Anita Kimball

About the Artist

As a visual artist with a penchant for painting in oils and acrylics or whatever else I have kicking around the studio that’ll stick to canvas/wood/paper, I’m not focused on trying to replicate on canvas exactly what I see in front of me. Rather, I’m trying to create an impression of what I see.

You might say I’m creating a visual story on canvas based on my own unique interpretation of what my eyes know to be true; similar, in a way, to what authors of fairy tales may be trying to achieve.

I know the reality of what's in front of me, but push paint around to reveal those hidden gems buried just beneath the surface, or swirling overhead, just beyond reach, that beg to be discovered and brought into the light so their brilliance can be fully and fantastically expressed.

My quests of late have focused on landscapes and wild horses; a little bit abstract (okay, sometimes a lot) with a pinch of impressionism and just the right amount of realism.

Planning is almost never a part of my process. More often than not, inspiration only hits me when color hits canvas.

Once I add that first dab of paint to the surface, I tend to let it flow freely from whatever application tool I’m using as I move around the painting, switching tools and positions if need be, letting the paint and the process tell me where it wants to go.

Sometimes a certain mood will strike me as I work, or I may see a definite path the paint is leaving on the surface which, in both cases, will propel me in a direction that’s sometimes very surprising.

There are times, though, when it’s just a hot mess and there’s nothing left to do but start scraping paint off!

Interestingly, though, sometimes the ghostly remnant of color left behind after removing that first layer of paint can serve as a brilliant navigational beacon pointing me in a new creative direction, one I never would have experienced had it not been for the initial “mess” I made in the first place.

That truth right there is one of the reasons why I love to paint! It’s such a thrill when I experience those unexpected beautiful renderings that seem to manifest themselves magically on the canvas from what first appeared to be a total painting disaster or a complete and utter creative failure.

I live for those moments when I can actually create beauty from ashes.