Kim Ford Kitz

Kim Ford Kitz Description

Kim Ford Kitz sketches from landscapes and photographs, figuring out the basic shapes and divisions of space she finds there. Some of her references are from black-and-white satellite photos that she has cropped and stretched into new compositions. She discovers the “bones” of the painting in this way and the process gives her work a quality akin to the Central Valley works of Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. These are abstract paintings inspired by what is actually there.

Rich oil paints articulate the contours and shapes. Kitz loves working in oil and moves it effortlessly around the canvas. The rich textures are developed to amplify the layers of color beneath to represent growth and erosion.

Kitz graduated from the Academy of Art University with a BFA in painting and drawing in 2005. 

Kim Ford Kitz Resumé

There are so many wonderful facets of art. After experimenting with many different mediums my creative soul chose oil paint as it’s favorite tool to express with. I use my experience, memory and perception separately or sometimes tangled together to discover new ways of shaping compositions and painting techniques. My goal is to contrast and reveal the abstract beauty in many places such as: metropolitan skylines, coastal ridges, towering forests, aerial farmland, powerful ocean waves and bucolic rustic roads.

Soaking in these surroundings colors appear more vibrant and form arises from elements of light like fleeting magic. While working in the studio brushes are getting larger and sometimes give way to pallet knives and detail has been moved aside for a more direct response. The manipulation of the paint and some discovery by listening to what the image before me wants to become, landscapes are ever changing. It is my way of telling the story of what I saw and would like to make real.

In my quest to evolve my current style even further than I can imagine with no bounds, the foundation is there now I would like to push it into even more abstraction. To gain more new subject matter I am hiking high in the rugged hills until I find those “pay off views”, climbing up to city rooftops to snap photos of buildings and steep urban streets, watching the hypnotic rhythm of waves breaking ashore and lying in lovely meadows filled with native wildflowers.