Kathleen Robbins has studied the beautiful scenic coastline of NH and Maine for many years and received her Master’s Degree from Massachusetts College of Art. Her work navigates the line between abstraction and figuration. Working directly from life, she distills the elements of the landscape into an economy of mark-making and random shorthand. The loose abstract quality of the paint conveys the mood and sense of place. By stripping away explicit details and embracing the fluidity of abstraction, the work becomes a visual dialogue between the physical world and the emotional interpretation. It was her first visit in 2019 to the Marginal Way walking trail that set her work in motion to follow a new direction inspired by the dramatic landscape where land meets sea. A new restrained color palette emerged with emphasis on strong contrasts and bold shapes. Working in acrylic paint, she can work and layer quickly which opens her painting process up to new possibilities. Her love of drawing appears in the form of oil crayons, graphite pencils, and scratch marks on the surface of the paintings.