Kathleen Marshall

Saboly 6, Black Chair

2023

As one of only a few contemporary painters who work exclusively in gouache—an opaque, water soluble pigment that is notoriously difficult to master—Kathleen Marshall is somewhat of an anachronism in today’s art world. Marshall earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from the University of Santa Barbara, a Master’s degree in painting and drawing from San Diego State University, and, in 1982, a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego. By accident, in 1976, she discovered gouache paints at the venerable Bon Marché department store in Paris and spent years teaching herself to use them. The artist’s interest in somber, European-style room interiors, however, stems from childhood when she frequently visited her grandmother, an artist who managed an estate in Los Angeles. Marshall’s darkly evocative compositions are more than skilled renderings of rooms. “They are metaphors for life,” she says. “I paint interiors that I’m surrounded by and that speak to me.” Empty chairs, for example, are stand-ins for people, doors imply a vanished human presence, and views through windows suggest engagement with the outside world. In 1989 Marshall moved to France permanently, but frequently returns to her hometown of La Jolla. (Excerpt from "100 Artists, 100 Years: A Century of Creativity in San Diego," by Mark Lugo)