Abstract Nature
Nick Taylor / Sculpture Katherine Warinner / Prints
Kate Eilertsen / Curator
In The Studio
Fridays & Saturdays, 10 am–4 pm | Sundays 12–4 pm
No one can compete with the beauty, power and inspiration nature gives us. None of us see the same thing when we look at a tree, branch or even a leaf. Artists Nick Taylor and Katherine Warinner, in this exhibition, will share with us, the myriad of impressions they see when looking out a window or walking through a forest. Katherine’s beautiful, contemplative monotypes and Nick’s organic, commanding sculptures leave us with a new impression of all that can be found in nature. After all, each encounter with nature, is unique.
Katherine Warinner’s works on paper involve a complicated process of printmaking but more importantly, convey a sensation she has as she observes her subjects. Rather than render an exact reproduction, the images of leaves, florals and branches convey a felt sense of light, space and color. Using her delicate, penetrating nature and advanced technical skills she is able to produce monotypes that pass through a human filter that is mindful of the natural world’s many wonders.
Whether it is the subtractive process of wood carving or additive practice of cutting, hammering, welding or grinding metal, Nick Taylor’s captivation with the organic quality of nature is profound. His work is labor intensive and often takes him a year to complete just three or four pieces. Living along the Mendocino coast, in the heart of one of the most beautiful places in the world, is not only where he finds beauty, calm and a sense of order, but also where he constantly encounters the elegant abstraction of nature.
Marin Art and Garden Center is proud to bring these two artists together to remind us that we need to both enjoy and protect the environment that gives us so much to see and learn from. Art and artists are often the prophets of our time on this earth and we thank them for their inspirations.
—Kate Eilertsen, Guest Curator
Video: the artists in their studios
Nick Taylor
My work is a manifestation of the energies that exist within me as I search to understand the life I lead, and that which exists around me. They reflect my strengths and weaknesses at the time they were created. The native/natural world I have spent my entire life being a part of is an overarching factor in the organic appearance of my work, and is one of the few environments where I always find beauty, calm, and a sense of order.
The wood sculptures often start with a mental image before I set to work, but not always (I’m unable to tell you where exactly the images come from.) Most of these works are carved from single pieces of wood (oak and fir), all of which I’ve harvested from our small property. The uniqueness of that once-living organism is something I try to incorporate into all finished works. They are created in the reductive process of carving, which is a search for the shapes and forms with a given perimeter.
The metal works are a little different. Being a man-made material, metal has inherent properties but little unique personality to start with, even when I use recycled material. The personality is something that I have to
create myself through cutting, hammering, welding and grinding. I work this material mostly in an additive manner, which is the polar opposite of the carving that I do when I work in wood. The works grows. I seldom start these sculptures with an image in mind, but rather work with a sensation of energy. The pieces develop from there.
Both methods of working are labor intensive; I complete 3 to 4 pieces a year. In the case of Black Beauty, it took 3 years to finish.
The finished work rarely looks like what I first had in mind. It’s a discovery process, and the final piece is always a revelation of what is within.
—Nick Taylor
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Katherine Warinner
Katherine Warinner is an artist working primarily with printmaking. Her monotypes—a hybrid of painting and printmaking, digital imagery and photographic processes—reinvent traditional forms of printing with modern technology. Inspired by a love of design, the landscape and her garden, she seeks to illuminate and elevate the timeless beauty of the natural world. She has been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute and InCahoots Residency where she prints her large scale works on paper. Her work is in private and corporate collections. Born in the midwest, where she attended college and graduate school, she has lived in Marin for over 30 years.
“Art making is like collecting; as a child I loved to collect insects, leaves and rocks. Each new addition leads to another and there is a kind of thrill to that attainment. In the making of prints, each one leads me to a new place and from there I expand. Of course,
there is always the question of when to stop because it is impossible to erase in printmaking! A print can go too far and collapse or balance on the edge of beauty. That edge is what keeps me working.”
—Katherine Warinner
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Virtual Opening Reception
