Kathleen B. Hudson (born 1986) is an American landscape painter who lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She paints in oils, both in the studio and en plein air, and her subject is light and atmosphere: “the brief point during a sunrise when the sun fills the air with an ethereal golden glow; a break in a storm where light pierces through heavy clouds,” as she puts it.
Kathleen B. Hudson, Castle Peak, High Summer, oil on linen panel, 18×24 in.
She says she began painting as soon as she could hold a brush, and that oils became her medium in middle school, when she painstakingly copied paintings by John Singer Sargent. She studied at Harvard (class of 2009). Her painting Bright Morning, Timberline Falls won the Grand Prize of the PleinAir Salon and was on the cover of PleinAir magazine in July 2017. She is a Signature Member of the Plein Air Painters of America and the second-youngest artist ever elected a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists; her work is in museum and private collections on four continents.
What I like is her honesty about painting outdoors. “It is not remotely relaxing,” she told Harvard Magazine. “It excites me, and I’m happy doing it, but it’s kind of a battle.” And on why we do it: “I’m looking for something that stops me in my tracks… There is something deeply human about being moved by our natural surroundings.”
Kathleen B. Hudson, Morning Light on Cumberland Falls, oil, 16×20 in.
Much of her time now goes into developing field studies and reference photos into larger studio works. She also teaches plein air workshops on value, composition and atmosphere.
Her paintings: kathleenbhudson.com · Harvard Magazine, 2024