Kate Lehman teaches alongside Jacob Collins, Michael Grimaldi and Dan Thompson. With those big names of the contemporary realist scene, Lehman really holds her own. Many who train in the way she has, become slightly inferior imitators of their instructors, but she displays what can and should be done with all that learning. She has taken on all the solid foundation of those schools, but remains her own artist.
Her work shows no formula, but rather an approach. She observes nature with a highly trained eye and from that creates an image. The image is her own creation. That is not to say she takes a loose interpretation of nature, but that she remains the artist, making creative decisions, enhancements and omissions.
I find Kate Lehman’s work encouraging in many ways. It shows that there are artists who are creative with what they’ve learned, without being dogmatically “new” or avant-garde, or dogmatically sticking to what they were taught. It appears very natural, the way her work has developed, rather than a forced manner. She paints a wide range of subjects, not limiting herself to one area as so many do when they arrive at a new style of their own. It will be interesting to see what direction her work takes next.
The Hidden Place 
I most definitely agree with your assessment of Kate’s work. How learning a technique fully does not mean that you are stuck. I sense something very poetic in her work, a haunting kind of beauty, like seeing something for the first time with a new set of eyes. Learning how to see fully, that is what she has learned first and foremost I think.
Comment by Rebecca Harp — October 9, 2009 @ 7:46 am |
Your Palette and subject matter too close to the Madrid realist Antonio Lopez Garcia minus the heart wrenching emptiness he can imbue.His work goes past technique. I wouldn’t hesitate to say you are a technically sound painter Kate but your work seems to only convey beauty where Antonio’s work goes so much further than that.I’d like to see what you can do with a subject matter that is not twice removed but your own to the core, This is hard to do.
Comment by Work and Progress — January 5, 2011 @ 7:19 pm |
I think the work is brilliant here. I look at Kate Lehman’s and Travis Schlaht’s work every chance I get, I am always running back to my easel after viewing what they do. I was very sorry to not go to the John Pence Gallery in San Fran a couple months ago when they had their joint show. I paint still life a lot and get very excited when I see other’s work that does not sit in a rigid category, as their’s most certainly does not. It’s thrilling. If they ever happen to see this, I hope they know how much they and the work they do inspires their fellow artists.
dougstotts.blogspot.com
Comment by doug stotts — March 14, 2012 @ 12:18 am |