Artist: Kris Ekstrand

Twilight Estuary

"Twilight Estuary" glows with the last light of day: a deep plum and violet sky fades to a vivid band of tangerine at the horizon, where a pale lavender line marks distant water. Below, golden marsh grasses in saffron, ochre, and honey are brushed in quick, directional strokes, parting around a winding channel of silvery lilac that pulls the eye inward. Toward the bottom edge, the land falls into deep olive and umber shadow, threaded with fine pale marks that catch the remaining light. The painting reflects Kris Ekstrand's deep connection to the estuarine flats of Washington's Skagit Valley, where tides and light shift by the hour. Warm, luminous, and still, it captures the brief golden moment before night settles over the marsh.

Origins

"Origins" looks out across a tidal flat at dusk, a pale channel of water cutting straight through dark, burnished earth toward a horizon banded in coral, lavender, and amber. The sky above deepens from soft celadon to twilight blue in smooth, horizontal strokes, while the land on either side glows in rich umber and burnt orange before sinking into near-black. At the base of the channel, fine white lines branch outward like roots or rivulets, as if the water itself were feeding the ground, a striking detail that gives the painting its title. Drawn from Kris Ekstrand's lifelong attention to estuaries and the edges where land and water meet, this square oil on canvas holds the stillness of a landscape just before nightfall.

Twilight

"Twilight" distills a landscape to three bands of color: a deep, velvety field of navy and midnight blue across the upper half, a slim ribbon of green land with a bright stroke of lemon light at the horizon, and below, a sweep of terracotta, coral, and rust that fades into dark umber. The foreground brushwork is loose and directional, the warm ground catching what feels like the final glow of sunset before darkness takes over. The most minimal of these new works, it shows Kris Ekstrand reducing the scene to its essentials (sky, horizon, earth) and letting color carry the mood. Deep and meditative, it suits a space that calls for calm, and it is presented in a dark float frame, signed lower right.

Pathway

"Pathway" sets a field of windswept grass beneath a dramatic, storm-swept sky, the two halves of the canvas pulling against each other in mood and motion. Above, sweeping strokes of slate, charcoal, and pearl grey swirl across the upper half, opening to a luminous pale center as if light were breaking through. Below a low green headland and a silvery strip of water, the foreground grasses bend hard to the right in loose, energetic marks of straw gold, olive, apricot, and plum, their movement leading the eye along an implied path toward the shore. Kris Ekstrand captures not just the look of a coastal meadow but the feel of wind moving through it. Framed in a grey float frame and signed lower right, it brings the drama of Northwest weather indoors.

Fragments

"Fragments" is a tall, atmospheric oil painting on canvas by Kris Ekstrand in which a pale, rain-heavy sky of silvery sage settles over a distant blue mountain range and a thin, glowing band of green shore. Below, the land breaks apart into its namesake: thick, angular slabs of butter yellow, apricot, and lime sit like sunlit rock or sandbars amid dark, churning water rendered in sweeping strokes of charcoal, slate, and ink blue. A tangle of dark grasses presses in from the lower left, anchoring the viewer at the water's edge. Ekstrand distills the mood of the Northwest shoreline more than its literal features: a moment of light breaking through weather, the land in pieces yet somehow whole. It is presented in a dark float frame and signed lower right.

High Water; Spring

Oil on canvas
42" H x 30" W

This atmospheric landscape oil painting by Kris Ekstrand, depicts marshland, mountains and sky in the Pacific Northwest. Kris' perspective on the natural landscapes around her are both an invitation to observe and go forth.

Kris Ekstrand's perspective on the natural landscapes around her are both an invitation to observe and go forth. Topography notwithstanding, her years of painting the low land waterways of the Skagit Valley provide a cherished legacy of this multifaceted artist.