Connecting with Nature through Art: Doyle Hostetler and Kay Stratman visit Raitman Art Galleries August 02 2025, 0 Comments
By Kimberly Nicoletti
This weekend, two inspiring artists come to Raitman Art Galleries. Doyle Hostetler visits Vail Aug. 1-3, and Kay Stratman paints live in Breckenridge Aug. 8-9.
The last time Doyle held a show, he had just begun portraying the softer side of wolves amidst the Colorado controversy, which he understands from both sides, as he’s an avid wildlife lover, and his wife’s uncle is a rancher.
“I’ve got some nice, very communicative wolves,” he says about his current show, which also includes a vividly expressive bison, an up-close-and-personal sketch of a tiny owl and a bobcat titled “Feline Fancies” that reminds him of his old cat, as it sleeps upside down without a care in the world.
Feline Fancies by Doyle Hostetler
Always one to push his own boundaries when it comes to art, he continues to elicit emotion not only through captivating eyes, subdued backgrounds and composition, but also by conveying each animal’s personality.
For example, one of his latest wolf paintings depicts a wolf resting her muzzle on the other’s forehead, both with eyes mostly closed. The image portrays the same sense of comfort a child feels when enveloped in the warmth of a loving and attentive mother. It’s a sense of calm, ease and rest for which probably all humans long. Another shows one wolf sleeping while the other keeps an eye open, watching over him protectively. Meanwhile, “As the Snow Flies” highlights a gentle spirit, particularly in the eyes and the same kind of ever-so-slight head tilt you might glimpse in your dog.
“Each wolf is a little bit different,” he says. “I pick up those little things that set them apart.”
Other works, like the bobcat in “Feline Fancies” and the mountain lion in “The Curious” masterfully blend a sense of wildness with a familiarity and vulnerability, as if these wild animals could become a pet — or, at the very least, want to be loved like one.
He usually relies on reference materials, chosen for personality traits they convey. But sometimes he can’t find good reference material for specific commissions — a challenge that helps him push past any previously self-imposed limitations. For example, one woman wanted a painting of three horses.
“I had to basically find some other horses that were close and then make it all come together, and it was just uncomfortable. It worked out. She loves the horses, but it was just kind of out of my norm,” he says.
She also wanted a pure landscape, and since he’s only included minimal backgrounds in his wildlife depictions, creating a landscape gave him more confidence in moving forward, he says.
A Watchful Eye by Doyle Hostetler
He loves coming up to the gallery to meet people, many of whom enjoy his work so much that they collect multiple pieces. One woman even asked him to replace his painting of a mountain lion, which burned in a fire; she said: The only thing she could think was to go back in and get her favorite painting.
Sometimes, people feel a bit shy approaching an artist, so here’s a little cheat sheet of talking points; feel free to ask Doyle about how:
• He obtains photorealistic qualities, while being as abstract with brushstrokes as possible (for example, squiggly marks in foxes),
• he switched from a 30-year career building houses to fine art (and how it saved him from being burned-out),
• to navigate the business of being an artist.
He also enjoys hearing people’s perspective on art — and life — or seeing their art (or their kids’ art, for that matter).
Kay Stratman paints live in Breckenridge
To watch Kay Stratman paint live is like a lesson in Eastern and Western art influences. Her soft, soothing, atmospheric watercolors imbue a sense of airiness and peace.
Trained in traditional Asian painting — think bamboo, plum blossoms and other forms of nature painted with ink and watercolor on rice paper — she transitioned from sumi-e, which translates to “ink painting” into P’o Mo, a technique that involves pouring thick watercolors onto gold- or silver-covered rice paper called shikisihi boards, which allow the paint to move around.
Coastline Therapy by Kay Stratman
“It’s basically puddles of paint that you shift and manipulate and let dry. Then, you may see something in that pattern and create a little river or mountain or something like that,” she says. “I’ve learned to manipulate it in ways that can create recognizable shapes.”
Though her paintings have evolved into her own signature style, she still employs P’o Mo techniques and bamboo-handled brushes with handpicked soft or stiff bristles that come to a point.
“I can use them in a broad fashion or a pointed fashion. You choose your brush depending on what kind of brushstroke you’re going to be making. A soft brush holds a lot of water, and a stiffer brush holds less water, but it allows you to make more technical brushstrokes,” she says.
Supported by the flow of P’o Mo, colorful streaks of vast sky comprise about two-thirds of the space in most of her paintings.
“I’ve always been fascinated by skies. They add to that airy feeling. Every time you look at the sky, it’s different. It’s never the same, so I feel like I can do just about anything,” she says.
Leave the Road, Take the Trails by Kay Stratman
The ethereal feeling found in Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings have also influenced her, only she has taken to depicting animal bones, including skulls, rather than flowers. It all began when she found a giant elk hip bone on a hike and then began using skulls she discovered in eastern Wyoming — or those that her sustainable hunter friends procured. Either way, each tells a story and are meant to “honor their presence in our wild world and show people why our wilderness is important,” she says.
Hold Your Head High by Kay Stratman
To create her skull paintings, she actually removes the paint she has puddled before adding the skull; otherwise, the watercolors would simply blend into colors below.
While about two thirds of her paintings depict various mountains, she expanded the framework for this weekend’s show, with a theme of: Wild spaces, favorite places. As a result, she included California’s Big Sur coastline with its marine layer and a closeup of a corner of a hot springs in Yellowstone.
Up Close and Prismatic by Kay Stratman
Since hot springs make the perfect subject to illustrate her technique, she’ll be painting the vaporizing waters at the gallery.
“It’s really colorful, and the paint just flows every direction,” she says. “It’s pretty fun to watch me paint.”
She begins by explaining her Eastern materials to onlookers. Then, questions, which she absolutely loves answering, spontaneously emerge.
While each artist takes a different approach in terms of color palette, subject matter, tools and techniques, they both viscerally connect viewers with the beauty and calm of the natural world.