About Kim
Kim Hovell, an Annapolis native, has had a lifelong love of art and the water. After earning her bachelors of fine art at Virginia Tech in 2007, Kim worked as a graphic and web designer before putting her heart into painting. Acrylic serves as her primary medium but she uses mixed media to build texture and depth. Kim’s strong connection to the Chesapeake and her love of the East Coast lifestyle provides the foundation for her artwork. She is primarily known for her oyster paintings but she enjoys painting all aspects of life on the water. Kim hopes to inspire tranquility, reflection, and a connection to nature in all of her works.
I hope my work inspires tranquility and provides a reprieve from the chaos of day-to-day life. -Kim
Oysters
Kim is perhaps best known for her oyster collection. She finds inspiration in the many contrasting facets of the oyster. Their rough-hewn outer shell giving way to a smooth, iridescent inner. Oysters are both global and local; like a fine wine, the taste of an oyster is tied to where it is grown. Kim showcases the beautiful shell of the oyster through paint layering and mixed media, capturing the spectrum of colors and textures. Each painting uses a range of pearly whites, deep blues, greens, browns, purples, beiges, grays, and browns.
Horizons
Kim’s horizon paintings depict the many scenic shores of the Chesapeake and its tributaries using a limited palette of complimentary hues. The richly textured sky and water, created by many sheets of color, are divided by softened shorelines with subtle details. Kim’s abstract seascapes capture the feeling of a time and place that can only be experienced on the water. These paintings provide a dose of Chesapeake tranquility.
Beach scenes
These playful little beach scenes depict an intimate moment in time on a hot summer day at the ocean. The whimsical figures are distinct figures yet abstract enough to celebrate that they are composed of paint. Deeply influenced by the beaches of Delaware and Maryland, Kim hopes that these paintings invoke the viewer’s own memories of summer days gone by.
I’d Love to Hear from You!
kimhovell@gmail.com