Please tell us about yourself and the journey you have taken to becoming an artist.

I live and work in Glasgow after finishing my Interior Design studies there at Glasgow School of Art. Where to start on my journey though! I think I’ve always been creative, to be honest, my dad is an avid painter and worked as an art teacher, so I guess my creative path began there with him. We would paint and draw at weekends throughout my childhood, or visit exhibitions, it was always just a part of my life.

Tell us about your studio practice. How do you create your artworks and what does a day in the life of Kate look like?

Interiors and architecture are my main sources of inspiration. I’m led by all the places or spaces I visit, whether while travelling or during more everyday moments such as having a nice cup of coffee or a walk in the park. I carry a wee journal with me and note down observations from places - little sensory interests, descriptions of patterns, or half overheard conversations for example. All these elements find their way back into my paintings, and I see the final pieces as a kind of distillation and re-imagination of these experiences.

Where and how do you source the imagery for your artworks? How does an artwork begin?

Last summer I spent a few weeks in Nice, France soaking it all in. I’d do sketches in situ, make notes, as well as take photographs, all of these then become the imagery that helps me build up to a painting.

What do you hope that your work communicates to the world?

Joy more than anything, I take pleasure in creating the works and want others to feel this way too. I want the work to be a calming vision of escapism for someone.

What are you currently listening to in the studio? What helps you get ‘in the zone’?

Each day is different, but I love listening to the D.S. & Durga playlists, firm favourite being Big Sur After The Rain. I also love listening to and occasionally peaking at the NOWNESS YouTube channel, “My Place” and “Great Gardens” are always brilliant.

Which other styles, artists or artworks have influenced you?

David Hockney, Georges Perec, Mary Fedden, Henri Matisse, Gaston Bachelard, Betty Woodman. Incredible colour and incredible writing, the two things that inform my work the most.

For me, it’s so important to attend exhibitions and find new inspirations. I was recently at Tramway in Glasgow where I was introduced to the work of Scottish artist Norman Gilbert, his use of pattern and colour was breathtaking.

In terms of current practising artists, I love the work of Natalie Savage, Cathy Tabbakh, Per Adolfsen, B.D. Graft, and Lubaina Himid to name a few!

What are your current obsessions, fascinations, or favourite things?

I love interiors, discovering the patterns, colours, shapes, and details that build them into their form.

What was the first piece of art that moved you? What was it about it that grabbed you?

So hard to say as I have always been around art; David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the RA still sticks in my mind 11 years later!

If you could choose three pieces of work from Artsnug to ‘snuggle up with’ which would they be?

I love Clare Halifax’s Fish Studies, I think they are particularly beautiful as a set - the movement in the water and patterns really pull me in, so enchanting!

You have the chance to hop into a time machine and join any historical art movement. Which do you go back to and why?

Having spent a summer in Nice, I would have to say there in the 1920’s - there was such a vibrant art scene back then and the architecture was so exquisite.

Where would you like the future to take you, as an artist?

I think it’s important to always grow and take new opportunities that seem exciting and relevant, I’d like to keep travelling and working with institutions that inspire me! This year I have residency coming up with Print Club in London, which will see me start working in screen printing, I also had my first solo show in Glasgow opening April 2023 and group shows in Seoul and New York. It is important to me to keep moving and growing.

SHOP KATE’S WORK