Interpreting how changing light colors sand, land, water, and sky, a native shore artist finds her greatest expression materializes outdoors

by Laura D.C. Kolnoski

The lure of the sea and the joys of the great outdoors have long been siren calls to oil, pastel, and charcoal artist Kathleen (Oberdick) Byrnes. Raised in Middletown when farms and apple orchards still surrounded her home, Raritan Bay was a mere three miles away; the ocean just three more. As a girl, she spent many hours exploring woods and ponds, soaking up the raw nature of the Jersey Shore. A lasting impression was made.

“When I was 11, I discovered I was able to make a pretty good semblance of a face. My little friends raved, and after that I was set on being an artist,” said Byrnes, who also sites book illustrations among early influences. Her first serious attempt was submitting a drawing to “The Famous Art School” on those old matchbook covers.

“While set up to get student tuition, the school was comprised of well-known commercial artists whose work I recognized,” she recalled. “I got in, but my family wasn’t about to pay tuition for a 12-year-old.” After graduating Middletown’s Mater Dei High School (now Mater Dei Prep), she attended the University of Rhode Island on art and financial aid scholarships, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. While freelancing, she took workshops from professionals to hone her skills and techniques. Work as a graphic designer followed, with employers including Dell Publications in New York and Lincroft’s Brookdale Community College, where she applied her skills to theater posters and the Oceanography Department.

Marriage brought a move to Washington D.C., and a position as art director for an advertising agency. Clients included restaurants, radio stations, and the clothier Britches of Georgetown, which sent her on photo shoots to Ireland, Brazil, Canada, Florida, and New York. The ocean beckoned, so the couple purchased a second home in Stone Harbor. While her children were young, Byrnes became an art teacher for Georgetown seventh and eighth graders, but her desire to return to fine arts persisted. She made the jump to full-time professional artist and never looked back.

Gravitating toward plenaire (painting scenes in the open air), Byrnes’s favorite locales are inlets, bays, bridges, beaches, marshlands, and countrysides near her Stone Harbor home, as well as Cape May, Wildwood, Virginia, Maryland, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Vermont.

“We chose Stone Harbor as a second home for its beauty,” she explained. “The wetlands hold a certain nostalgic glow. Thirty years ago this summer, we had our first family vacation there. As a painter, I find it full of stories to tell—the battle of salt and wind scarring people and buildings, the off-island life contrasting with the bright, leisurely on-island life. When I see dramatic lighting on a field of beach grass, I just desire to paint it. Shore lighting is like nothing else.”

Mist, fog, cloud reflections, patterns on the sand, forgotten boardwalk buildings, and even heat and bugs all influence Byrnes’s creations as she strives to“ keep the feeling fresh and expressive.” In addition to print awards garnered during her advertising days, she was a three-time finalist in the Juried Yellow Barn Annual Members Show in Maryland, where she also held solo shows in 2012, 2014, and 2016.

In Stone Harbor, her works are popular entries at the Yacht Club of Stone Harbor Art Show and the William Ris Gallery, where she exhibits and participates in various shows throughout the year. Byrnes has been a finalist in the Juried Pastel Society of New Jersey Show, and the Riverfront Renaissance Center Gallery “Maurice River Show” in Millville.

“I tend to gravitate toward water and bridges; there is a sense of freedom or escape there,” she said. “Many of my costumers are friends, and friends of friends, but I have been fortunate to have people walk up to me while painting and want to buy my work right off the easel.” Her newest source of excitement and inspiration is painting flags, beginning with a home in Longport, just south of Atlantic City.

“I was attracted to the home’s beach towels fluttering in the wind,” she said. That was followed by a Stone Harbor home she calls the “flag house” for the multiple banners outside. She realized she was creating a new body of work. “I was on a roll. I saw flags everywhere, including a home in Mauricetown. When I saw a giant flag covering its entire doorway, I just had to paint it.”

Earlier this summer, she undertook painting diptych (twocanvas) scenes. Look for her along the Jersey Shore this summer where she plans to experiment with that format.

Kathleen Byrnes
kathleenbyrnesartist.com