Life & Work with Kristin Gibson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Gibson. 

Hi Kristin, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
From a young age, art was encouraged and enjoyed. My mom, aunts and grandmother were all very creative, and had their own outlets. I fondly remember after-school art at “Miss Pelly’s” studio, carving a box turtle eating a strawberry, into a linoleum block. Taking in the Matisse show in NY with my aunt. Also painting with my neighbor, an accomplished watercolorist, in her basement, and working summers in a nearby florist alongside a fabulous designer. These all were early seeds planted, that still resonate today.

Life also had its share of upheaval and I found calm and escape in art materials. Fast forward I was accepted to ECU School of Art. I jumped out of the car to see the fresh cotton fields blooming after a long drive to Greenville, NC, and had a wonderful experience from that moment on, studying surface design and painting. I met my future husband and lifelong friend in our first design class, received my BFA, and started out designing home decor fabrics and creating repeats and color stories in NC textile mills. A move to Carolina Beach led to painting on my dining room table and in the salt air. I immersed myself in the wonderful Wilmington, NC art community and developed gallery relationships and collectors that continue today. Two creative kids were growing and coloring alongside, and I enjoyed offering after-school art to their friends too. I was grateful for my backyard studio and the following I had for my hand-painted scarves, and canvasses of seascapes, still life, fruits and flowers.

Life continued to have peaks and deep valleys as it always does, but we were truly knocked off our axis when my daughter became seriously unwell and needed hospital care in Durham, NC. My brushes were set aside and we eventually moved to be near her team at Duke. Thankfully, years of being prolific, and gallerists who never gave up on me, kept showing my work. In times that I thought I would never recognize my brushes again, the collectors that were finding joy in my work spurred me on. Joining the Durham Art Guild led to a show and a very lucky chance to spend a summer working in Golden Belt artist studios. When the new studios were available, I enjoyed a glorious year working among fabulous new artist friends, and credit that to getting me through some more really dark periods. It was there that I began painting the lotus and lily pads and seasonal blooms I had daily walked among, finding sanctuary and solace in Duke Gardens. The Lotus, a hopeful recovery symbol finally felt like a form I could explore and get lost in thick paint again, and maybe even advocate or help someone else. This flower, that rises from the depths of mud, like my brave daughter, felt like a way to work through sadness and the unknown. Along the way truly unexpected opportunities from a gallery or an out-of-the-blue email from an early collector kept me going to start another canvas. Through bumps of relapse and unbelievably my son also developing health complexities, my painting career has had some stops and starts, even a period of baking bread and arranging flowers in a local grocery store at the height of Covid! Since then, grateful to again have a dining room studio, with gorgeous hopeful light coming in and a cuddly golden-doodle always near my easel.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I like to think my paintings may feel like a welcome hello. Canvasses that both brighten and warm the homes and spaces and collections they become a part of. In the midst of uncertainty and people spending much time working from home, paintings and art offer a source of renewal and hopefulness, I am grateful each time my paintings may offer a bright spot or resonate joy in someone. Painting a lasting memory like a wedding cake, or bouquet, or a special place someone has visited in my style is truly an honor.

I’ve developed an interesting method where I really enjoy Golden paints in the wide mouth jars, so I can dip big flat brushes straight in capturing color from numerous jars at a time and mixing on the brush, on the canvas, and in the jars themselves. I approach a canvas in alla-prima technique, meaning with the zest and energy of a painting happening in one sitting and one impression. Hope one may find pure joy in color, and glimpses of my process in the lively brushwork.

I am most proud of opportunities to give back through my work. In my Etsy shop, I paint small snapshots of our National Parks and donate a portion to our Parks and natural environment each year. The galleries I am part of each share a culture of giving through art to the community. I’m eager to find more avenues to share my work in health care, and especially mental health care settings. I’m proud to have a Lotus painting in the collection at Cone Health MedCenter for Women, and for a solo exhibition at Duke University Hospital in the midst of Covid, dedicated to all who were giving and receiving care. I love that I am part of art collections in public spaces that may promote thoughtfulness and hope. After staying at Ronald McDonald House, I became a volunteer there and enjoyed most, offering art materials alongside pancake breakfasts, or lending my brush to a rolling cart that brings snacks and coffee to weary families on the pediatric floor. Most recently I participated in a 40 canvas, 40 artist exhibition called Zip US Up! An experimental diversity-based project of artists from around the country selected to create a 40-panel canvas mural to be zipped together and exhibited in the windows of the newly opened Youth Wing of the Baldwin Public Library in Michigan. Artists collaborated with the adjacent artist to the right and left to make a cohesive piece that uniquely represents one’s own artistic style while working together across the miles. Will be on public view October 2021-May 2022. (You can see my piece titled Isle Royale pictured here.)

“I find myself endlessly fascinated by the notion and fun of capturing color from jars of paint with big brushes. Compositions both large and small, begin as drawings with my paintbrush. These first lively lines in a layer of fresh paint begin a process of color into color, shape into form. Delights of painting in alla-prima technique show up in finding new ways to make color sing and seeing something across the room, or from memory, that balances the canvas right in the moment. Quite simply, I paint the way I cook, instinctively experimenting beyond the recipe. And speaking of recipes, dark chocolate, green tea, and walking in nature counters the twists and turns life brings and replenishes the color and zest of my brush. Truly each new painting sparks a love of the process, stirring up something from within myself that finds its way to the canvas.”

Enjoy new paintings for the holiday season with visits to City Art Gallery in Greenville, NC, O’Brien Gallery in Greensboro, NC, Artshak in Southport, NC, Water+Color Gallery in Wilmington, NC.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I feel authenticity, kindness, empathy, and caring deeply for the experiences of others permeates the subjects and colors and process of my work. I enjoy every chance I get to make a connection with someone through my work, send a note of appreciation along with my paintings or thoughtfully wrap a painting for someone to give as a gift. Thank you for having a look!

Contact Info:

• Email: kristin@fineartandfabric.com
• Website: http://kristingibsonfineart.com
• Instagram: @kristingibsonfineart

Image Credits:
Kristin Gibson Fine Art