SELECTED WORK
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Kirstie Cohen
Kirstie Cohen’s landscapes are suffused with the mysterious atmosphere of the Scottish hills and coast. Born in Edinburgh and raised in North Berwick, Kirstie has been influenced by the sweeping panoramas of the east coast as well as by the Highlands where she now lives.
Working from her studio on an isolated Highland croft, she recreates magical evocations of our wild hills and shores onto canvas. The elemental essence of land and sea are described using masterfully worked veils of oil paint, like spun silk, to powerful effect. Highlights of jewel-pure colour thread through the mists to evoke the shimmer of sky, water and sunlight above strong presences of mountain or rock.
“My paintings are not of specific mountains or places. My concern is not the depiction of a location, as this creates a boundary that restricts the process of the developing work. I compose a painting that is dependent on my collective experience and which is
almost entirely instinctive.
I look at the mountains or area of land as a focus, an object of integration with a physical presence or individuality of its own. Then I relay the mood involving the ideas of diffusion and suspension to transfer movement and changing light within the
landscape.”
Gazing at Kirstie’s paintings, our minds can escape from the pressures of everyday life to experience the magnificence of wild places. Our eyes can be delighted and entranced by the depths of her dextrous handling of paint surfaces.