Artwork copyright Kay Lamoreux Buckner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Kay Lamoreux Buckner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Clear Cut, 1990

Kay Lamoreux Buckner
(American, born 1935, died 2012)

Location: Bethel High School, Spanaway

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Clear Cut is part of a series of paintings by artist Kay Buckner inspired by childhood memories of Seattle. Using a child's point of view to emphasize and exaggerate the steep slopes of terraced lawns, the imagery was composed both from recollection and imagination. Buckner states: "Quiet moments anticipating the arrival of a bus provide opportunity to meditate on landscape and architecture."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Bethel School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Northwest artist Kay Lamoreux Buckner (1935-2012) created figurative paintings and drawings with rich psychological imagery. In the 1990s she began to create textile artworks.

Kay Lamoreux Buckner was born and raised in Seattle. She graduated from Lincoln High School, the University of Washington (Bachelor of Art degree in Fine Art, 1958), and Claremont Graduate School in California (Master of Fine Art degree in painting, 1961). Kay was awarded the Rotary Award for Painting at The Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair (1955) in Bellevue, and she was included in Seattle Art Museum's 42nd Annual Juried Exhibition of Northwest Artists (1956). She moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1962, where she had a studio for the rest of her life and taught at the University of Oregon. The Frye Art Museum in Seattle held a solo exhibition of her paintings in 1979.