The Livestock Marker Show: Gwyn Kohr, Kathy Kuhlmann, Russ Warren

From June 9 through July 15, Les Yeux du Monde will feature paintings using livestock markers as the medium by Gwyn Kohr, Kathy Kuhlmann and Russ Warren. Kohr and Kuhlmann have been taking studio critique classes from Warren for over six years. Early in 2014, Kohr brought Warren some livestock markers that her husband used to mark his cattle. Warren was captivated by these inch-wide sticks that came in myriad bright colors from neon yellow to silver, pink, purple and more, and soon he began ordering them by the box load. As a Texan who grew up with cattle, he liked their intended use, but he also liked their “fluidity when activated” and that they were easily manipulated for over 24 hours before drying. Plus, he exclaims, “they are light-fast and weather resistant…all for a fraction of the cost!” (of traditional oil sticks.) His enthusiasm was infectious and soon Kohr and Kuhlmann joined his journey of experimentation with this new medium which, as the exciting work by each artist shows, proves to be endlessly diverse in its use and expression.

Gwyn Kohr enhances her brilliantly hued ambitious in scale paintings of flowers or abstractions with the livestock marker. She layers them over her paintings adding high keyed color and texture or scumbling that creates dynamism and three-dimensionality. Kathy Kuhlmann uses the livestock marker for its own expressive potential in her paintings of favorite creatures like the crows and roosters and also as a compliment to her photo transfer paintings in which she transfers images from photos to paper or canvas, evoking a hazy surreal atmosphere. In these she uses the medium for added color and linear detail within the space of the painting or she extends the imagery of the photo transfer into a painted frame, revealing that the livestock marker surprisingly can be mixed to bring about most any hue that more traditional mediums can create. Warren’s excursion with the medium since 2014 has taken many forms, but he always uses it on paper primed with acrylic and enhanced by ink or oil stick and “scraper” a tool he invented to remove and reveal earlier layers of color. His imagery has ranged from his own Picasso-like Combines that evoke many sides of a face or figure in one painting, to a series of day-glo  Skyline Drive Wildflowers, to his most recent series of 100 Bulls. Bulls have always been a favorite subject for his art and the livestock marker has inspired him to return to the subject with great fervor. The result: a herd of humorous and delightful compositions in all colors and expressions, revealing Warren’s mastery of line, layering and medium.