An Interview with Kelly Birkenruth

Hi John,

Kelly Birkenruth is a fine artist based in Connecticut, known for both figurative and still life paintings. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards in contemporary realism, including 2nd place for Still Life in the Portrait Society of America's 2015 exhibition, 7th place for Non-Commissioned Portraits in the Portrait Society of America's 2021 exhibition, a finalist in the Art Renewal Center Salon in 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021 and exhibits at the MEAM Museum in Barcelona with the International Women Painters in 2019 and 2021. She is represented by Abend Gallery in Colorado, Susan Powell Fine Art in Connecticut, and Lovetts Gallery in Oklahoma. She sat down with BoldBrush to share her artistic journey and some of the things that inspire her work.

Enjoy,

BoldBrush Studio Team

Kelly had a unique path into painting. She didn't really start to think about a career in art until she began to work as a fashion model and was sent abroad by her agency - she grew up in a somewhat rural area in Pennsylvania and art museums weren't really a part of her childhood, so when she moved to Paris for her job, discovering the tradition of Western art was awe-inspiring. "I always loved drawing, for sure, and had a hunger for art, but I didn't really get to see great art until I started traveling in my twenties. I went to Penn State University for a BFA in business with a minor in French, and during college I went to Paris on my own for one summer. That was my initial exposure to great art, but it wasn't until I had graduated and started working as a fashion model that I really explored it. My agency sent me to Paris. It was such an awesome opportunity - I had traveled very little previously, outside of that first trip to Paris while I was in college. During my free time I would go to museums and discover this whole new world. The one painting that stands out in my mind was The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault in the Louvre. You have to see it in person. The enormous scale of the painting along with the swirling water and overlapping bodies was just astounding. . .I couldn't get over it. I spent many, many hours studying that painting along with so many others and realized this was what I wanted for my future. I knew modeling was going to be a short-lived career, so I was thinking about how I could pursue the craft of painting when this was done. Fortunately I ended up meeting a group of artists in Paris and would sometimes go out painting with them. It was so much fun and it definitely satisfied a creative desire.

"I did mostly runway modeling: if you had a 6 pm fashion show, you had to show up at 10 am for your hair and makeup. There was a lot of wait time, just sitting around, and it was very boring, so I would shadow the makeup artists. It was fascinating to watch them doing the makeup and see these models be totally transformed. Being in the beauty industry made me fall in love with beauty in general, for one thing, but also gave me a love affair for the human face. I would closely observe them and beg them to let me try doing the makeup on the other models, which of course they wouldn't. So when I'm painting portraits now it's almost like I'm doing makeup with a brush and canvas. That's why I love painting portraits - I love creating a face out of nothing. It's so exciting to me, and I first felt that during my modeling days. I definitely gained a deeper love of creativity from being in that industry - there were so many forms of creativity involved, fashion design, photography, lighting, makeup, and I loved exploring it. But I latched on to painting specifically because I fell in love with it as a medium - you can create something out of nothing, and that's extraordinary.

"After Paris I continued to model for a few years, it was a great gig with a lot of travel and the agency sent me to Japan, where I got to live for over a year. I was already thinking about being an artist at this point, so I took full advantage of the opportunity to see all of the wonderful art in that part of the world. When I got back to the US, I went to Otis College of Art in Los Angeles - not for a degree, because I already had one - but just to learn. I took mostly anatomy classes and a ton of life drawing, as well as some workshops. I even did some sculpture classes. So I'm sort of self-taught - at least self-directed - but have had mentors and instructors along the way. While I was in LA I was part of an artists' group where we would hire a model and just paint, and to me it was the best education, just putting in the hours painting.

"Over the years I honed my craft. I got married and had two daughters, and during that time I continued working at my painting; I showed some work at a gallery there in LA, I entered juried shows, starting local and growing from there. Once my girls were old enough to go to school and I had more time to paint, I just covered miles of canvas and worked on getting better and better. I moved to Connecticut fifteen years ago and now have a gallery here, as well as in several other locations around the country, and also started to do portrait commissions, which I really enjoy along with my gallery work."

Based on her experience as a self-directed student, Kelly thinks that it was a helpful way to get a wide variety of instruction while maintaining an independent style. "Everything I learned studying with someone else was vital, but I think it was important that I didn't latch on too heavily to any one person's way of working. Everyone I studied with gave me different bits and pieces that went into my general fund of learning. And I'm still learning, I'll still take weekend workshops, often with artists who work in a very different style. For example, I took a workshop with Daniel Sprick several years back and we're friends now, we still paint together from time to time. I always learn something new from him, even though I don't work in the exact same style. I don't know if this happens to other painters, but whenever I tried to emulate a certain technique that another artist did, it never felt natural for me. No matter how much I loved that technique, it just wasn't me and it didn't work out. Your own voice always comes out in your technique, and you're going to paint like you no matter what, so why try to imitate someone else? I think one's painting style is like one's personality, you can try to be this way or that way but who you truly are comes out. You can't force anything."

Her personal aesthetic was definitely influenced, though, by that initial time of discovery when she was traveling and modeling. Both Paris and Japan became a big part of her artistic vocabulary. Paris gave her a love for the canon of Western art. "Paris is just so beautiful and you are constantly surrounded by art. Hanging out at museums like the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay is what all my French friends did, it's a way of life there. Embracing French culture was a huge part of the process of learning to love art; since I had studied French in college I made it a priority to speak only in French and to participate in my French friends' lifestyle. I was fluent in French by the time I left and I was really proud of myself for that!"

Japan, meanwhile, strongly influenced her visual sensibility. "When you travel, you realize how visual aesthetics vary in different parts of the world. The Japanese aesthetic is so different from the aesthetic in the west, and it's actually my favorite. In fact, Japan is my favorite country in the world; The Japanese aesthetic is basically quiet simplicity and there's a serenity attached with which I resonated. A French floral arrangement will be a massive bouquet overflowing with blooms, for example, while in Japan it's more likely to be a beautiful vase with just one bud. The simplicity of it is so much more impressive, for me. I fell head-over-heels with that look, and when I started doing still lifes they were very Japanesesque, very quiet in their feel. It wasn't an intentional choice, per se, but that stillness is something that I find very attractive and it definitely comes out in my compositions."

Kelly's still life paintings all have that sense of quiet, but they can also be playful. She has done an extended series of still lifes incorporating household objects with crumpled newspapers. Some of her most popular ones have been the ones with fruit and and Sunday comics, which have restrained compositions but lively colors and patterns in the newspaper. "They make me so happy when I do them and they're so well received. I love painting the folds and all of these little worlds in the squares of the comics. I'm not sure exactly how I hit upon that subject. The first one was with plain crumpled newsprint and apples, perhaps a more traditional version, but I'm a huge Peanuts fan, so one day I put a page of comics with Peanuts and some lemons on the table. When my husband first saw it he didn't get it - 'Why would you put comics with lemons? It makes no sense!' but he eats his words all the time now because everyone loves them. I love the brightness of the printing with the brightness of the fruit and those vibrant colors make me happy. I've had some collectors who purchased these pieces write to me afterwards telling me how much joy the paintings bring to them. It's wonderful to have that connection with someone else, to know that my work brings them the same joy I felt when I was making it. I'm taking a break from them because I need a fresh eye but I'm really happy when I'm painting them."

When it comes to navigating the dilemma between galleries asking for more of the same kind of work that has sold well in the past and being able to create something new, Kelly thinks it comes down to having a great relationship with your gallery. "Honestly I'm happy to paint more of the same type of painting because if a certain subject just clicks with you and your audience, why not explore it further - but I only do it if I'm inspired to. If I want to try something new, I will. I did a solo show at Abend Gallery with mostly the comic still lifes and a few other still lifes as well, and then for the next show I did with them, I painted all portraits of girls holding flowers. And Abend was happy with both because they're a great gallery. I think it's good to communicate with your gallery about upcoming new work, and you should never feel forced to do something just because it sells, because then painting just becomes a job."

As a result of these working relationships, her personal projects always end up going to galleries. "I'm fortunate to have enough opportunities that I'm almost always painting toward some show deadline, but I'm looking forward to having some downtime after this next art show to explore some new ideas without any deadlines." She's currently working toward the LA Art Show in January 2022, where she'll be exhibiting through Abend Gallery. "They asked for some five-by-five paintings, which is fun - they wanted ten and I'm at seven now, so we'll see! I'm mostly doing still lifes but I'll try to squeeze in a figure or two as well." After the LA Art Show, she's going to explore some new ideas around multi-figure compositions, something she hasn't done much in the past. "I'm looking forward to that project - multi-figure compositions are new territory for me but there's such a strong tradition of them in the history of figurative art and I'm excited to engage with that."

Many thanks to Kelly for doing this interview with us! You can view more of her work on herwebsite or keep up with her latest updates onInstagram.

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