Kristin Eames is an Idaho-based, classically trained painter, currently working in oil on panel with gold leaf. She was born in Connecticut and raised in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., spending every summer at her mother's ancestral home in the mountains of Idaho, where she eventually moved to live full-time in 1987.
Kristin received her BFA from Boston University's College of Fine Arts in sculpture in 1985. Afterward, she traveled to Europe for 4 months on an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant, where she was greatly inspired by northern European Renaissance painting. Upon returning, she settled in Idaho to paint. She was particularly drawn to the dramatic terrain of the Salmon River canyon and began her career with a focus on landscape.
Chalk pastel was Kristin's medium of choice for many years and most of the work from her landscape phase (1987 - 1999) is done in pastel on sandpaper. In 1999, while pregnant with her first child, she began experimenting with imaginal scenes, switching briefly to acrylic and then finally to oil, drawing on her many experiences hiking and swimming in the mountains and lakes of Central Idaho. Painting with transparent colors on panel over a meticulous underpainting done in a limited palette, her focus for these new paintings was to allow inspiration from within to guide their creation. This first series has become known as her "Underwater paintings", exploring above and below the waterline of the internal world of a mountain lake.
The elements of these imaginal scenes have morphed into interiors with windows and a figure, basic elements that can allow more subtle expressions of emotion through their intuitively guided execution.
Her work was represented by JCrist Gallery in Boise, Idaho from 1997 - 2007. Her public presence has chiefly been online since then.
Kristin has raised three children with her husband, author Brian Kindall, and currently lives in McCall, Idaho, with him and their youngest son.
Her works can be purchased through this website, and she can be followed on Instagram, @kristin.eames, and Facebook, @kristineamesartist. Please feel free to contact her through the form on this website.
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