Artist Bio
Raised in a log cabin in the woods, Kim Ferreira now lives in Portsmouth, NH, a lovely little city by the sea. Her winding path as an artist began with a B.F.A. from the University of New Hampshire. Soon after, she opened an art gallery which she owned and operated for ten years. A new mom, she currently works out of her home studio while her daughter sleeps. Kim is also a venturous baker, a soy candle-maker, a dreamer, a brown-eyed girl, a cat lover, a pisces, a not-so-neat freak, and a do-it-yourself-er. She is obsessed with her garden and brakes for squirrels.
My work is inspired by simple pleasures and the exuberant enjoyment of life, what the French refer to as “joie de vivre”. These small-scale oil paintings feature an array of anthropomorphic woodland critters against a backdrop nodding to french rococo landscapes. Borrowing another french term, Dépaysant, my newest series is inspired by that feeling you have when you’re in a new place and experiencing very new things that make you feel foreign, out of sorts and strange (in a good way). It’s exciting to combine my favorite woodland critters with a new cast of magnificent beasts, imagining the ways in which they’d interact if they happened upon each other in the forest of Fontainebleau.
Main Subject
Animals
Materials and Techniques
I am a formally trained artist working in oils. Preferring a hard surface to work on I use braced birch panels. After applying a generous gesso ground, I sand the surface until smooth. I use a relatively limited-palette of 9 colors. I tend to work backwards from the way in which I was taught, often getting into the finer details with a tiny brush. I finish with a loose and atmospheric background.
