When Durango artist Elizabeth Kinahan was preparing for a weeklong artist residency at Willowtail Springs, a 60-acre nature preserve near Mancos, she had lofty ambitions to track, identify and observe the patterns of the preserve’s many birds.
Soon after arriving in mid-June for the Durango Arts Center residency, however, it became clear that she had set her goals a little too high: so many birds, so many flashes of wings and so little time.
“There’s no way you can do this in just a week,” she said. “I realized two days in that I had to narrow it down.”
So, Kinahan set her sights on redwinged blackbirds, the ever-present marsh denizens with bright shoulder patches and trilling calls. She spent the week observing, photographing and sketching the blackbirds, along with the magpies, herons, hummingbirds, flycatchers and wrens that flew into her sight lines as she watched from her canoe or the window of her cabin.
The frenetic motion, grace and comedy of the birds – along with the movement of the landscape and the way the solstice sun glinted off the water – formed the inspiration for Kinahan’s new exhibit. Fleeting Impressions opens with a reception Friday at Studio &.
The show features about 20 new pieces from Kinahan and includes a mix of small paintings and charcoal and pencil drawings. Smudged lines and deliberate imprecision give the pieces a sense of movement, and Kinahan said that reflects the behavior of the birds and the dynamic nature of the preserve.
“A lot of the paintings are kind of loose to give that style of something that’s here, and then it’s gone,” she said. “When I look back on it, everything was moving so quickly and had this kind of shimmery ethereal quality that made it seem like it was all a dream. That’s what I kept coming back to.”
The fleeting feeling of the whole experience influenced her work in ways she didn’t anticipate.
“I saw a definite shift in my style,” she said.
Kinahan has always loved animals, and she is known around Durango for her paintings of farm animals, like cows, goats, chickens and mules. Capturing birds was a new challenge, she said, especially because they are less inclined to sit still. And while at first she thought they would be simplistic compared to large mammals, she grew to appreciate the personalities and quirks of the winged animals, especially the blackbirds.
“They were just really charming and comical and active,” she said. “I’m just happy to highlight them and showcase them a little. (Birds) are a really important species, and I think that we really need to support them.”
To that end, Kinahan will teach a one-day workshop on creating backyard bird habitats on Nov. 1 at Willowtail Springs. She will also be donating 50 percent of the proceeds from her show to Willowtail Springs with the hope that other artists have the chance to slow down, look around and create.
kklingsporn@durangoherald.com
If you go
Elizabeth Kinahan’s new show, Fleeting Impressions, will open with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday at Studio &, 1027 Main Ave. The show will be up through Oct. 4. Kinahan will also lead a workshop about creating backyard bird habitats on Nov. 1 at Willowtail Springs.
