Kimberly Burnett uses the ghosts of her past, as well as her vivid imagination to paint with oils dreamy mountain scenes and surreal portraits of figures, whose heads appear to dissolve into colorful energy.
Burnett works out of her home studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which I visited earlier this week. She's a participating artist in Carnelian Art Gallery's Surrealism show, which lasts until the end of December. At 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, the gallery plans to host a holiday reception for Surrealism. Admission is free, and light refreshments will be served.
"This painting started as a cloud formation that I actually saw here in Wisconsin, so I painted that first," Burnett said of her process as she finished a piece hanging on her livingroom wall, among many scattered throughout her home. "At first I had the plain farm field at the bottom, but it just didn't seem quite magical enough. I went through my photos from my trip to Iceland and I found a couple of different mountains that I pieced together. But I also went with a Lord of the Rings theme.
"This used be grayscale, and now I'm glazing color on top."
Despite how strikingly detailed Burnetts works are, she said "I don't really know what I am doing all the time" with oil paints, her medium of choice. But she has throughout her life carefully studied what she refers to as "The Greats," like the late Rembrandt.
"When I start painting its really different when I'm starting a landscape versus a figurative painting," Burnett said. "This painting ... these usually start with me going for hikes or drives and stopping a million times to take pictures of the clouds. I love clouds. Lately, I've been veering off from painting the exact photo and instead blending my love of fantasy books with the clouds. This isn't exactly a Wisconsin landscape.
"In figurative paintings, I just find willing models and set them up. I especially like to take pictures of them in historical buildings with moody lighting. All my paintings start with a wash of hot pink because that's my favorite color. Then I build up all the layers of oils."
Burnett said that she feels like a lot of things are connected to color, when asked about her distinctive color palette in all of her works. It's hard for me to put into words how distinctive.
"Music is color," Burnett said. "Language. Math. Everything is color for me. That's really important."
In her artist statement, Burnett said she has synesthesia, a brain condition that blends certain senses together. Think smelling sounds, or feeling numbers.
She originally grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, near the Appalachian Mountains. As early as age 2, Burnett would tell those around her that she was an artist. She had "boxes and boxes" of drawings as a kid, and she would make up stories to go along with those drawings.
Burnett officially became a full-time artist a few years ago, having been a farmer and gardener before that.
Of Surrealism, Burnett said she enjoys seeing the "deeper glimpse" into each participating artist's life.
"I was so excited about this show," she said. "It's cool that it's all women and all of them are such cool people. I enjoyed talking to them about their process and how they came to make the art they make today."