(Kris Horn)
“Exploring different mediums is part of the search, gaining knowledge. It’s the science end of it,” says Kris Horn, Dry Canyon Art Association’s Artist of the Month for December. “You wanna see what’s gonna happen. You wanna see how it responds when you do this or you do that. How can you tell your story with that medium, and how does it differ from what you may have used in the past?” In the last nine years Kris has worked in pastels, oil pastels, oils and “I’m investigating acrylics now too. I’m trying to see what I respond to.”
Kris got a taste for art exploration 50 years ago in a class in Eugene, Oregon at Maude Kerns Gallery. This would be a touchstone experience for her that she wouldn’t return to for decades. But its impact was profound. “In those classes at Maude Kerns, the teacher believed I could become a painter, and I believed her,” Kris says. “I could do things fairly easily. I grasped the concepts. I didn’t have the background or formal education for things like the color value system, color temperature and all that. But I got the idea that I could do it.”
A successful career as a real estate agent, and raising a family kept Kris from diving into painting with all her energy. Then in 2015 she saw some beautiful work of a couple of pastel artists, “and I thought ‘I could do that.’ It was obvious there was an immediacy to pastels, because that’s the way it is. I responded to that because I worked full time and was on community boards and committees, and I thought ‘that’s something I could work into my horrible schedule!’”
Kris and her husband Barry moved to Central Oregon in June 2023, and she has happily joined the local arts community. Here she tells us what she thinks in her own words.
Why is it important to you to explore different mediums?
I find at my age, patience is something sometimes I have and sometimes I don’t. I’m becoming conversant in other mediums so I can meet myself where I am on each day. So I get a sense of what the different mediums can do for me and what I can do for them.
What’s something you’ve learned about creating that’s important?
It’s not for sissies! This is one of the reasons I wish I’d gotten a little more of the education when I was younger and more absorbent. I think this is true of all artists. It’s a learning process all the time. Every time you pick up your stick of pastel or your brush, you discover new artist wisdom. Every time you do a painting, you learn something new. I think that’s pretty brilliant. There’s a lot to love about that. To be able to learn and grow, no matter what your age is. I hope I’m still doing this and learning new things and growing until I can’t hold a brush anymore.
When you’re working on a new piece, what’s your most heartfelt wish for it?
It’s not always the same. Sometimes I just want to pick up my brushes and have fun. And if it pleases me and I had fun painting it, that’s all I wish for. Oddly enough, those pieces are the ones people tend to respond to. Other times I’m just creating what I think is a beautiful scene that I want people to respond to, people who maybe haven’t had a chance to see that scene. I want them to see the beauty of it and respond to its nature.
The public is invited to a reception in Kris Horn’s honor at Cascade Hasson Sotheby’s International Realty between 4pm and 7pm on Friday, December 6 during Redmond’s First Friday Art Walk. Kris Horn’s art shows all of December at Cascade Hasson Sotheby’s.