A In-Depth Conversation with Kyle Gallup

Photo Credit: EM Turner

Kyle Gallup is an American artist from St Louis, Missouri based in New York. Kyle’s artwork has been displayed nationally and internationally in art spaces and galleries such as No. 3 Reading Room & Photo Book Works, Winsor & Newton West London Studio, John Molloy Gallery, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Brooklyn Art Library, and other galleries. Her artwork is in private and corporate collections in the US, Canada, and Britain including Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in the Library of Congress; the late sculptor Sir Anthony Caro and his wife, painter, Sheila Girling. I had the immense pleasure of asking Kyle about how growing up in Missouri has influenced her art and also living briefly in Ireland; Along with asking her about her technique with a brush and how weaving has had an impact on her artwork.

UZOMAH: Can you explain how you explore your personal connection with landscapes and nature through your art?

KYLE: As a landscape painter, I gather ideas for work from my environment. A sense of place and time is important to me and my creative process combines observation, invention, intuition, and memory. I usually work on a couple of different series at the same time; currently, I’m making paintings that use a bell jar shape that acts as a container for organic shell and rock shapes and invented landscapes. I’m also working on a series of paintings that use the changing river landscape as a motif.

U: Where do you hope to see your work in the next few years?

K: I like to take my time with paintings, allowing them to develop organically. With that in mind, the word that I think of when I visualize future work is abundance.  I imagine many new paintings, discussions with new and old friends about art, and my paintings hanging in good company.

U: What kind of surfaces do you prefer to paint on and why?

K: I prefer rougher surfaces, whether it’s paper, canvas, or wood. The texture of the surface slows down my painting process, offering some resistance and intimate contact with what I’m working on. It also helps create a physical history, and many layers of tangible decision-making.

“Fantasy Shell Study,” 2020 9” x 12” Acrylic, ink, collage on handmade paper

U: What would your world be like if it did not have art?

K: I wouldn’t be the same person or be living the same life. Everything today is in balance. I would hope that in a world devoid of art, I would still find moments of visual and creative inspiration.

U: How would you describe your technique with a brush?

K: I use brushes for layering, excavating, and approximating a feeling on the painted surface. 

“River in Winter,” 2021 12” x 12” Watercolor on handmade paper

U: How has growing up in Missouri impacted your art? What are some of your fondest memories growing up in St. Louis?

K: The paintings I make are influenced by the wide-open, flat prairie, and river landscapes I grew up around. They’re a kind of internal compass. My father, a civil engineer had jobs along the Mississippi River that we would visit as a family on weekends. I spent my teen years canoeing Missouri and Midwest Rivers and these experiences still inform the paintings I make. Now I live near the Hudson River in Manhattan and this connects me directly to my past.

I have many fond memories of growing up in St. Louis, especially connected to nature and making things.  The many canoe trips I made with my sister were with the Sierra Club. Spending time in nature was a refuge. With the Sierra Club we petitioned to make the Meramac River a free-flowing waterway and finally, after a referendum, and pressure exerted on lawmakers, the Army Corp of Engineers Meramac Basin Project was scrapped. That was a big accomplishment. 

We also used to go to the Shaw Nature Reserve where there was a rocky bluff that overlooked the treetops in a wood. We would sit on the bluff and listen to the sounds below—the creaking of the tree trunks in the wind.  In high school, I received a grant to work with a local weaver and learned how to think about color through the weaving process. I also spent a lot of time in the St. Louis Art Museum looking at the collection especially paintings by Max Beckman.

U: How has your background in weaving had an influence on your painting? How important was apprenticing with a local weaver?

K: Weaving introduced me to thinking about tactile surfaces, layering, and color in a three-dimensional way. I received a grant at age sixteen to work with the artist weaver, Muriel Nezhnie Helfman (known professionally as Nezhnie) through the Craft Alliance Gallery in St. Louis. Muriel invited me to her studio and we talked about my interests and a bit about the weaving process. She was a very generous and supportive mentor and artist. I think that the experience of working with her gave me confidence in my own ideas about making art.

“Nightscape,” 2021 12” x12” Acrylic on handmade paper

U: You stayed in Ireland and painted the landscape for a summer. Would you suggest doing something similar for other artists before they enter college?  What did you learn about yourself and being an artist after that summer?

K: Travel can be a great way for a young artist to gain confidence though one can also explore the world in one’s immediate surroundings, too. I had wanted to paint the Irish landscape and the best way for me to travel at that time was through a program called Experiment in International Living. I was placed with a family on the West coast of Ireland in County Clare. There were six children in the family and we all got along and had a great time together. Every day I went walking for many hours with the O’Leary siblings. I carried my bag of watercolor and drawing supplies and we walked, picnicked, and talked as we covered a lot of ground. They told me local stories about the people that had lived in stone houses along the way, and the lore connected to ruined abbeys, graveyards, and thatched cottages. We’d stop at different locales for me to sketch and paint.

I loved the freedom and the immersive experience of painting on location. I also realized that painting and connecting to the landscape was direct and immediate. I’ve continued to approach landscape in this way throughout my life, by traveling and making watercolor sketches.

U: What were some of your most favorite things about Ireland?

K: The lore and stories connected to my Irish family’s turf and their gentle humor and joking was my favorite part of my experience in Ireland.

“Red Sky, Evening,” 2020 12” 12” Acrylic on Canvas

U: What were the most valuable lessons you learned about being an artist from your time as a student at Tufts and the Boston Museum School?

K: That painting is a viable means of expression, with wholeness and a living history that I can be a part of.

As a student, I took a painting class that was taught in studios at the Boston Museum. The light was beautiful and students worked near one another. The one thing that stands out in my mind about that time is the Matisse painting, “Vase of Flowers” (1924) that hung on the wall near the door that led up to the studios.  It greeted me each time and like an old friend, reminded me that color and light lead the way.

“Winter Bell Jar 2,” 2020 24” x24 Acrylic on Canvas

U: How is art a means to reflect and also a tool for renewal and awaking for you?

K: To me, landscape painting spurs contemplation. Daily work in the studio keeps me grounded and focused. It’s a place of search and discovery. The ideas of reflection, renewal, or awaking come later when paintings have been around a while and I can look at them with more perspective.

U: In how you chose colors, is it emotionally driven or planned out?

K: It’s a little of both. Usually, I have an idea of how I want a painting to feel, and color is the largest part of the overall feeling. During the painting process, I mix colors and have them available while I’m working. Then I change the individual colors according to the way the painting evolves. Each painting is a journey and I try to respond in the moment to what the painting is telling me. 

For more information about Kyle’s artwork please visit her site. Also, visit her Facebook Page and follow her on Instagram.