I started to paint with oils about four years ago, when both my
children were at school full-time and I was able to go part-time at
work.
Before then, I had only worked in acrylics doing the odd mural on walls
wherever I happened to be living and one or two other paintings.
I have had no formal training other than a term at evening class.
"That's fun" was the only feedback I ever got for my efforts.
I very nearly gave up, but was saved by some daffodils. One night we were asked to do the dreaded daffodil still-life.
I decided to use thick paint and a painting knife. It didn't work. "That's fun" says my teacher.
I was scraping off the paint at the end of the evening so I could use
the canvas again and a fellow student tells me to stop because it looks
great. After that, several friends and family saw them and were blown
away.
At the same time I happened upon an old easel and half a roll of moth
eaten canvas for a fiver. My oil painting career began.
I still have 'Blow' - one of my first and favourite oil paintings -
framed and hung in pride of place in my sitting room. Like most artists I
suppose, I am constantly striving for that same reaction, compliment,
look of suspended disbelief.
My paintings now mostly reflect my mood, and I can't help but be inspired by my beautiful surroundings in Cornwall.
I am drawn towards certain colours. Black, dark blues and purples when I
am despondent - dark skies and stormy seas. Turquoise, yellows and
violets when life is good - sunny flowers or beautiful rock faces.
Whichever way, I sometimes have to make a conscious effort to leave the
purples, light or dark depending on my state of mind, out of the
painting. Very often I find I have used it, either straight from the
tube - or when it has somehow mixed itself on the palette, and end up
with that 'oh no, its happened again' feeling, perhaps similar to a
dieter who has eaten a chocolate bar by accident. I have experimented
with all mediums but find oil the most versatile and gratifying. The
process of mixing the colours into a buttery paste with linseed oil is
as pleasurable as the laying down.
I habitually build up texture onto the canvas with different media
before applying the paint. This often produces remarkable and unexpected
results.
I am more comfortable painting on big canvasses.
Everywhere I look in the area that I live - the sea, trees or sky - I
imagine a painting and wish time would stand still long enough for me to
capture its splendour.
There is a permanent display of my work at Lands End Airport, Sennen
(just about as far west of Cornwall you can get) and at Great Atlantic
Gallery, St Just, Beyond the Sea Gallery in Padstow and The Cove Gallery
in Weymouth.
Please feel free to contact me direct through my website: www.kk@kk-artist.com
Registered: 2010-10-08
Location:
Cornwall
http://www.alltradeart.co.uk/kate-richardson
http://www.kk-artist.com
