Welcome to my Site!
Kathy came to New Zealand from England with her husband and two children in 1980. She worked in her profession as a nurse for some years, before fulfilling a lifelong desire to go to art school when her children had gone on to University. She had sketched and painted all her life, and spent several amazing years at the Whitecliffe School of Art in Auckland completing a Diploma of Fine Art. The family sailed a traditional kauri sloop on the Hauraki Gulf.
For two decades her work (mainly Marine and Narrative paintings) was exhibited in Auckland galleries, including Art by the Sea and Art of this World galleries in Devonport, and the Studio of Contemporary Art, Newmarket. Highlights of those years were working as a resident artist at Lake House Arts Centre in Takapuna, and organising the Stars and Stripes gallery in Auckland's Viaduct Basin during the 2000 Americas Cup Regatta.
She recently moved to the rural Waikato with her husband to live near family, built a new studio and new series depicting rural New Zealand's landscape and gardens, finding it a great way of becoming acclimatised.
The wide open skies, the green pastures, trees - both native and exotic, mountains, rivers and lakes, together with isolated signs of habitation such as fence posts, farm houses with colourful gardens - and water tanks set high on a hill.
AND A HUGE SENSE OF SPACE AND FRESH AIR THAT MAKES IT ESSENTIALLY NEW ZEALAND.
The wide open skies, the green pastures, trees - both native and exotic, mountains, rivers and lakes, together with isolated signs of habitation such as fence posts, farm houses with colourful gardens - and water tanks set high on a hill.
AND A HUGE SENSE OF SPACE AND FRESH AIR THAT MAKES IT ESSENTIALLY NEW ZEALAND.
A complete change from the landscape painting of many decades, this year she used the knowledge acquired in producing digital drawings for her husband's text book (on geothermal energy!) - to embark on a colourful series of tondo canvases - 70 cm in diameter and using mixed media. The ideas are created digitally, using her own original imagery together with Corel graphics software, and then brought to life on the support in numerous stages, using acrylic paints, pigment inks, acrylic media of various types, gold leaf, bronze castings etc.
|
Her work is held in private and corporate collections in N.Z. and Overseas, including Carter Holt Harvey, New York; Graeme Hart; Telecom NZ; Dennis Conner, Stars and Stripes Americas Cup Syndicate; and the Prada Americas Cup Syndicate.
Awards: Finalist Telecom Art Awards 1992
The New Zealanders Toss Woolaston and James Nairn, the English artists J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, the Americans, Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer, and the Australian Heidelberg Group have been a source of inspiration in landscape and marine work. Wassily Kandinsky's work has always held a fascination for her with his wonderful use of colour and innovation. |