ABOUT
Kate Owen is a semi-abstract artist with a passion for colour. Painting full time from her home studio, a creative oasis with expansive views of undulating country on their property in Northern NSW, Australia.
From an actively creative childhood through to fashion design after school and many subsequent professions throughout her career, a common thread of colour and design is evident. Kate took up painting full time in 2017 and was invited to join Greenhouse Interiors in 2019, which helped to shape her career. She has had several solo exhibitions and group shows and enters various competitions throughout the year. Kate is now represented by Wentworth Galleries in Sydney and Brisbane, and her pieces are widely collected and enjoyed in many homes across Australia and abroad.
Kate’s monthly newsletter is a joyful infusion of colour and the place to be if you want access to new work first, or following her journey on Instagram is a fascinating insight into the life of a rural artist.
Kate’s organic marks are influenced by natural forms - her surroundings on a morning’s walk, a wildflower amongst the weeds, the sight of a prickly pear caught in a fence line, or the magnificent sculptural cactus plants that besiege her home are amongst her most significant stimuli.
Beginning the artistic process intuitively, Kate possesses little to no expectancy over the outcome. Her first marks on the canvas, performed in fast-drying acrylics, are vigorously expansive and free, as she allows the paint to direct her down the route it desires to go. The backdrop is typically comprised of sweeping gestural marks, and both the appearance and colour of such set up the work’s temper.
She creates a series of sketches on paper in pencil in the lead-up to a new collection to freely explore form and to create muscle memory around the theme. Loose sketchings are then made on the canvas, either in oil pastels or paint, after which alternating layers of transparent and solid paints are added, in a process where one mark informs the next. Portions of previously painted papers may be incorporated into the work as collage, providing supplementary dimension and surface texture. Her liberal use of oil sticks scribbling throughout the work is a lush addition and provides a sense of freedom.
During her process, Kate is constantly accessing memories stored from her childhood in her subconscious and using those recorded impressions to express the wonderful world full of images in her mind. Her free-form compositions result in joyful, agile works that convey her intention to create an emotionally uplifting experience.