Kristen Phillips is an abstract painter based in Bend, Oregon. Her paintings are built from an evolving vocabulary of organic forms, leaves, stones, and the lace-like structure that holds them. Each part carries equal weight, so the eye keeps moving and finds something new. She works intuitively, leaving some imperfections on purpose. The marks she trusts most arrive when the paintings seem to make themselves.
The work carries a stillness within movement. Phillips has lived and worked in many places, and that experience runs through her dense, interwoven paintings. She loves to be in motion herself, on her bike, in the water, or lost in a deep painting session. Silence and meditation feed the work as much as motion does.
Originally from California, Phillips holds a BFA in Visual Communication and a BA in Art History from Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, at the base of the San Francisco Peaks. She continued her studies in painting and drawing at the Honolulu Academy of Arts during the years she lived in Hawaii, and at several art schools in the heart of New York City.
She believes that making art changes the person who makes it, and that creating art is accessible to everyone. She writes and teaches about modern abstraction and the creative process, in person and online, helping people find their own way into an abstract painting practice. Outside the studio, she spends her days with her family on the trails and rivers of Central Oregon, her version of heaven.
For all inquiries please email kristenphillips.art@gmail.com