About Kirsten Stomberg

Welcome! Creating art fills me with wonder. It brings me joy to share that with you.

Painting has always been an expression of how I see my surroundings. Whether I was a small child capturing animals and trees on paper, or a young woman painting the flowing movements of a dancer on linen, art was always my translator for the world. I was fortunate to have a father who insisted on the best tools, and a teacher in Ernst Krupp, who saw my artistic soul at eleven, and taught me how to wield it effectively, with multiple disciplines. Today, art still serves as my medium. Whether painting landscapes in the Jemez Mountains, boats on a canal, a storm on the plains, or children asleep in a car, my range in tools, subjects, and methods has continued to evolve.

Key to my approach as an artist is my interest in capturing an organic moment. Rather than pose my subject, I try to capture a fluid moment in time, be it in motion or momentarily still. The natural world fascinates me, inspiring work in many modes and media.

True to my teachings as a child, I’ve never been afraid to scrape my canvas clean with the knife and start anew. This philosophy has imprinted on my personal life as well, in each of its seasons. I have been lucky enough to live in multiple states and countries, from cities to remote mountain towns. Each new location has been an opportunity to scrape out a blank canvas and express myself authentically through my art.  The terrain has sometimes been challenging; it has always been an adventure!  I hope my work here not only inspires those who love art, but other kindred spirits as well. Wanderers are always welcome.

Nature, in its many manifestations, compels me to paint landscapes, wildlife, and the human form in a process where I suspend verbal thought, seeking to express gestures directly as well as to reveal both static and dynamic forces via light, shadow and color.  I continue to draw and sketch, and have also worked in three-dimensional media.

Major influences include traveling, with the conscious goal of learning about other cultures, both in terms of history and in terms of what artists are creating today. I have been inspired by cave-paintings which I have seen in person, and have been thrilled by contemporary work. I have also been influenced by classical musicians, writers, sculptors, choreographers and dancers, and other painters. When I walk trails among mountains, study the immense sky in all its varied colors and shapes, or acknowledge trees both familiar as friends or startlingly new, I feel present. I hope to bring this to my canvas in a tangible form that others can feel.

I studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and have a degree in Fine Art from Chapman University. Studies abroad in many nations continue to inform the art I create.

Please feel free to contact me for more information on my work. Thanks for stopping by!