Ryan Molenkamp’s paintings reimagine the terrain of the Pacific Northwest as monochromatic landscapes of flowing, linear marks that undulate like the striations of a slice of agate. In recent years, an obsession with volcanoes has taken root and his paintings predominately feature cones that boil over, rendered in rich ochres and sulfuric yellows, and craters that billow ashy clouds against aquamarine skies.
“Many of the drawings in my sketchbook end up as larger paintings,” Molenkamp says. “Those pages are a chance to explore, to brainstorm, to get obsessive with…often I need to sketch for a while to work out a new direction. I’m in the habit of taking my sketchbook out into nature and then using the surrounding landscape to shoot off in some away from realism. I hate to render something too accurately…it’s a bit of a paradox I guess. Sit in front of the big mountain and use just a snippet of its truth to inform the drawing. I’m talking around it, but it’s hard to explain—these drawings, without them I’d never be able to paint. But the sketchbooks are also a little bit of a diary, and a lot of a capturing of thoughts, images and the like of completed works and projects. It can also be a place to just have fun, to be playful—it’s a lot more free in its ideas than a focused painting. I have spent a great deal of energy trying to make my paintings feel more like my drawings over the years.”
