I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for. – Georgia O’Keeffe
Kathleen Robbins’ home is near the Atlantic Ocean, and the northern New England seacoast is often the subject matter of her landscape paintings. She distills the elements of the coastal region with an economy of mark making, a process she refers to as “random shorthand.” In Badger’s Island, Kittery #2, the result is a fresh, dreamy bouquet of color that washes over us with its immediacy. Robbins applies paint in layers, with an unlabored decisiveness – a confident snapshot of an impression. She strips away explicit detail, allowing a visual dialogue between the physical world and her emotional interpretation of it. She hints of a dock with rudimentary white lines, leaving viewers open to the sensation of a dock rather than bogging us down with the architecture of a specific structure.
Robbins believes strongly in the therapeutic potential of creativity and that direct involvement with art making can enhance an individual’s well-being. The experience of losing a sister to breast cancer inspired Robbins to start an arts program with cancer patients. For nearly 20 years, she has taught art therapy to patients at a hospital in Exeter, New Hampshire. She has seen firsthand that a prescription of arts engagement can cultivate, inspire, and nurture. (Learn more about her work with the hospital here.)
Kathleen Robbins may be reached through her website. She has a solo show scheduled at Van Ward Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine, July 1–31, 2024 and will be in a group show at Cliff House in Ogunquit from mid-June through October 2024. She will be a visiting artist with the York Art Association in York, Maine, from July 2–August 2, 2024, including an artist’s talk on August 2. She will participate in an artist open house at The Button Factory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on December 7 and 8.