Californian Art

Bold colors drive Price's artwork

By Charles Hand - For The Californian | Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:26 PM PDT ∞

Kathi Price's paintings are not representational, but they're not exactly abstract either. Her style is color field, which arose after the abstract expressionism era led by Jackson Pollock in the 1950s.

Fact is, Price just can't tell you exactly what it is she paints. Except color. Bright colors. Vibrant colors that, taken together, become a third color as the viewer pulls the eyes away from the canvas and looks at a blank wall.

Nor can Price exactly explain the message in her works, if indeed, there is any message.

"I just like to use bold colors," Price said. "It's freedom of the mind to explore the colors."

This weekend, a one-artist show of her paintings opens at the Mercantile Gallery at Old Town Temecula Community Theater with a free reception from 5:30-7 p.m. Friday.

There is more to color field painting than just color. Its practitioners also use large canvases intended to leave the viewer in awe of size, combined with flat, two-dimensional space and movement.

Color field officially debuted June 25, 1965 at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in an exhibition called "Washington Color Painters."

Some of its better known practitioners include Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Ellsworth Kelly, Jules Olitski, Barnett Newman, Robyn Denny, and Richard Smith.

Price has been painting colorful canvases since she was a child. In fact, she can hardly recall a time when she was not fascinated by the bold splashes and the ways in which they come together in a process that can take months.

"Sometimes the colors come really fast," she said. "Sometimes the colors won't come."

Price starts the process in a sketchbook. She tries out colors. If they work together, she keeps the combination. If they don't, she starts again. They often do not and she often starts over, with no real goal except to find that magic place where all the colors work together in a way that she knows when she sees it.

"A person cannot just view my painting," Price said. "They experience it as if allowing their mind's eye to take a dip into a pool of wonderment. Once absorbed into the painting, a whole world flourishes like a field of wildflowers sparkling in morning dew. At a certain point while viewing my paintings up close, the color becomes tranquil and you discover yourself swimming in pigment. It's just pure enjoyment of the painting."

Price's earliest memory of color field painting comes from the year she was 7. That was when she won a prize for a pastel drawing of a lollipop tree that she entered in a show in her native San Francisco. Winning the prize inspired her to continue.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Art from the University of Dallas and has studied in Italy and Greece.

She also studied Asian art in Taiwan, where she developed an affinity for the delicate silk works she saw there, both the richness of color and the decorative embroidery, themes she incorporated into her own work.

The prize she won for Lollipop Tree was not the only prize she one as a child, and another launched a second passion. On a daytime children's program, her entry won a camera. From the moment she began to shoot, she was hooked and she has been taking pictures since.

A photo she captured of a Lake Elsinore fire was published in a newspaper. Although the fire provided plenty of action, Price said it was the bright orange of the flames ---- in a sense a color field painting by camera ---- and the way the photo was framed that made the photo what it was.

Another photo of flowers was published in a book and others have been used in brochures and other publications.

Exhibit of color field paintings by Kathi Price

When: opening reception 5:30-7 p.m. Friday; exhibition continues through May 4

Where: The Mercantile Gallery, Old Town Temecula Community Theater, 42051 Main St.

Admission: free

Info: (951) 695-2787

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