Original paintings, Lisbon
Kerry paints in acrylic on canvas, by hand, in Alcântara: abstracts, cities, guitars, flowers and cats. Each one is the only one of itself, and the catalog marks the ones still in the studio.
One · Denver, 2020
Kerry’s daughter Joy was diagnosed with a severe illness while Kerry and her husband Paul were out on tour. She came off the road and went home, and for months the two of them talked on a phone screen most days.
Joy’s cats kept walking through the shot. Kerry started painting them, because it gave her a reason to sit still and because they were what was in front of her. That is the whole origin. Every canvas since came out of those.
Two · the RiNo years
Her parents kept old bridges and skylines on the walls when she was growing up and it soaked in long before she knew it. She painted New York and Tokyo years before she had lived anywhere resembling either.
I loved cities. I loved cities from outer space.
Most of the archive was made in a warehouse in Denver’s RiNo Art District, with Paul teaching guitar in the next room. She started painting the guitars too. When he asked where the first one came from she said she was in a bossa nova mood, and that is roughly how the decisions get made.
Three · Alcântara, now
The studio is in Alcântara now, in sight of the 25 de Abril bridge, and the bridge keeps appearing in the work, planned or otherwise.
The newest canvases have dropped the city altogether. Flat planes, a drawn line, and a surface that leaves you to find your own footing. They are also the largest things she has painted, and the two facts are connected.
See the abstracts→Here are the latest available pieces. Call me
Flat planes and a drawn line, with the horizon gone. The newest and the largest of everything here.
2020 / 26 Cityscapes 63 canvasesCities out of memory, and lately one out of the window. The biggest group by a distance.
2020 / 23 Instruments All 14 in collectionsGuitars, painted in a Denver basement with a guitar lesson going on through the wall.
2021 / 23 Botanicals All 12 in collectionsFlowers at full volume, and she means every bit of it.
2020 / 23 The Kitties All 16 in collectionsWhere the whole thing began. Sixteen canvases, all of them long gone.
The instruments, the botanicals and the Kitties have sold out. Kerry still paints all three on commission, and that is how most people get one now.
The studio
Kerry sells the paintings herself, direct, which is why prices come by email and why the person who answers is the person who painted it.
Say when you are in Lisbon and she will open the door. You turn up, she makes coffee, and there is paint on the floor, because it is a room where work happens rather than a room where work hangs.
If Lisbon is a long way off, name a canvas or describe the room instead. She sends more photographs, exact measurements, and a mockup of it on your own wall.
Ask about a painting→Name a canvas or describe the room. Kerry comes back with the price, the shipping to your address, and whether it is still in the studio.
A 150 cm painting deserves better than a thumbnail. Send a photo of the wall with something ordinary in frame for scale, a door or a sofa or a light switch, and she will put the canvas on it at true size before you commit to anything. Every available painting already has a room shot on its catalog page.
Wrapped, insured and tracked. It arrives ready to hang. Ask about anywhere else and she will price it.
Just write to her. Kerry wants three things before she stretches a canvas, and once she has them she will give you a timeline and a figure.
Where it hangs and what is already hanging near it. Whether the room gets morning, evening or a lamp, because that changes which colors she starts from. And the size in centimeters or inches, either is fine, but go and measure it rather than guessing.
Because the honest number depends on the size and on where the painting is going. Ask about a specific canvas and the figure comes back the same day.
Every painting in the catalog is an original, acrylic on canvas, painted by hand, and it goes to one owner. Prints and editions live outside the catalog and vary from image to image. Write to Kerry about a specific painting and she will tell you exactly what exists for it.
It is now the only way to get an instrument, a botanical or a Kitties canvas, because those three series have sold out.
Wrapped, insured and tracked. Anywhere else, ask, and she will find out what it costs.
Ruth Pastine is a painter based in California. Kerry Pastine works in Lisbon, and they are two different people who happen to share a surname.
Collecting
Name a canvas, or describe the wall and let her suggest one. studio@kerrypastineart.com or +1 720 220 9825.
