“What is it about the Western landscape that captivates our imaginations? And what is it about this area of the country that resonates so deeply with the American spirit? Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas about the relationship of nature to the self challenged nineteenth century America(ns) to stop looking to Europe for their culture and history and to write their own stories. Artists who accompanied early survey expeditions were confronted with panoramas so vast their European training was inadequate to capture effectively the sweep of the Great Plains. The West provided the unique environment necessary to create a new history, and in the process of exploring these vast territories the spirit of American individualism was forged. The Western experience is still perceived as a quintessentially American phenomenon and the kinetic force of the landscape continues to inspire distinctly expressive voices in American painting.
My husband and I have a place in West Texas that is situated 140 miles southeast of El Paso on high plains surrounded by mountain ranges and cattle ranches. The landscape is starkly beautiful and provides endless subject matter for my work. The images in these paintings capture fleeting moments when the play of light and shadow intensify or obscure the delineation between land and sky. It has been said, ‘nature doesn’t imitate art but the artist continually imitates nature.’ In essence, the nature of the Western landscape has the capacity to profoundly transform ordinary experience through its eloquent majesty and sublime beauty.”
Katherine Alexander was born in San Diego, California, in 1948. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971 from San Diego State University, and a Master of Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, in 1976. She has had solo exhibitions of her work in Houston, El Paso and Marfa, Texas; Los Angeles, and New York City, and has participated in various group exhibitions throughout the United States and in Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. Her work is represented in numerous corporate and private collections and featured in a survey book of contemporary landscape painting, The Artist and the American Landscape. She lives and works as a studio artist in New York City and West Texas.
