1960s Large Kathleen Gemberling Adkison Abstract Oil ''Columbian Cleft''

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Kathleen Gemberling Adkison (1917-2010 Washington) ''Columbian Cleft'' Oil on Canvas 48''x70''

Kathleen Gemberling Adkison created expressive abstract paintings. An avid … more Kathleen Gemberling Adkison (1917-2010 Washington) ''Columbian Cleft'' Oil on Canvas 48''x70''

Kathleen Gemberling Adkison created expressive abstract paintings. An avid hiker and mountain climber, her dynamic compositions were influenced by the natural landscape. In her own words, "The insistent life-force or energy expressed by nature in its wondrous plenitude of form and color, its mystery, its surprise and growth cycle are what continue to compel my work." She often placed her canvases flat on the floor, and painted with broad strokes and splattered paint, one of the first artists to adopt this working method.

Richard E. Fuller, the founding director of the Seattle Art Museum curated her first museum exhibition and introduced her to Mark Tobey around 1960. Her life and art changed after that. Mark Tobey became her most influential teacher. She studied privately with Tobey and Morris Graves from 1946 until 1950.

She was based in Spokane, eastern Washington. Her work was the subject of exhibitions and museum surveys throughout her career. She was one of only eight women included in the exhibition "Northwest Art Today" for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. less