Artist File
Kristine Moran’s Work Is An Ever-Evolving Exploration Of Colour, Movement And The Landscapes That Shape Her Life
Published on June 9, 2026
Kristine Moran’s ambitious career as a painter spans abstraction, figuration and landscape, unified by her signature bold brushwork and strong use of colour. Informed by the history of painting, the Canadian artist reinterprets modernist traditions with a distinct contemporary sensibility.
Her compositions are characterized by a confident use of colour, expressive layering of geometric form and a nuanced attention to surface: dense, opaque brushwork coexists with dry, translucent layers that expose traces of underpainting, giving her work a sense of depth, movement and materiality. Kristine draws on personal rituals to shape her painterly narratives, weaving together art historical references with a compelling sense of storytelling.
Keep reading to explore her works!
From the Madcap Swimmers series, Utopias Come in Waves (2020).
One of Kristine’s most iconic bodies of work, Madcap Swimmers, emerged from the artist’s practice of long-distance swimming. Here, Kristine layers interchangeable shapes to construct rhythmic compositions that hover between figuration and abstraction. Repeating the swimmers’ black caps creates a cadence across the series, a subtle nod to Frank Stella’s paintings of the late 1960s. Kristine examines the shifting spatial relationships of forms in motion, and colour also plays a central role in creating the energetic, push-and-pull tension within each composition.
When it first appeared in 2017, the Madcap Swimmers series coincided with a period of transition, as Kristine prepared for a year-long drive across North America with her family. The swimmers became a recurring motif — an emblem of movement, endurance and perseverance.
From The Theater of All Possibilities series, The Dance (2022). 72″ x 60″.
In her subsequent series, The Theater of All Possibilities, Kristine evolved these figures into more narrative, representational forms. Dressed in sleek wet suits, the swimmers pursue their own utopian vision, engaging in art, dance, play and performance. Their silhouettes are painted with a dynamic contrast between broad, shifting brushstrokes, soft curves and sharp angles.
This series highlights not only the artist’s skill as a painter, but also her deep engagement with art history, including Matisse’s famous dancers and references to cubism.
Healing waters (2024). 72″ x 60″.
Kristine’s next chapter unfolded in Bordeaux, France, where a daily routine of walking through public gardens reshaped her approach to landscape. Immersed in her surroundings, she developed a series of luminous, abstract paintings grounded in both observation and invention. While moving through parks and gardens, she created rapid, almost automatic line drawings, then followed the sketches once back in her studio. Over time, she loosened ties to any single geographic reference, allowing each painting to emerge as an abstract expression of an idyllic space. This act of deconstructing and reimagining nature reflects her ongoing interest in what lies beneath the surface.
Since returning to Canada and settling in Owen Sound, Ont., Kristine has continued her in-motion practice, drawing as she walks along the shoreline and through local gardens, inspired by the shifting light and forms of the Canadian landscape. While Georgian Bay often serves as the source, these paintings still resist direct depiction. Familiar elements — pathways, trees, cliffs — are transformed and reassembled into new compositions that exist somewhere between memory, place and imagination.
Archways emerge as one of the few recurring, recognizable forms, symbolizing transition and passage. Kristine says the archway acts “as a portal to something greater yet ephemeral. This reflects my life and my work — a continuous pursuit of something just beyond reach, something not yet known.”
Artist Kristine Moran.
Kristine holds a BFA from OCAD University and an MFA from Hunter College, N.Y. Her work appears in collections including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Glenbow museum, the University of Toronto and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery. She has exhibited in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Kristine’s small-scale works on paper are priced around $3,000; large-scale paintings are upward of $25,000.
Kristine is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto. She was recently included in a group exhibition at Art Windsor-Essex. Her work will also be included in Daniel Faria Gallery’s presentation at Plural, Montreal’s Contemporary Art Fair, this spring.
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