The Wild West is not so wild anymore, and the art that once defined the rugged spirit, wide open spaces and native lore has given way to a new art genre that captures the New West.

Replacing the old school romanticism that framed the images of the frontier in an idolized and picture perfect profile of a time long gone by, is a bold, joyous and colorful expression that brings to life the 21st century American West.

Rather than a precise replication or classic impressionism that is representative in most western art genre, New West presents an interpretative sensitivity that amplifies the subject matter beyond the natural state or static condition. Stylized by the use of vibrant colors, harmonious arrangements and overlapping brushstrokes, an embellished imagery energizes the artistic composition.

A pioneer of this New West art is K.L. McKenna who grew up riding the range, prospecting the earth, living in the great outdoors and camping under the magnificent big West sky. Ms. McKenna spent her youth with her renowned paleontologist father digging for dinosaur bones and hunting for fossils. From the deserts, mountains and plains of Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, K.L. McKenna's unique experiences as her father's apprentice gave her a taste of the soil, a feel of the stones and a view of the Galaxy that is seen and felt with each stroke of her brush.

"I was fortunate to have been brought up in a family that honored and cherished nature," said Ms. McKenna. "The way I was taught to explore and prospect the land gave me a sensitive appreciation and ability to evoke the divine essence of the natural west in all my paintings."

Indeed, that true love and respect for the beauty and bountifulness of Earth is seen in the expression of joy, spirit, hope and grandness that spreads across the canvas of each of K.L. McKenna's works of art. And the magic that brings her paintings alive - in landscapes, figures, and still lifes - is in an artistry that holds to a constant recognizable style while simultaneously blending a vibrant expressionism that fittingly welcomes the soul to the New West.

-- Gerald Celente, Trends Research Institute

The vibrant purple in K.L. McKenna's landscapes might not really be in the soil throughout Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. If there is blue sagebrush in those same western states, it has remained hidden to most. Yet, while looking at the liveliness of the colors in McKenna's paintings, there is no doubt she knows and loves that soil and sagebrush intimately.

K.L. McKenna's paintings aren't so stylized as to render the Western mountains, rivers, and bluffs -- where she has spent upwards of 40 years exploring – unrecognizable. Still, there is no denying her West is a West of perception. Whereas traditional paintings of the West idolize it with precise and picture perfect representations, McKenna's contemporary paintings invite viewers into this unique area, one small, imprecise impression at a time. Though McKenna's colors stray from reality and she plays with shape and structure, her results perhaps end up being more real than the precise pieces. The West, whether in historic or modern times, is not picture perfect. It is a place of imagination, of individuality, of opposition, of energy, of strong emotion, of struggle, and of both harmony and discordance. McKenna captures all of this, as well as deep reverence for the land, in a way only someone closely familiar with the West can.

McKenna's paintings of the West are undeniably landscapes -- albeit not strictly representational ones -- and can be appreciated at face value, but, as the West has given her more than mere vistas, she seeks to pass that depth on. Each of McKenna's bold brushstrokes is as much about what the West makes her feel as what she sees there. She sees soil and feels purple. She sees (or smells, even) sagebrush and feels a brilliant blue. "If you define color traditionally and you go by what the eye thinks it sees, most people would say much of the West is barren of color," says McKenna. "Feeling the desolation of the West and looking out at its vastness however, I see energy. This energy, the area's spirit, becomes color in my paintings."

Looking at McKenna's paintings, you would correctly assume the energy of the West has been positive, even exuberant, for her. Colors and shapes are uplifting rather than dark and brooding. Vivid reds, yellows and greens make you want to see the subjects of her paintings in person … or, if a trip west isn't in the cards, the colors make you want to at least smile. Each piece (and McKenna's work is not cookie cutter, each painting is obviously individual) challenges your assumptions about what landscapes can be, even what a landscape can teach.

"I try to expose a different opinion of a landscape. I like showing that there is something more to be seen than the usual realism," McKenna says. "There are things to be felt as well."

-- Dina Mishev, Wyoming-based author and freelance writer