sculpture work on paper
Artist Statement
Kathryn Field
For the past 18 years Kathryn Field has produced large-scale steel sculptures that explore images of animals, landscape and the human form. Since 1999 she has also painted in watercolor, encaustic and oils. Her most recent work celebrates her interest in painting and sculpture. Now the painted landscape in oil, moves across the flowing surface of laser-cut stainless-steel plates instead of the traditional canvas.
Her new six-foot-standing panels invite the viewer to walk around and view the changing images on each side of the panel. In the work titled "Fish" the bodies of Coe appear to move back and forth across the surface of the panel creating a sense of motion.
The process of creating these new works begins with drawings, simplifying landscapes and figurative studies into bold positive and negative patterns. Then the artist works with an engineer to translate the drawings into a CAD program that can be cut on a laser cutting bed. Once the plates are laser cut, the artist bends and shapes the waste materials. These shapes are then welded into new locations onto the panels creating an undulating three dimensional surface. Once the blank metal canvas has been created, the painting begins. Painting in the round and on a shaped surface is a challenge that fascinates the artist.
Using the laser-cutting techniques, Field has created a 60-foot steel fence, 18-foot-tall outdoor public sculpture as well as small intimate sculptures for private homes. By merging the painted surface with sculpted forms, Field imagines the possibilities of expanding such works for garden spaces, large wall reliefs and room dividers.