Elaine Kehew

Elaine Kehew is a contemporary artist whose artworks are largely gestural abstractions. Raised in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York, Kehew’s work has a spiritual basis from the very beginning of her artistic journey. She considers the paintings to be her home, one that is expanding continuously.

Through her artwork, Kehew addresses ideas like ubiquity, universality, identity and anonymity. With inspirations drawn from various sources such as song lyrics, flowers or even organic shapes found in nature, the paintings masterfully display spurts of creativity. Her canvases bathed in spontaneous brushstrokes are derived from emotional intensity. With deep investment in the process of painting itself, Kehew’s paintings are conscious attempts at tapping into an authentic impulsive urge to create a gesture. She does not impose her free will on her paintings, rather embarks on a journey with her tools, exploring the weave of the fabric and texture of the paint on the surface, stopping only when the artwork has given artistic voice to her emotions.

Highly idiosyncratic, Kehew’s artworks are consistent with various techniques such as graffiti, collage, and mark-making. Most of her artworks are created with multiple mediums such as charcoal, ink, acrylics and oils. In contrast to the emotional energy and gestural surface marks, Kehew, at times, has dabbled with different abstract art forms including colour-field painting. Initially appearing to be cool and austere, eschewing the individual mark in favour of large, flat areas of colour. Her colour-field paintings have proven to be both sensual and deeply expressive, in a different way from her gestural abstract expressionism.

Kehew’s artworks are part of numerous museums, private collections and art galleries across the world. Presently she paints at her studio in Washington DC, frequenting between Africa and the United States.