Katerina Ring
I am a wanderer who needs to be physically in touch with nature to feel alive. I am an artist inspired to paint by seasonal changes, ancient trees and endangered species. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of a locality call me. From the USA to Germany to Italy to Zambia, I have followed paths which led me from deserts, forests and the ocean, to castle-strewn riverbanks, to olive-laden hillsides to the elephant-trampled bush. When I am immersed in new languages or cultures, surrounded by unpredictability (or even inconvenience), I feel challenged and connected. I thrive. I paint.
Scarlet, violet, cobalt blue, gold, turquoise – royal, rich, exciting colors which I use in abundance. My paintings are combination of impressionistic wildlife and abstracted, patterned backgrounds, or painted directly from life en plein air. Soft fur and hard edges, natural and exaggerated chroma, I use contrast to call attention to both the strength and fragility of life on this amazing planet.
I paint the natural world: animals and trees, landscapes and weather, because they are extraordinary, and I want others to take another look, and keep looking. I am also motivated by my lifelong goal to leave the world a better place than how I found it when I arrived in 1967. Since early childhood I have been involved in some means of fundraising, activism, lobbying or employment in support of environmental protection and the rights of all creatures with whom we share this planet. By my actions and choices, I live as simply and sincerely as I can, and I use my paintbrush and colors to speak for the voiceless.
