04 Jul Artist Spotlights: Kim Casebeer

Kim Casebeer depicts landscapes that seem to go on forever, in which the sun, hovering near the horizon, imbues fields, hills, mountains, and clouds alike with a radiance that seems to emanate from within. Depicted in expressive, textured brushwork, her Western and Midwestern subjects also possess an air of intimate familiarity stemming from how well she knows them, having grown up in the south-central Kansas farmlands and living for most of her adult life amidst its northeastern grazing ranchlands in the Flint Hills.

“There were a lot of hobby artists in my family,” Casebeer says of her early childhood influences. “But, coming from a small community, I didn’t know that being an artist could be a career.” So, she entered Kansas State University to study interior design — until she realized that “I was really bad at measuring and drawing straight lines” and switched to a fine art program with an emphasis on graphic design. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1992 and worked successfully in the advertising world for nine years, first as a graphic designer and then as an art director.

Meanwhile, her love of painting led her to create art regularly in her spare time, and she began selling her work through galleries. In 2002, she says, “I made more money off the two shows I had than I did from my annual salary,” so she finally became a full-time artist. “I much preferred painting outside to sitting at the computer.”

A Break in the Clouds | Oil on Linen | 24 x 18 inches | 2024

Now, as then, what compels Casebeer to capture a scene is “the overall composition of how light and shadow work together in an overall composition.” Her favorite seasons to find subjects near her home are spring and fall, plus a week she and her husband spend each summer in and around Jackson, Wyoming. “That’s my plein-air time, when I gather references for the year,” Casebeer says.

A recent trip resulted in material for a series of cloud-covered Grand Teton scenes, including one featuring “a little bit of sunlight on the snow still on the mountains.” Back home in her studio, her 8-by-10-inch horizontal piece created on-site evolved into A Break in the Clouds, a 24-by-18-inch cloudscape with mountains below, “emphasizing all the dramatic movement” she saw in the sky that day.

Casebeer’s latest creation captures a different perspective on the Tetons, viewed from the Snake River Overlook. Entitled A Stunning Evening, the 48-by-108-inch triptych solves the challenge of “creating interest in each one of the paintings while finding ways for the eye to move through all three of them.”

Golden Cottonwood | Oil on Linen | 16 x 18 inches | 2024

Such masterfully executed visions have earned Casebeer membership in prestigious organizations, including Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, and the American Impressionist Society. She’s received ample professional awards and invitations to participate in major shows at venues like San Antonio’s Briscoe Western Art Museum; the National Wildlife Museum in Jackson; the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana; the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City; and the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Casebeer is represented by A. Banks Gallery in Bozeman, Montana; Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming; Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, Colorado; FourSquare ART in Mesa, Arizona; Prairiebrooke Arts in Overland Park, Kansas; and SNW Gallery & Custom Frames in Manhattan, Kansas. Her work will appear in the American Impressionist Society’s 26th Annual National Juried Exhibition at Cassens Fine Art in Hamilton, Montana, from August 1 to September 2.

Based in Marin County, California, Norman Kolpas is the author of more than 40 books and hundreds of articles. He also teaches nonfiction writing in The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.