Anne's "Light/Shadow" 20" x 24" oil painting on canvas...Scroll down for more artwork...
Anne Kauff’s award-winning oil paintings are peaceful and spare evoking almost a Zen-like reaction in viewers through light, shadow, and shapes. Her “Barnscapes” series, produced over a ten-year period, has taken on a life of its own, she reflects on her website.
They were originally produced during an artist residency program called “The Fields Project” where she actually resided with a farm family for ten days in rural Illinois and could follow her artistic eye freely capturing bucolic imagery that would later become oil paintings. She participated in that program for five years doing small barn studies and then working large in her studio from photographs or her plein air time.
Anne is drawn to barns and other structures, not so much because it is a preferred subject matter, but more of a “situation of lighting” she explains. “Shapes and how they fit together capture my attention. Also, how one color can work against another. Then sometimes a mood enters the painting as well as it all starts coming together,” she says.
Anne cites the artistic influence of other painters she admires such as Lois Dodd, Fairfield Porter, and Wolf Kahn – who also painted landscapes and barns during his lifetime.
After years of dedicated study, along with artistic experimenting, Anne states that she finally feels her voice is coming through her work and is always excited to see how that translates to her next project.
She offers this encouragement to other artists: “The work tells you how to proceed – learn from it. We might go through miles and miles of canvases, but that is what gets you there. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s all part of the process of growing. The trick is to keep showing up and doing the work. Don’t wait for the “muse”, have patience, and enjoy the process.”
Anne accepts commissions and her work can be found on Instagram: alkauff and her website: Anne Kauff
"Solitude" by Anne, 24" x 24" oil on canvas
"Barn Geometry" oil on canvas
"Before the Dawn" 24" x 24" by Anne oil on canvas
"Granary" 24" x 24" by Anne oil on canvas
The artist, Anne Kauff.