KimGatesman/ThirdSwitchStudios
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kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
KimGatesman/ThirdSwitchStudios
@kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
250 followers 460 following 69 posts
Lifelong creative kid. Oil Painting, Printmaking, Gardening, Woodworking, Music, and other Tinkerings.
KimGatesman.com
ThirdSwitchStudios.com
No AI, no NFT.
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kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
An emotional support painting anyone?

Click. Zoom in.

1. Breathe in. Look at the changes from warm to cool.

2. Breathe out. Look at the differences in color and brushstrokes on portions of the rocks above and below the waterline.

#art is healing.
#oilpainting #landscape #painting
A zoomed in loo at rocks in a shallow pool of water. Colorful, late in the date warmth with cool shadows. Painterly when you get up close. Lots of little rocks and pebbles.
February 3, 2025 at 4:16 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
I keep trying to find “nice” photos of me working in my studio for my website/marketing. This is all I got 😂
#goblinmode

On larger pieces I climb all around to get eye-level with the section I’m working on. My knees appreciate that I mostly work small. 🤦🏻
#art #painting #actionshots #workingartist
Kim crouched atop her stool and tabletop to get eye-level with a section of the painting that is too high up to see properly from the floor. She’s wearing a yellow ball cap, a gray tshirt that is ripped at the armpit, and cropped, green running pants. She’s barefoot for better grip to not slip fall. She’s working on her painting, Rocky Beach 35: Bittersweet. Which is a Rocky out cropping at East beach in Westport, MA. Moody sky full of dark clouds.
January 31, 2025 at 12:41 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
This is one where I think I got it right. I didn’t overdo it. Scale was perfect and provided plenty of space for larger brushstrokes to do their thing. I was confident, relaxed. Knew when to stop.

#RockyBeach 021
24x36, #oilpainting on panel

#sold #painting
#art #landscape #seascape #fineart
A close up of beach rocks at low tide. The shapes and brushwork are painterly and simplified. Very straightforward play between cool and warm colors to differentiate the light and shadows.
January 23, 2025 at 11:51 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Backing up from the view of the last #painting, we end up here. A few hundred steps away, the same day, but 15 years apart.

#RockyBeach 018
East Beach, Westport, MA
17.5” x 30.5”, oil on panel
2010

#landscape #seascape #art #fineart #oilpainting
Color oil painting of a rocky beach. Piles of rocks, at low tide, as a transitional space between the sand and the water. Moody, as the clouds are dark, and the water has brought out the darker colors of the rocks.
January 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Here’s a painting that, in fact, did NOT make it into a juried show. It’s fine, it’s how it goes sometimes. Been doing this a while. But here it is so y’all can hopefully enjoy!
“Rocky Beach 035: Bittersweet”
24”x40” oil on linen panel
#oilpainting #painting #art #landscape #seascape #fineart
Moody ominous landscape oil painting. Location East Beach, Westport, MA. Faces east, so the shadow of the viewer is cast upon the edge of the water. The horizon is another beach off in the distance. Seemingly calm waters compressed between the rocks and clouds.
January 20, 2025 at 2:57 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
A #commission that I finished just in the nick of time for the holidays! For the only #collector I’d endure #painting two, 1/4” tall, long haired toddlers into composition for 😂
#oilpainting #linenpanel
12” x 21.5”
Studio made moulding
#fineart #art #landscape #seascape
Close up of the two 1/4” tall, long haired toddlers playing on the rocks. One with blonde hair, the other with brown. Two little boys in their swimming trunks. A view pulling back a little farther from the two figures. Includes a bit more of the rocks and sky at the beach. The finished and framed painting for my client. Ebonized walnut frame with a silver leafed inner frame. The full composition of the painting with clouds colored pink yellow and purple by the setting sun. The line of rocks moves from left to right through the middle of the painting, almost across the entire width of the painting. Leaving a sliver of water to indicate the beach.
January 14, 2025 at 1:41 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
The second of two pieces I have in a show opening a January 11!

Imago Foundation For the Arts
…in Warren, RI.

www.imagofoundation4art.org/ifa-events

Rocky Beach 036 - Through The Thick of It
18x24”, oil in linen panel
2024

#oilpainting #painting #ocean #landscape #seascape #art #rockybeach
Horizontal oil painting of a rocky shoreline, on a very foggy day. There is barely a horizon, merely a shadowy transition from white to gray two-thirds the way down from the top. The tide is receding so lots of smaller rocks dotted around the foreground. Low level color, nearly monotone.
January 11, 2025 at 12:23 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
One of the pieces I have in a show opening a January 11!

Imago Foundation For the Arts
…in Warren, RI.

www.imagofoundation4art.org/ifa-events

Rocky Beach 033 - Off Season Warren’s Point
24x24”, oil in linen panel
2024

#oilpainting #painting #ocean #landscape #seascape #art #rockybeach
Single boulder rising above the water that is crashing against the shore. Orange tones of the pyramid-shaped rock, which has a beautiful high tide line marked by blue, green, black, and rust colors. Low horizon, overcast sky removes any hint of sky color…just a warm white fog.
January 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Click to expand this to its full 2.39, #CinemaScope aspect ratio!
I really wanted a #cinematic composition for this #oilpainting , and I think it works! Will definitely use in future pieces.

“The Final Hours”
20x48”, oil on linen panel
Framed. 2024
(Available) $9.6k

#art #painting #rockybeach
Oil painting with soft blue, purple, and pink tones. A central line of rocks moving horizontally across the middle of the composition. There is a shift in the color of the rocks from dark to light gray as you go from left to right. A wide cinematic aspect ratio was used for this piece, Rocky Beach 34.
December 28, 2024 at 1:04 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
A lot of the time I wonder if I’m even #painting #landscapes
Feels more like painting #portraits sometimes.
#oilpainting #rockybeach

RB 25 July Twenty-first
12x17.5”, oil on panel
private collection
2015 or 2017ish
Color oil painting with a central focus on a large boulder among smaller rocks. Low tide, hazy, blue green grays.
December 20, 2024 at 2:02 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Frazzled Florals

This series started innocently enough...by being too lazy to toss out a bouquet of flowers. As they progressively dried and crumpled into these beautiful forms they became something that was begging to be drawn.

#pencil #drawing #graphite #flower #frazzled #art
A black and white graphite pencil drawing. Centered in the page is a single, dried chrysanthemum flower whose petals retracted into beautiful crumpled forms. Invokes a dancer of sorts with wild, yet quiet movements.
December 18, 2024 at 12:49 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
The one that reminding me that I did not, in fact, forget how to paint…
I am convinced after any stretch away from #painting (and let’s face it, it’s as I start any painting…even if I just finished one) that I’ve forgotten how to #paint.

2023, #oilpainting , 6.5” x 11”
Private Collection
#art
Color oil painting of twilight at Elephant Rock Beach in Westport, MA. Facing east, the mouth of the Westport River off in the distance. Low tide. October twentieth.
December 17, 2024 at 12:07 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
This one of the early ones, number 13. I call it everyone’s favorite, because after 12 years and lots of rocky beaches later, this is still a fan favorite.

I gained a lot of confidence with this one. I trusted some new instincts and it paid off.

#oilpainting #landscape #rockybeach #art #seascape
Color oil painting. Point of view from someone standing in the shallows, looking back toward the beach. It is low tide so lots of rocks shown just beneath the water. Lots of small rocks, revealed by the receding tide, surround a grouping of two boulders and other larger rocks. Painterly, yet still quite realistic.
December 15, 2024 at 4:44 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
While my #electrostaticmonotype process is at heart a printmaking process, I’ve expanded the creative potential with #photography.

In 2023 I wrote/designed a short #sciart #zine that discusses my process, has a ton of photos, and even has some nice words from a friend!

1/2
Front cover of “Electrostatics: The Mark-making Experiments”, Volume 1, by Kim Gatesman. Vertical, half-letter sized book. Black and white with a single lightening bolt looking image in the cover. Inside spread of my photo book explaining “What is an Electrostatic Monotype?” Black and white abstract image that looks like abstract webs. Inside spread of my book showing a picture of the Whimshurst Machine (a hand-crank electrostatic generator) that I use for my work, as well as an old diagram and blurb about what the machine is and how it works. Inside spread of my book showing two black and white images, one is the cover image (which is black pigment on white paper), the other is second web and/or lighting bolt image that is white pigment on black paper.
December 13, 2024 at 12:49 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
My big easel setup! Stuffed into a 10’x12’ shed I make the best use of the space by adapting shelving hardware to clamp things into place.

I work on thin panels that can easily held in place on a piece of homasote board. Makes it easy to changeout paintings as needed. #oilpainting #easel #painting
Wide view of a very busy painting studio space. A panel is clamped to a cross bar at the top, as it sits in a lower shelf. Paint tubes and palette sit beneath the painting. Other paintings, and accessories on tables to either side.
December 11, 2024 at 12:57 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
One of my favorite detail shots from a piece called “From the Unknown”.
#electrostaticmonotype

The original image measures 11x17, and the detail itself is maybe only 1.5” square, but dang it is massive!

#SciArt #art #printmaking
Black and while image. A single electrostatic shock, which looks like a lightning bolt with a fringe around it. The single electrostatic shock from the first image composed within a white circle, like a sticker. The outer border lists two websites www.KimGatesman.com and www.ThirdSwitchStudios.com Black and white image of an electrostatic monotypes the full composition from which the detail is derived. There is a kind of chaotic energy, like something out of a photo from NASA. Feels like a primordial universe.
December 3, 2024 at 2:49 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
#ElectrostaticMonotype
#SciArt
With my process I can use charged objects as drawing implements! Results vary based on whether the object is on the (+) or (-) lead.

#kimgatesmanthirdswitchstudios #thirdswitchpress #art #printmaking #monotype
A black and white abstract image created with static electricity. There are lines that are trails of circles. And there are larger shapes with frilly borders, which upon closer inspection look like little lightening bolts.
December 1, 2024 at 2:31 PM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
/🪡
Kim Gatesman / Third Switch Press logo, which is a series of three switch symbols (as used in schematics) stacked vertically. The top two symbols are gray, and the bottom symbol is black. The switch symbol (reading left to right) is a dash connected to a dot at one end. That dot has an upward angled dash on the other side. There is a space, then another dot, attached to a dash.
November 30, 2024 at 11:47 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
What’s an electrostatic monotype? 1/
Black and white image. The imprint of a hand with seemingly swirling abstract shape around the tip of the second and middle fingers. It is an electrostatic spark.
November 30, 2024 at 11:47 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Hobbies Include: helping out at our friend’s wood fired kiln! We usually do the night shift, where we’ll feed the fire while an exhausted potter calls the stokes. The kiln gets to 2400 degF. It’s a small kiln so it’s about an 18 hour fire.

Looking forward to this welcomed distraction soon!
Kim in front of an open door to a wood fired kiln. She positions herself to quickly toss in logs because at this point in the night it’s north of 2000 degrees F.
November 14, 2024 at 3:32 AM
kgatesman3rdswitch.bsky.social
Introducing myself with a couple of pieces of my art work.

I’m a painter, printmaker, gardener, tinkerer, and life long student who’s trying to process the weight of the next four years…it, it feels like a lot. ❤️

Will give media/etc details in the comments.
A black and white abstract image, somewhat reminiscent of flowers, but its electricity. A seascape with a moody sky and a focus on the rocks as they move from the land into the water. Only the faintest hint of a bird, and a shadow of a figure.
November 12, 2024 at 12:26 AM