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| Thomas Jefferson Kitts "Finishing Touches, Big Sur" |
Thomas Jefferson Kitts is a contemporary artist based in Portland, Oregon. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri before returning home to the Pacific Northwest. Kitts has won many awards for his accomplished plein air painting. His work is in numerous collections, and he is also a popular teacher, leading many plein air (painting from nature) trips all around the world for adventurous art students. Kitts painted this beautiful image of one of his students on such a trip at Big Sur in California. You can just feel that satisfied and tired end-of-a-good-painting-day feeling the artist is experiencing, as she is bathed in the beautiful light of the golden hour.
Kitts' website can be seen here.
I can feel the energy in the subject of this painting as she gets the last few important strokes in before the sun changes too much. These days I hear a lot of offhand, derogatory comments about the ubiquitous middle-aged woman workshop participant. Women sometimes joke about being one themselves. What I like about this painting is that the woman comes across as an individual well worth painting, at the same time representing all of us female painters of a certain age who might all look alike to the non-discerning eye.
ReplyDeleteAlex, very well said! I completely agree. This woman has great presence, and one can sense her energy, creativity and enjoyment. My hat is off to Thomas Kitts, who so clearly does NOT subscribe to that prejudice against middle-aged lady painters, but obviously sees and respects them as individuals.
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