X-Scape 6 / 20″ x 20″ / Oil on canvas / Julie Kottal
I work with a group of powerhouses! The professors in the Coe College art department consider the growth of each student so closely over a four-year undergraduate career. They teach well. They continue their own studio work. Julie Kottal is a beneficiary of this teaching practice.
X-Scape 9 / 20″ x 20″ / Oil on canvas / Julie Kottal
With her former advisor, Peter Thompson, Julie shares a keen color sense and a painterly fluency. And, the brilliance of Peter’s teaching and the strength of Julie’s artistic will and vision lie in the dramatic distinctions in their imagery. Since her graduation from Coe College, Julie has truly gained an authority in abstract composition. Her gestural, large-scale work now hanging at the gallery is a juicy testament to the the physicality of her medium. I’d say that this woman could handily claim her own status as a “powerhouse”.
X-Scape 8 / 20″ x 20″ / Oil on canvas / Julie Kottal
Julie is one of the five artists whom we will feature in the Spring Metro Gallery Tour on Friday, April 3rd. Each of those artists will be profiled as we anticipate this harbinger of spring. Save the date!
X-Scape 11 / 20″ x 20″ / Oil on canvas / Julie Kottal
8 Comments
i am really drawn to the mood of x-scape 9. thanks for featuring julie’s work. it’s wonderful.
This is an exuberant, mature body of work, and I’m so excited to present it for the April 3rd gallery walk.
The way the paintings are displayed shows Julie’s blending artistry.
In this current body of work, the artist is using a palette knife exclusively for the application and manipulation of paint. I think that the rich surfaces that result mirror Julia’s obvious love for oil paint-that simple!
In her bold new series of paintings, X-Scapes, Julia demonstrates a willingness to draw the viewer even closer to her work. Her abstract compositions, which suggest landscapes of the mind, are fused with an energetic intimacy that is lavishly spontaneous in its execution. Suggestive possibilities abound: turbulent rivers, emerging light, swirling cloud cover, hills and fields. Her work continues to grow stronger and more confident with each developing series.
Wow! Can I pay you to write responses? An articulate, sensitive description of the artist’s work.
Julia seems to grasp the ideas of colors! Her work shows blending of concepts and color to make beautiful images. love her work!
It is true that Julia is a “colorist” as a painter. Her use of color is not superficially decorative. Rather, her compositions derive their strength from a fearless use of the physicality of paint in energetic gestures, fully informed by an understanding of the dynamics and symbolism of the interaction of color. That’s a lot of verbiage, but it is as pared down a description as I can write to account for the qualities that raise the artist’s work head and shoulders above a “nice” painting that would be chosen to fill a space over someone’s sofa. When you say that, “Julia seems to grasp the ideas of colors!”, truer words have not been spoken.