Kathleen Elsey
Award-winning California Colorist
and Santa Barbara Studio Artist
 New Paintiings

Kathy's Garden

Sunlit Room
Acrylic on linen 24" x 30"

I’m infatuated with sun-filled rooms. Standing in my kitchen, looking out over the dining room table and into the living room the colors and afternoon sunlight caught my attention. I love the big abstract shapes in this colorful room.


Beach Antibe

The Bedroom
Oil on canvas 16" x 20"

This painting is also known as Carrie’s Bedroom, or Mrs. Steedman’s Bedroom. I was captivated by the morning sunlight streaming through her east window. Originally when the Casa, including this bedroom, was designed by architect George Washington Smith and Mr. Steedman in the 1920’s, Carrie’s south window had a panoramic ocean view. Today, the vegetation has taken away that ocean view. I, however, gave her back the ocean view in this painting.
“As for the rougher stuff, aesthetically speaking, Kathleen Elsey’s painting exerts a bold, almost post-Fauvist-meets-funk touch in her work. “Sunlit Room,” for one, flirts with burly Van Gogh effects, with a vivified palette and brusque brushwork. It’s the mightiest and most memorable piece in the room, says this unavoidably subjective observer.”

Josef Woodard
 Santa Barbara News Press Correspondent
February 29, 2008


I am a contemporary American painter focusing on interior scape, landscape and still life. My paintings are marked with rich colors and dramatic brush strokes that recall both impressionist and Fauvist traditions. My new acrylic and oil works on canvas include beach scenes of California and France and paintings of interiors with interesting assemblages of shapes and colors. In my search for shapes and colors, my work tends to become more abstract.

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© 2008 Kathleen Elsey. All rights reserved. All paintings are property of Kathleen Elsey
and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Kathleen Elsey.
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