• “Equinox (24 x 30” oil on canvas)”

  Promise and hope forever linger even in what feels like starkness and cold. Color is always present if we stare long enough, eyes opened or closed.

• “Peak Colors”

  Always on the hunt for life in a forest, like this image at Lapham Peak, or through a grove or lone tree, it’s the odor of composted leaves and the vibrancy of light and fullness of these creatures I seek, over and over again. My experience keeps skipping on the same note, but renders a deeper view, a place to linger for a while -- a place that I never want to leave.

artist bio

Kathleen Leahy Pulz studied art, dance and english at the University Of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee, graduating at Milwaukee Area Technical College with an Associates Degree in Television Production. After raising four children with her husband, she turned her attention toward painting and enrolled in a painting workshop, then enrolled in UW-Milwaukee for art classes. She is mostly self-taught.

Since 2004, she has participated in Plein Air competitions (winning first and second place awards), West Side Gallery events, and Art Crawls.

Most noteworthy and recent commissions include three wall size acrylic paintings as well as six partial wall paintings that hang in the San Camillo assisted living facility in Wauwatosa. Most of her other works reside in private collections in the U.S. as well as in the Wisconsin State Capital Building.

Kathleen Leahy Pulz was born to a large family and raised in the Milwaukee area and lives with her husband in Wauwatosa.

artist statement

It wasn't until my oldest child graduated high school did I start taking painting workshops and playing with oil paint on my own, eventually developing the steady practice I have now.

Going into nature is what I seek daily – to experience the simplicity of just being. From there I explore in paint the colors, contrasts, mood and shadows of the natural world, and invite the viewer to linger there with me. Once describing myself as a mother and care giver first, my children grew up and moved into their own adult lives-- I began to transfer that energy toward creating in oil and acrylic, paintings that reflect the same passion and love for all things.

Influencing my work include visual artists Edward Hopper, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Klee and the contemporary pastel artist, Wolf Kahn, as well as the poets Williams Carlos Williams, Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry. My goal is to explore my truths -- in nature, life and art.

proficiencies