About Kate

Kate lives just a few minutes walk from the sea in Worthing, West Sussex, England with her husband Chester and their little black cat.

As well as working as an artist Kate also enjoys a career as a freelance graphic designer, as an art tutor and graphics software trainer. She qualified as a graphic designer in 1988 and worked full-time in the industry until 2002 when she decided to develop her lost love of drawing. She drew her cat peeking out of a jar as a gift for her sister and after drawing pictures for friends and other family members, a neighbour asked if she would draw her a dog portrait and so she took her first paid commission.

The pictures above aim to show the progression of my 'attractive' self-portrait! It shows the gradual building up of colour washes and detail using acrylic paints and was completed on a deep edge box canvas size 16" x 20".

Acrylic paints are waterproof when dry so they can be painted over without moving the pigments underneath, unlike watercolour paints. They can be applied like oil paints but with a quicker drying time and a lot less smell. These excellent properties mean I can paint on almost anything from canvas to stone, wood, crockery and tiles. The list is almost endless! The fabulous properties of acrylics have also caused me to experiment with incorporating fragrance into my artwork. Smells can trigger past memories and evoke strong emotion. To discuss how artworks can be customised to any particular shape or size…

Call Kate on 01903 202780 or contact Kate via email

Kate turned her loft room into a studio space, embarked on a painting course and started experimenting with different mediums to develop her style.

For her portraits Kate's aim is to capture the personality of an animal or person and apply it to a canvas so the character shines out. She does this either by spending time with a pet or person if possible, or working from a variety of different photographs. She loves texture and uses acrylic paints thick for impasto work and watered down for glazes. She paints on a variety of surfaces from box canvases and artboards to MDF and slate.

As Kate produces mostly commissioned artwork she does not hold many examples to display in galleries but she has many happy customers, some of whose quotes you can read on the pages of this website. You can follow the progression of her latest artworks on her blog: http://portrait-artist-kate.blogspot.com

In 2006 she won the Open Art Exhibition in Cranleigh, near Guildford in Surrey which resulted in her first solo exhibition the following summer and she has had various artworks exhibited in other exhibitions along the south coast. She has also had numerous Christmas card designs printed and sold through www.jubileeinternational.net and other charities.

After gaining an adult education teaching qualification, Kate teaches art courses and workshops at various venues around Sussex. Subjects on her courses include comprehensive drawing skills (line, tone, learning to draw with the right side of brain, perspective and scale); soft pastels, watercolours, acrylic paints and mixed media. Workshops include more specialised areas of interest like creating realistic skin tones or fur, effective colour mixing, reflections in water, how to get perspective into landscapes and other tips and techniques for beginners to improvers. Please contact Skyblue Art Classes for details of her latest workshops or contact Kate if you are interested in classes - requests for any subject or medium are welcomed and homemade cake is often included!

In 2005 she was commissioned to paint the portraits of a computer training company in London and continues to add additional faces to the rogues gallery at Mouse Training in Worship Street as new trainers are taken on.

Contact Kate

To enquire about a commission or an art class please fill in this contact form or contact Kate by phone on 01903 202780