Kurt Kamholz Medium Oil and Acrylic on canvas Email kurt@kurtkamholz.com Website www.kurtkamholz.com Artist's Statement Kurt Kamholz was born and raised a Northern Illinois boy, spending all his formative years and indeed most of his life in McHenry County. He took to Art at an early age, covering any blank space he could with drawings and paintings, taking every art class he could in high school. He graduated from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, earning a B.S. in Art with an emphasis on painting. While at school, he studied under renowned Illinois painter Harold Gregor, and much of Kurt’s love of the Illinois landscape can be traced to Gregor’s influence. He also discovered the paintings of Monet and became captivated by that great master’s control of light and color. After graduation, the challenges of marriage and children and work soon took over most of his free time, though he was never far away from painting, dabbling every chance he got. In the last few years, Kurt has found himself refocusing on the painting he loved so much growing up. He decided there was no better way to demonstrate his rebirth than by doing a series of paintings that celebrated the landscapes of his life, and he wandered the backroads and parks of his home county, trying to demonstrate the simple beauty of Northern Illinois. His McHenry County on Canvas Series was the result. The Slack Tide Series is the latest step in Kurt’s evolution as a painter. Like Monet before him, who progressed from painting simple rural scenes to wall-sized Water Lily paintings, Kurt feels compelled to move forward and now finds himself intrigued by the interplay of color, light, texture, and composition found on a walk along the shoreline of any beach. Inspired by his trips to the beaches of Florida, Kurt is in these paintings attempting to capture the serenity, beauty, and relentless tug of the surf on sand.