Featured artist: Kelley Mogilka
To Leave It All Behind, 13x20, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (available)
Kelley Mogilka is drawn to the specific shapes and colors that make up a person’s features. She thinks it’s fascinating how those abstract qualities, when translated into two dimensions by being painted or drawn, can reflect and even amplify the essence of a person.
Viridian Woman, 16x12, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (available)
Q: You work with a limited color palette. Can you share specific instances where the constraints of a limited palette have inspired or challenged you creatively?
It’s always a challenge! But I find it really rewarding. With a limited palette, the colors are always harmonious, and the mixing process just makes sense to me. There are so many different avenues to mixing color that it can be hard to know which color combination is best and which colors to choose. With a full palette, typically, the quickest and easiest route to mixing color is taken (which is great and has its own advantages). Still, I notice that when using a full palette, I don’t get into the depth of color mixing like I do when limiting my palette. I think that’s the best thing about discovering new, untraveled pathways into beautiful greys. It requires a lot more mixing, but I learn so much every time.
A great exercise I love is working with only two colors (plus white); it forces you to think more about warm vs. cool relationships rather than asking, “Is it red, yellow, or blue?” It’s like a puzzle you have to solve; because you have so few colors, it becomes a process of elimination where you have to create a hierarchy of chroma. It’s a wonderful challenge!
Tethered, 18x16, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (available)
Q: When working with live models, their emotions and expressions can significantly impact the atmosphere of your artwork. How do you approach capturing and responding to the emotions your models convey, and how does your emotional presence influence the narrative or mood you aim to depict in your pieces?
My mood definitely affects how my painting is going to go. I’ve learned that I must be present and considerate with each stroke while simultaneously responding quickly to what parts of the subject I’m drawn to first and getting those marks made when I feel them. I always tell my students to work “paced but with haste.” If I work too quickly, I’m usually too focused on the outcome and make poor decisions. But on the other hand, if I’m working too slowly, I can get too sucked into noodling around with unnecessary details, and that can kill the life and energy in a painting. So, I have to be somewhere in the middle, and that’s when I think the figure’s emotion comes out, and my paintings are more successful. When I’m not mentally and emotionally present, the paintings don’t work, and I end up scraping them (which happens very often).
I’m definitely not one of those artists who can paint when they’re not inspired; I have to really be excited to paint something for it to turn out well. So, usually, I find ways to trick myself into getting inspired on those days when I’m not feeling it. Doodling in my sketchbook, looking through art books, or watching demo videos usually does the trick. Still, some days, it’s paint, scrape, paint, scrape… and that’s when I learn my time is better spent setting myself up for success tomorrow by refueling on inspiration.
Daydream, 12x12, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (private collection)
Q: One of your influences is Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla. How has Sorolla’s artistic style and techniques influenced your own work, and what specific aspects of his art do you find most inspiring in shaping your artistic identity?
I love his looseness and his color. His work feels like he captured an immediate, fleeting moment, which feels like life. It has movement, and it breathes. I want that in my paintings. And I think that’s why I love to paint figures in direct sunlight because it’s when you feel the sun on your skin and the breeze in your hair that you feel the most alive. I’ve tried to make darker paintings, and they’re alright, but they don’t capture my soul the way that paintings of light do. And Sorolla is the master of light, so yeah, he is a top favorite!
Harmony in Turquoise, 6x6, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (private collection)
Q: When navigating the spectrum between figurative and abstract art, your work often exhibits elements of both. How do you find balance in merging these two approaches?
I learned a lot about abstraction from a mentor of mine, Olga Krimon, specifically how to reduce the information I see in a figure and (surprisingly) how I can capture more about the essence of a person by simplifying. It’s like cutting out unnecessary or distracting details to get to what’s underneath. And I guess the remnants of that simplification are the abstraction: the gestural marks, rhythmic brushwork, and notes of broken color.
Once I learned how much more emotion I could capture with abstraction, my studio practice became more difficult. It’s hard to do well, and I’m still timid about it. There’s no blueprint, and it’s so subjective that it’s hard to know when it’s right. Especially as a realist-trained artist, I could copy and paste my references on my painting, but now that feels so lifeless in comparison. So, I have to be in the right headspace, present and connected with my subject matter, and not focus on any outcome. This means, again, I scrape a LOT of paintings (luckily, the Primed Smooth panel scrapes off quickly), but when it does go well, it is fulfilling to feel something from my painting. Olga is a master of it - her paintings are so simple and yet pack so much emotion in them.
Reverie, 16x12, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (private collection)
Q: As a figurative artist, your work often centers around representations of the human form. How do you approach the challenge of capturing your subjects’ essence and intricacies while infusing your personal style into each piece?
I think a lot of it comes down to gesture. I try to start my drawing with big, sweeping motions that encompass the rhythm of the figure, and when I’m looking for that feeling, I have to subconsciously feel their movement in my own body before I lay a stroke down. I think it’s an energy thing; we both get in sync, and I’m able to capture a part of them while showing my emotional response as well. It’s totally a team effort with my models, and I work with some of the best models who give me amazing energy to work with! I do a lot of quick gesture paintings (like 20–30-minute figure paintings from life), and they really help me to stay loose and focus on capturing that essence rather than get caught up in details.
Respite, 20x16, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (private collection)
Q: As a young and up-and-coming artist, your fresh perspective and innovative approach stand out. How do you envision your role in the art scene, and what are your aspirations for your artistic career moving forward?
The dream is to have a huge studio at home with my husband Mason (also a painter), making the paintings we want to make and making a comfortable living from them. I’d love to continue being surrounded by an awesome artist community that nerds out with me over paintings and keeps me curious and always learning. And my only aspiration is always to be able to make a painting better than my last.
Adrift, 18x24, oil on Ampersand Primed Smooth (private collection)
Q: How did you discover Ampersand, and what do you love most about Primed Smooth for your work?
I’ve been using Ampersand panels for many years. I think I first started using the Gessobord when I was an undergrad. Then, when I was pursuing my master’s degree at Laguna College of Art and Design, I was searching for a slicker and less absorbent surface because I wanted to preserve more of my brushwork, and I came across the Primed Smooth panel. It was so foreign to me when I first used it because it’s unlike any gesso panel! It is super slick, and I love how each brushstroke is preserved with clarity. I also use very transparent pigments, like India Yellow and Prussian blue, and the panel amplifies both their transparent nature and intense chroma so you can get cool color effects.
It’s also great for doing a reductive technique—scratching or wiping away parts of the paint can bring you right back to the whiteness of the panel, so you can get bright highlights easily. And, of course, one of the best things about it is the ability to wipe off a day’s work and get a fresh start when needed.
Artist Bio:
Kelley Mogilka is a figurative painter hailing from Edmond, Oklahoma. After obtaining her BFA in Studio Art at Oklahoma City University in 2018, she attended Laguna College of Art and Design for her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting. At the age of 25, Mogilka was recognized in Southwest Art Magazine's 21 Under 31, Young Artists to Collect Now, and has won several awards for her paintings at the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association. Most notably, Mogilka was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award at Pence Gallery in Davis, California, where she had her first solo exhibition in early 2023.
She currently lives and works in Orange County, California as a full-time painter and Adjunct Professor at Laguna College of Art and Design. Kelley Mogilka is represented by Vanessa Rothe Fine Art in Laguna Beach, California. To see more of Kelley's work, visit her website or Instagram.
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