by Kathryn Retzler

Artist Kimberlee Ryan likes to create drama with patterns of paint. Knowledgeable use of pigment that comes with years of practice are a given. The dynamic interplay of color and form is her trademark, and cropped compositions are a specialty.

"When I go in close," says Boulder artist and art teacher Kimberlee Ryan, "I like to create an intriguing mix of angles rather than trying to get in the whole thing," The results are imminently pleasing.

Ryan, who has been painting all her life and teaching art for 23 years likes to paint big, often using the largest watercolor paper she can find. And she is not adverse to experimenting. Each series Ryan produces embraces new artistic horizons. And life experiences open new doors.

Her medium is watercolor. Although she occasionally works in oil or acrylic, it is water color that captures her imagination, tests her skills. "I’ve gotten really mesmerized by the quality of colors in the water," she explains. "And technical things, like how pigment settles into paper, how to create a sort of luminosity. I have so much fun playing with the colors!"

Traveling in New Mexico with some artist girlfriends—Ryan goes there every year to paint—the artist opened a closet door, saw the jumble of their colorful cowboy boots on the floor and was inspired. That led to painting boots, or parts of them, from interesting angles and perspectives. Then she put legs in the boots, people on the legs, cars or motorbikes behind the people.

"I did 51 cowboy boot paintings," she laughs. "And sold them all! It was a lot of fun.

I could put all kinds of things together, color, detail, opacity and translucency, reflective values.  No faces though. I wanted to get down to the heart of the image—boots, legs, cars, Harleys."

Nudes came next. Nudes in cowboy boots in various settings, again, "mixing live things and not-live things, playing with color, cropping, communicating a mood or feeling with these elements." Along the way, Ryan also took an artistic detour, experimenting with the cold, clean lines of the "non-life’ things, producing a series of Harley bikes and musical instruments (like the one on our cover). Both, with their highly reflective metal components and crisp clear lines, have a similar quality.

But the need to paint living things won out, and Ryan, began a series of horses. Growing ever bolder with color and design elements, she strove at the same time to create a realistic likeness of the animal (albeit in a rather unique color scheme.)

I’m excited about this new horse series," says Ryan, who is a devoted rider. "It’s a kind of breakthrough in my painting. Painting these animals (and I know them all) has brought lots of elements through that I’ve been working on—manipulating color, use of my technical strength with the medium."

That she is a master of her medium is obvious. And there can be no doubt that she has an innate sense of composition and design. Her paintings are efficiently, seemingly effortlessly executed. And her perspective is all her own. " It’s hard to discuss what I think looks good in terms of that when I paint," Ryan says. "All the elements and principals of art are in there. I just put it down differently on paper. A lot of times, I think something looks better when the angles are intersected. And ‘up close’ is always better for me. I either work on huge paper or try to get in closer."

Ryan is lucky to have a career that she enjoys, something that is related to her art, "but not so related that I’m doing while I’m at work. Painting can be addictive," she explains. "Teaching, too. And riding can be very consuming." So the artist puts it all in her own personal perspective. "I like the balance of my life as it is," Ryan concludes contentedly. "Painting is so sedentary, so solitary. I really enjoy social aspects of teaching, my students. I’m always looking for new ways to improve my teaching and my painting. And my riding."

In her life, as in her work, Ryan has achieved a unique balance, one that is as visually pleasing for those who enjoy her paintings as it is for the artist herself.