Moments to live by
This story was featured in the March/April 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March/April 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
JUST AS A striking sunrise or sunset can stop us in our tracks, there are moments in Kathleen Coy’s day when her two adopted Greyhounds, Sephiroth and Train, will catch her eye and hold her gaze with their beauty and poise. “They are like giant cats; they are so graceful. I’ll just catch myself staring at them,” says Coy.
In fact, of the many dogs and other creatures the artist has depicted in her oeuvre of oil paintings, her beloved canines—both retired race dogs—are her right-hand muses. Always available to observe, sketch, and photograph, the pair continually inspire her respect and admiration. “They are so driven and focused,” says Coy, who captured these traits in TO SEE BEYOND, an impressionistic portrait of her white-and-brindle female, Train, alert and transfixed in the moment. The painting, which garnered third place in Oil Painters of America’s Summer Online Showcase last year, represents for the artist an important lesson all animals can teach us: how to savor the present.
Coy has been training her eye on the animal world for as long as she can remember. She grew up on a five-acre farm in Iowa where her parents raised pigs, chickens, and dairy goats. The small homestead offered young Kathleen the perfect setting to explore her two primary passions: drawing and animals. “I felt completely gypped that I was born a human and not a cheetah or tiger,” she says, chuckling. “I was really fascinated by animals and felt connected to them from a very young age. That’s where my love of drawing came from—I never drew anything but animals.”
Today Coy lives and paints in Colorado Springs, CO, where she has honed her skills through workshops with artists like Karin Jurick, Carolyn Anderson, and Jill Soukup. Formally trained as a graphic artist, she continues to regard drawing as a fundamental part of her creative process. While she occasionally paints alla prima, some paintings require a slower pace, complete with value studies, scrupulous underpaintings, and other old-master techniques, notes Coy. “I’m very inspired by line, gesture, and what’s underneath an animal—not just the bones and muscle, but the life force that animates it,” she says. “When you view something so beautiful and it takes your breath away, you have to capture that feeling, and not only paint it, but really explore it thoroughly.” —Kim Agricola
representationwww.kathleencoy.com
This story was featured in the March/April 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March/April 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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