ON PAINTING SIMPLE NARRATIVES FROM EVERYDAY LIFE.

by Katrina Willis

While some artists have limited themselves to a particular medium, I focus on a particular subject. I love capturing people and their stories. I also enjoy listening –truly listening-, and I like being someone’s captive audience. I find inspiration in the natural patterns of physical traits, conversations and the relationships of life. The sacredness of the moment blending with the essential character of my subject inspires me to create with a new and refreshing level of informed judgment. Humanity and the energy of color drive me to create, and since I paint human beings, each mark I make on the support is human on human.  This goes beyond capturing the superficial, and the picture becomes documentation for reflection of the figure’s essential character.

I find myself often painting the portrait in the medium of oil paint. While this is not my exclusive mode, painting people in oil remains enjoyable because of oil’s malleable quality, mix-ability, layer-ability and its historical precedent. I would describe the process of developing my pictures as a dialogue – a dialogue between me and the media, informed by the content and the subject. I choose to layer the media, and I spend the majority of my time working the middle values and halftones.  For example, I love observing the way morning light casts a certain cool hue over a warm skin tone.  The viewers are most interested in the content, my process, and the meta-messages embedded within each piece. Patrons are most interested in building an asset base and having a picture that they enjoy observing - something in their space that is just plain “fun to look at.” Ultimately, subjects, viewers and patrons are essential in completing the developmental process of a picture, and I am full of gratitude–engaging the process brings great joy to my life.