PAINTINGS BY NOEL

This series of some 20 oils by West Linn, Oregon artist Kathryn Noel Frederick is a reflection of the impact climate change has had on the Earth. 

 

Fires, floods, glaciers shrinking, and life-threatening heat represent the current dilemma of our planet.  While we have seen terrible fires here in Oregon, for me the threat of climate change was made heartbreakingly evident on a recent trip to the Inland Passage to Alaska, pulling me into my studio upon return. Painting, be it a catharsis or a way to discover beauty is my chocolate, my therapy. Be it brush, palette knife, watercolour or oil, plein air or studio, painting is my eternal passion. 

Colour, form, and movement have drawn my focus all my life. The formation of clouds, the interplay of colours, the ebb and flow of water, crashing waves, and again the colours, from sunlight sparkling to the changes in a brewing storm… The fearsome beauty of fire devouring all in its path… The subtleties can’t be captured by camera – it takes paint.

 

I had the honour of being born in a place of beauty, Victoria, B.C.  My mother was a prize-winning plein-air artist. Dad was a long-haul ship’s captain who enraptured us with tales of his adventures across the globe. We emigrated to the states when Dad retired from the mighty sea. After living, studying and painting for many years in California, Nevada’s Comstock region, Lake Oswego, and the Northeast, I settled in West Linn’s Bolton neighborhood 14 years ago (another place of beauty). After many years focusing on producing and designing albums for my two Americana record labels, I've returned full-time to my first love, painting. 

 

I'll be updating this site to include more of the works I'll be showing at the West Linn Public Library, November 3-29, 2024. I hope and trust that, in them, you'll find beauty, joy and inspiration. 

 

When I first starting painting I hadn’t had any formal training, I was kid watching my Mum. Her work was amazing and there wasn’t a subject she couldn’t handle, be it a portrait, an abstract or a landscape, she could jump between Realism and Impressionism without a blink of her eye. She won prizes, Best of Show at Stanford, she had one-man shows all over the Bay Area and sold most everything she painted, unless I snagged them. She was a weekend warrior; she had a full time job in cancer research. She was self taught. First time I picked up a brush on the serious side was to paint a water colour for my living room. Mum snagged it, had it framed and hung it in her living room. To be continued.