It’s never too late to bring a hidden talent to fruition. Take Kimberly Young. She began painting when she was in her 40s and a little more than a decade later she has found success with her art. HER CAREER hasn’t been without challenges. YOUNG is originally from Springfield, Mo. but has lived most of her adult life in Kansas, when she got married.
Young will be at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center at 1:30 p.m. Sunday for an artist’s reception. Her art will be showcased from Sunday to March 10. The show, designed specifically for the Bowlus, is titled, “An Artist’s Journey — Perceiving the Way.”
“It’s a journey for me and I am still on a journey and am still perceiving my way though it,” Young said.
Young began her journey into the art world in the late 1980s when she enrolled in a ceramics class.
“After filling our house full of sculptures and paintings, my husband (Dave) saw something I didn’t and suggested I take drawing classes,” she said.
“If you let yourself go and relax, your talents will come out.”
She started with acrylics but found she preferred oil.
“Oil is a lot more maneuverable. You can get colors and looks that you can’t with acrylics. I tried pastels but they don’t work as well as oil,” Young said.
Young mostly paints still life, representational art, landscape, portraits and animals.
She started with pictures of flowers but has since gone into western art.
Young said she was inspired by “things outside and especially things that are western.”
She and her husband are both outdoor and southwestern enthusiasts, she said.
Young said she doesn’t have just one painting process, but tries to paint from life. She also takes photographs and then paints from her studio, which is in her house with a north window.
“I don’t know of an artist who at some point hasn’t scrapped their canvas and started over because it didn’t feel right,” she said.
The “bruises of her art work” don’t deter Young. She says she is always finding inspiration, even from everyday life.
Young has found success with her art and says she has private collections throughout the Midwest, California and from the east and west coasts.
Her art has also given her the opportunity to travel thought the United States and even paint in Italy, through the Tuscan region.
Some of the artists she admires the most are Elizabeth Robbins, Dan Gerhartz and John Singer Sargent.
Young said she doesn’t have one favorite artist, rather she gets something from all of them.
She currently resides in Leavenworth with her husband, cat and two horses.
Young works in real estate, and works on her art when time permits, but eventually plans to make painting her full-time career.
For more information visit Young’s website at www.kimberlyyoungart.com.
Kansan artist finds second life through painting
