About Krista

My artwork represents a lifelong interest in untangling and understanding chaos, disorder, and the messiness of life to find its underlying structure and shine a light on its beauty. My background in classical painting from observation and work as a medical and biological illustrator roots my work and helps me create balance and order. I am also heavily influenced by the work of impressionist, fauvist, and abstract expressionist painters whose focus was on color and light in a particular moment as well as the marks that make the painting. 

I work primarily on canvas and board beginning by making gestural marks with water-based pastel and pencil to establish composition and capture the energy of the moment. I then use water to move the marks around and when satisfied, I begin adding layers of paint. I incorporate a lot of drawing in my paintings to keep the energy of the original marks, often layering wax pencil or oil stick on top of the paint.

I am most often drawn to paint the organic chaotic beauty of nature. It's a natural subject for me to untangle, and I spend a lot of time wandering the meadows and woods near my home in central Virginia. I never go anywhere without my camera so I am constantly adding to my library of plant closeups and color references. My paintings often focus closely on the parts of plants less noticed and appreciated, and I zoom in close so that my canvas is dominated by leaves, petals, stems, and the dark spaces in between to demonstrate nature's will to grow and consume space. 

My work is an invitation to appreciate the beauty in an underlying chaos that may be overlooked until viewed through paint.