In the Christian liturgical calendar, Ordinary Time denotes the seasons between the high holy days of Easter and Christmas and their corresponding preparation periods of Lent and Advent. Ordinary Time gives value to the everyday and commonplace by counting each passing week as ritual observance. Through attention, the ordinary is noted, observed, and honored.

My work is a gesture of hospitality—an invitation to marvel at the mystery, beauty, and grandeur of commonplace moments encountered in everyday life. Through my work, I welcome my viewers into the profound presence of the ordinary by offering the gift of “eternal timefullness.” Artist and writer Makoto Fujimura speaks of “eternal timefullness” in his book Refractions:

“A timeful experience is given when our minds are allowed to fully respond to the senses… It’s what William Blake, the eighteenth-century poet, meant when he wrote, ‘To see a world in a grain of sand, / And a heaven in a wild flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, / And eternity in an hour.’”

I paint the poetry I discover in my lived environs of home, studio, community, and travels and offer it to others as an attentive lens of captured light, time, and space.

Kristen Peyton is a painter and draftsman of color, light, and space. She works from direct observation, imbuing her paintings with site-specific atmosphere and painterly breath.

Peyton earned a Master of Fine Art in Painting from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary. She is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a resident of Richmond, Virginia. She works as the Gallery Director and Curator of the Flippo Gallery at Randolph-Macon College.