
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