Kris Ekstrand is a painter and printmaker who addresses the landscapes of the American West in her work. She lives in Petaluma, CA with her writer husband, Carl Molesworth, and two Norwich terriers.

“I grew up along the banks of the Stillwater River in northwestern Montana. The river was swift and pristine and – in spring – not at all "still." My brother fished it and hunted its vast, adjoining woodlands. As children, we learned to swim in it and spent many of our days exploring its damp, riparian edges.”

“Until 2022, I spent much of my adult life near the Skagit River in northwest Washington state. I walked daily on a trail, just a few steps from my studio, that winds along on an earthen dike protecting fertile farmland from the saltwater beyond. It is a luminous, magical landscape.”

“Coincidentally, my current studio is, again, situated next to a tidal slough – the Petaluma River. It flows through a busy town center then reaches across a vast estuary in a network of diked loops, marshes and oxbows until it reaches San Pablo Bay. Like the Skagit delta, it provides rich habitat for a diverse biosystem and shows evidence of the effect of rising sea levels on adjacent farmland and an aging system of dikes. I am captivated by the interplay of contrasting elements: old and new, manmade and natural, the intricate scritch-scratch of surface texture and the beautiful blur of distance.”