February 13, 2001
Local Artist Moves North and Blooms
Former Mill Valley Artist Kathleen Elsey Hits her Stride
MILL VALLEY HERALD—Karen Forni Editor
 “Sausalito Sailboats,” one of Kathleen Elsey's paintings.
www.elsey.com
Kathleen Elsey had, by all accounts, made it.
She'd parlayed a talent for art into a successful North Beach graphic design studio bearing her name. She drove a Mercedes. She vacationed in France.
And she wanted to paint what she chose, not design what clients dictated. So after 15 years of owning Kathleen Elsey Design, she closed up shop, and the longtime Mill Valley resident decided to pursue her long-ago dream of being a painter.
“Over 30 years, I went full circle,” she says happily. And just a year after closing up shop in December of 1999, she was richly rewarded: she was invited to join NAWA, the National Association of Women Artists, the county's oldest association of women artists, founded in 1889; Mary Cassatt, the famous Impressionist, was a member.
Founded in a time when women artists had little support, NAWA provided them with a sense of camaraderie. NAWA only invites a few artists to join each year, so it was a big thrill when Elsey heard she'd been accepted.
“I can't believe it was just two years ago that I was doing marketing and design,” she marvels. “The induction ceremony was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in December. I went to it, and met an exciting group of women there.”
Application to the group requires artists to send in eight slides, a biography and an artist's statement. Acceptance, to the lucky few, includes the international shows the group puts on each year, held all over the world and providing members with invaluable exposure, both to potential clients and “different kinds of art,” Elsey notes.
But leaving her design business wasn't the only change on Elsey's road to becoming a fine artist. After 15 years in Mill Valley, she and her husband pulled up stakes and moved to the quiet of a bucolic life in Sonoma County, buying a piece of property nearly at the summit of Sonoma Mountain that provides the kind of peace Elsey needs to work, and the view to provide the inspiration. Which, since she was coming from an exceptionally beautiful area, had to be pretty nice. Elsey is a plein air painter - that is, she takes a canvas out to a wild spot and completes a landscape on location within a couple of days.
“Eighty percent of my painting is done out in the world,” Elsey explains. “The light is just unbelievable in the winter, and is so beautiful to paint. I did a series on Mt. Tam, where I hiked in and painted - the Dipsea Trail, Richardson bay. The Dipsea Trail is one of my favorite places to paint. I like to hike up just until Stinson Beach came into view, and then paint.”
Indeed one of her studies of Stinson Beach adorns her business card.
But painting isn't the only way she's grown since uprooting herself. She's also discovered a love of teaching, inviting students into her mountaintop barn to explore their own talent.
“They're called 'Brush with Life' classes,” laughs Elsey. “I have only 10 people at a time, so I can really give people attention. They don't know how I make acrylics do what I do, so I show them. Acrylics dry really fast; I show them how to keep them wet.”
Although some of her students are experienced, Elsey seems to adore those just trying their hand for the first time. “The beginners - it's great fun and very, very courageous of them,” she smiles affectionately.
It's been a quick ascent for Elsey, despite being on hold for all those years. She's been in juried exhibitions all over the state, and hopes to venture to out-of-state competitions soon. Her work is in collections from Mill Valley to Switzerland, and to her delight a Mill Valley couple commissioned her to paint the vineyard they own just a hike away from her new home on Sonoma Mountain.
But Elsey is now the ultimate judge of her work, a change she finds satisfying. “if I finish something and I don't like it, I'll put it aside, she notes, something she didn't have the freedom to do in the past. ”Now what I do is paint for myself, and it's so fulfilling. For the first time, my work is to please me, and it's very very rewarding.
“Of course,” she adds shyly, “I still hope people will like it.”
© 2009 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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