Katharina Chapuis

Katharina Chapuis was born in Zurich, Switzerland. She gained a diploma from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education, School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, MA also Fifth Year Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. She now lives and works in Boston, MA. This shows that she understands the materials she is using and how to apply them so I must be too picky about trying to recreate the effect she obtains, rather tweak it to my own style. (Information found at http://katharinachapuis.com/bio)

Her paintings are hues of colours interacting with each other; they normally feature concentrated/vibrant colours on the outsides of the painting and then in the centre a simple wash of the more dominant colour.

Katharina Chapuis, Untitled #LH-BG8,”25 x 75”, 2008 (http://katharinachapuis.com/paintings) 

In this piece Chapuis has used three different colours. She has used more concentrated colours on the edges of the painting and in the centre it is more of a wash. Throughout the piece there are patches of tone that are darker than the others, this gives the painting a slightly three dimensional look and keeps it from looking flat.

Chapuis uses colour expertly in her pieces as that is all they are about, how the colours interact to form a composition.in this piece she has used three main colours yellow, dark red and the main colour which is turquois. The three colours create a good composition as the more vibrant and overpowering colours are on the outside and there is a lot less of them.  Line isn’t used in her painting as they don’t require any rigid structure as it is more expressive with the colours. Tone is very predominant in this piece as it is all about the varying tones of colour.

The style Chapuis is similar to colour field painting which is large flat solid colours, free from subjective context. Chapuis’ work is free from subject other than the colour itself, by doing this the colour relationships become the subject. I find this very interesting as it leaves the viewer questioning whether it is a pure abstract, expressional piece or if it is based maybe on a landscape or the sky for instance.

The viewer’s eye is firstly drawn to the centre of the piece then they begin to explore the edges and look at the tones and use of colour. I am studying this artist as it is a contradiction to the others I have chosen, also if I study her work I could use the result of my experiments to create a background for a piece.