Kris Grenier Art

Kris Grenier Art Kris Grenier explores the interplay of identity and the environment in adventure-inspired fiber art.

Have you ever wondered how I create my needle-felted landscapes?With the help of online programming through Peters Valle...
05/11/2026

Have you ever wondered how I create my needle-felted landscapes?

With the help of online programming through Peters Valley School of Craft, you can step inside my studio for a behind-the-scenes look at how a woolen landscape comes to life. In this 45-minute live demonstration (followed by a 15-minute Q&A), I’ll walk attendees through my process of translating reference imagery into a needle-felted landscape. Participants will learn how to: select and work from reference imagery, blend custom wool colors to achieve depth and atmospheric nuance, use needle-felting techniques to create shapes and lines, apply foundational color theory to landscape work, build highlights and shadows to create the illusions of form and light, and harness wool’s unique properties to develop layers and textures.

This demonstration is ideal for beginners curious about felting as well as makers looking to expand their textile vocabulary. It also serves as a preview of a 3-day workshop I’ll be hosting at Peters Valley in September, where participants will explore both wet-felting and needle-felting techniques to create their own landscapes. More on that soon!

To sign up, visit petersvalley.org.

Thank you for a beautiful opening night of the WACC Signature Member Exhibition! It was a lot of fun to meet so many gu...
05/10/2026

Thank you for a beautiful opening night of the WACC Signature Member Exhibition! It was a lot of fun to meet so many guild members in person and to see their lovely work. This country mouse never ceases to be inspired by the cultural scene in Cincinnati—what a treat to be part of it for a night!

It’s another Cincinnati night tonight! is hosting the Woman’s Art Club of Cincinnati’s Signature Member Exhibition, whi...
05/07/2026

It’s another Cincinnati night tonight! is hosting the Woman’s Art Club of Cincinnati’s Signature Member Exhibition, which opens today. The piece I’ll be sharing is one of my very favorite feltings, “Golden Hour,” which you can catch a glimpse of on the second slide. The opening reception runs from 5:00 until 8:00, and I’d love for you to stop by and enjoy the beautiful show!

This spring’s edition of “New Woman” was a vibrant show—full of color, texture, and layers of meaning. It was such a tre...
05/06/2026

This spring’s edition of “New Woman” was a vibrant show—full of color, texture, and layers of meaning. It was such a treat to exhibit “Persistence” and “Moving On” at and to meet a community of hard-working and forward-thinking women+. As I get ready for another opening in Cincinnati this week, I found myself looking through photos from this show and wanted to share them here. 🧡

Tomorrow’s the big day! I’m so excited to be part of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center’s “New Woman” exhibition, a three-...
03/05/2026

Tomorrow’s the big day! I’m so excited to be part of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center’s “New Woman” exhibition, a three-floor showcase that opens with a reception tomorrow evening at 6:00. If you’re in the Cincinnati area, I’d love to see you there!

As described by the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, “New Woman celebrates the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of emerging women artists from Cincinnati and beyond, highlighting practices that expand and challenge traditional narratives of representation, identity, and visibility. The exhibition continues a legacy of recognizing the evolving contributions of women artists, inspired by Elizabeth Nourse, the Cincinnati-born painter who achieved rare international distinction at a time when few women sustained professional artistic careers.“

My “Moving On” (from the Arizona Trail) felting made it onto the poster, and “Persistence” (from the Tahoe Rim Trail) is also in the show. When I dropped off my work for the exhibition, there were so many beautiful and fascinating works gathering in the arts center, and I can’t wait to see them all up on the walls and meet the artists who created them!

It would be difficult to overstate what a gift a residency is—let alone one in a national park. 💓 In everyday life, stud...
05/22/2025

It would be difficult to overstate what a gift a residency is—let alone one in a national park. 💓

In everyday life, studio time is something that is diligently fitted in among lots of other responsibilities. A residency is a chance to step away from those responsibilities and focus deeply on the creative process. I’m in the studio as soon as I’ve eaten breakfast, and I’m still working on projects just before I climb into bed. It’s a period of intense work but also a time for learning and planning. I’ve listened to podcasts and audiobooks I’ve long had on my list, and I’m working through an online workshop I’ve wanted to watch.

My residency is roughly halfway done, and I’m starting to have a good collection of scenes and subjects I’d like to felt and paint. I’m also getting my trail legs for the season, with all the hiking I’ve been doing!

A week into my residency at Shenandoah National Park, I’m starting to feel like I know my way around. I’m recognizing th...
05/17/2025

A week into my residency at Shenandoah National Park, I’m starting to feel like I know my way around. I’m recognizing the silhouettes of Shenandoah’s mountains and getting a sense of the many watersheds on either side of the crest where the Appalachian Trail and Skyline Drive are. One of the things I was most looking forward to about this residency was the chance to connect deeply to a place, knowing all corners of it, not just the narrow ribbon of a north-south trail. As I explore Shenandoah on foot and sketch what I find, I’m learning my way around the Park.

It’s been a rainy and stormy week—albeit nothing like my fellow Kentuckians experienced last night. 💔 With all the rain, the streams here have swollen, and, on several occasions, the trails and streams have merged.

It’s now indisputably wildflower season, and there is so much color trailside, both from tiny bluets and spiderworts and from huge mountain laurel, rhododendron, and azalea shrubs, which cover entire hillsides with color. It’s a beautiful time to be making my home in this Park, and I’m finding no shortage of subjects for my sketchbook.

Back in the studio, I’ve begun a 36” square botanical felting and continued my experiments with color freedom in oil paintings. When I’m stuck, I’ve enjoyed mulling over an idea while I hike. 🥾

My first few days as an Artist in Residence at Shenandoah National Park have been nothing short of incredible. From Frid...
05/14/2025

My first few days as an Artist in Residence at Shenandoah National Park have been nothing short of incredible. From Friday morning on, I’ve been hiking and sketching. I’ve seen waterfalls, mountain peaks, whole hillsides of mountain laurel, and so many red efts. It’s good to be back in the Appalachian Mountains.

During my residency, I wanted to lean into the nature journaling part of my practice as a way of documenting this amazing experience. I’ve challenged myself to fill a sketchbook during my three-week residency in the Park, collecting memories and imagery I’d like to bring to life in future feltings and oil paintings. Felting is a slow process, so I’m sketching for some creative cross-training—how can I visually represent a place in a 10-30 minute drawing or painting? As a bonus, while working in the woods, I’m getting to talk to other visitors about the artist in residence program and share my practice.

In conjunction with the Park’s Wildflower Weekend, I got to host a 2.5-hour felting workshop, where I taught some 30 people (ranging in age from preschoolers to retirees) about wet felting and needle-felting. I loved hearing their stories, from watching community felting days during PeaceCorps service in Mongolia to memories of Penland School of Craft to supporting a partner on his AT thru-hike. And, their work, inspired by the nature walk we took at the start of the workshop and the view they enjoyed while felting en plen air, was so wonderfully varied and beautiful.

With this very rainy weather moving in, I’m headed back to my indoor studio today, where I’ll be beginning to create my first Shenandoah-inspired felting.

📷: Felting workshop photos and video by Shenandoah’s Corrina Wendel

It has been such a joy and honor to share my work with UK Arts in HealthCare. While the “Wild and Precious” exhibition h...
05/08/2025

It has been such a joy and honor to share my work with UK Arts in HealthCare. While the “Wild and Precious” exhibition has come to a close, 11 of the feltings from the show are now part of the program’s permanent collection. I’m told they’ll likely be on view in the new cancer center, where patients, staff, and visitors will see them for years to come. 🌈

A big thank you to for making this possible and for helping me share my story through art.

If you’d like to read more about this special exhibition, I’m including the “Wild and Precious” show statement in the comments.

📷: 1-3, 5: Jason Shambhu

Currently on view at the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital in the Chapel Gallery 🧡Glacier Peak LilyPacific Cres...
04/29/2025

Currently on view at the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital in the Chapel Gallery 🧡

Glacier Peak Lily
Pacific Crest Trail
2023 | needle-felted wool | 24x32 inches
 
Part of my “For the Trees” series, “Glacier Peak Lily” interprets a moment in the backcountry by focusing on a trailside detail—in this case, a flowering lily in Washington, just 150 miles south of the Canadian border.
 
In the distance, beneath blue-green peaks, clouds hang low in a mountain valley. Flowering plants and leafy vegetation grow trailside in a rainbow of greens. Carefully-wrought details draw out the focus of the felting, a multi-stemmed Columbia lily blooming on an August day.

Address

Cincinnati, OH

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Kris Grenier Art posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category