Kris Mitchell is a Northwest artist living in Oregon, known for her responsive and textured landscape water media paintings. She’s an enthusiastic gardener, an active member of many art centric groups, and taught Art at Linn Benton Community College. Her unique painting surface sets the conversation between subjects, textures, pigments, and form. Being in a location where she can immerse herself in the sites, sounds, and smells, she chooses which canvas surface will best help describe her mental and emotional experience in response. Applying several light washes of pigment, sometimes allowing the colors to mix and sometimes allowing each layer to dry before applying the next, gives her paintings depth. The gentle layering brings the feeling of her experience to life on the canvas.
Currently she is represented by Pegasus Gallery in downtown Corvallis at 312 SW Madison Ave.
Kris in her Art-mobile
“I need the experience of being on location, I need the impact of subject matter. I feel at peace when I am surrounded by nature and lighthearted when I am painting. It’s what feeds my soul. My hope is to represent in my art the magic and spirit that I found while here”.
Kris begins each of her birch panel paintings by covering them with handmade paper and gesso, creating a random organic surface that she finds fascinating and impromptu to paint on. Kris uses combinations of water based pigments, building many layers to give her paintings even more depth. The textured surface of the paintings as well as the buildup of paint layers make the appearance of the paintings change as the light changes in the space.
