Kara McIntosh: Rhythms of Landscape
Driven by her curiosity and desire to create, Kara McIntosh explores landscape through a wide range of media - including drawing, painting, and textile. Kara’s landscape work ultimately led to her deep investigation of worlds that exist both externally and internally. In this interview, Kara shares her work and journey with us.
How did your creative journey begin?
After having children, I felt a strong pull towards creativity. I wanted to make things and explore life through art so I took some art classes, workshops, and the odd retreat. I tried a lot of different mediums - drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics - but I came back to painting over and over again. Over the years, I worked to establish a consistent practice and began to show and sell my work. More recently, I have added fibre and textiles into my practice with rug hooking.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Curiosity about place, community, and the physicality of the natural environment is what drives my creative practice. In exploring the rhythms and patterns of the landscape, my response to the exterior world has shifted towards an investigation of my own interior world.
How has your work shifted and evolved over time?
In my early practice, I painted what I saw and experienced in the natural world - trees, fields, water, the rocky shores of Georgian Bay and coastal areas of Newfoundland. But as I became more experienced, my mark making has became more confident, adventurous and abstracted. I am more interested in making reference to the landscape, instead of representing it. There is an enormous sense of freedom and expansion for me in this development, allowing for stronger intuition and imagination to guide the process.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?
I try really hard to get into my studio every weekday to paint and draw, but I do most of my fibre work from home. I’m best in the mornings, when the light is good and I feel fresh and awake. I also paint outdoors whenever I can, but living in Canada, that isn’t always comfortable!
There is always hot tea, a candle burning and often music or a podcast playing.
Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?
The minute I rented a studio outside of my home, I was able to commit much more time and energy to my practice. I love being surrounded by other creative people in the studios in our historic building, it offers opportunities for conversation, collaboration and feedback that didn’t exist when I worked only from home. Being part of a creative community has fueled my own practice in ways that I am still discovering, but there’s no question that having a dedicated studio outside of my home has been a game changer.
I have done a few artist residencies which have been amazing opportunities to immerse myself in exploring interesting and inspiring places, landscapes and communities. Having dedicated time to focus on my creative practice has really helped me evolve with new ways of seeing and working.
How has Instagram impacted your art career?
Instagram is an important and valuable vehicle to display my work to whoever is watching or paying attention. It has enabled all of us to have a far greater reach, especially during covid. It’s fun, I don’t take it too seriously, but it is a great way to expand my network by sharing who I am and my creative process and journey. I also follow a lot of other artists which is an easy way to find inspiration in others’ work. There is, however, nothing like seeing art in real life!
What are your future goals and aspirations?
I am exploring gallery representation as a goal, but am taking my time to find a good fit. I have learned a tremendous amount by making, selling, marketing and everything else, but I would like to develop a partnership in order to keep expanding, not only my network of collectors, but also my own artistic development.
Website: karamcintosh.com
Instagram: @karamcintoshstudio