Kristen Eden

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan Kristen Eden was exposed to the arts at an early age by fine artist father and writer mother. With an Associate’s degree in Graphic Design, she worked as a graphic designer and art director in Los Angeles before pausing her career to raise her 3 children. Accepted into the Laguna Beach Art Group and a southern California resident for over 25 years, she returned to the Adirondack mountain region in upstate New York to pursue creative interests including acrylic painting and nature photography. www.kristeneden.wordpress.com
About my paintings: Heavily inspired by New Jersey artist Paul Matthews, I was drawn to his large canvases filled with voluminous, lifelike clouds. I couldn’t afford to buy one so I decided to paint my own. I have branched out from strictly cloudscapes since then but still find great comfort in looking at and painting clouds. As a recovering perfectionist, I look back at my beginning work and recall every brushstroke as an arduous and frustrating process. Stuck in a realism trap, it took days to complete one image. I wanted painting to be more therapeutic, a freeing experience. I wanted to have some fun with it! So, with the reminder that there are no mistakes in nature, I began utilizing integrity of stroke with a quick and loose technique. With a great love for California Plein air and the Mojave desert (one of my favorite subjects), I enjoy enhancing the lighting of the sky and recreating the magic of the vast and desolate.
About my photography: I take my camera with me everywhere I go. There is always something to photograph. In even the most mundane subjects there is an angle which makes them less ordinary. And then there exists the extraordinary with that delightfully unexpected occasion, where natures colors and design elements are so blindingly beautiful it compels me to capture the fleeting into a forever moment. Whether it be watching a sunset manifest into amazing gorgeousness or glimpsing the glow of afternoon sunlight on a fragile flower petal or witnessing autumn leaves reflected like a mirror on a smooth lake, I anticipate every cloud and landscape photo I take will be unique because of the ever changing nature… of nature itself..
Artist Statement: “Nature paints herself best and with deep respect for her pallet, I endeavor to recapture in my photography and in my paintings, the intensely pure colors and the many shifting shapes of sunset clouds where the lighting is so deliciously right that it makes one’s soul smile.”