Not Just a Hobby Anymore
Art was just a hobby for Bethanne Kinsella Cople until she got to college, and the man who would become her husband encouraged her to take art classes. Cople graduated with a majorin psychology and a minor in fine art. After graduation she taught childrenthe fundamentals of drawing until the burgeoning plein-air movement inspired her to embark on her own artistic journey. “The plein-air movement really spoke to me,” Cople says. “I was an avid horseback rider and skier, and I loved landscapes. When I realized I could paint outside in all of that beauty, that was what really kicked it off.”
Cople started with watercolors and pastels, but eventually oils took over her palette. The atmospheric landscapes she paints today are the result of her 10,000 hours painting en plein air, absorbing the land and its sensory qualities, even working in blizzards and precarious spots to translate its beauty onto her canvases. Now the award-winning painter uses her plein-air works as studies for larger studio paintings. “I’m trying to straddle the line of realism and impressionism,” she says. “And I’ve become more tonalist as I’ve grown in my painting. I want people to feel they can walk right into my work and go into the distance.” —Joe Kovack
Cople is represented by Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA; Gallerie Amsterdam, Carmel, CA; Carmen’s Gallery, Solomons, MD; William Ris Gallery, Stone Harbor, NJ; and the artist’s website.
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