Opening Conversation

Gallery Tour

Kate’s landscape paintings portray nostalgic Australian vistas, and her interiors evoke universal familiar surroundings that elicit memories of small yet important moments in hers and our lives. They also hold the audience spellbound with their intense decoration and expressive use of colour.

In recent times our homes have become places of retreat; self-constructed interiors of earthly delights and places of safety and solace. Our homes, and all that we choose to furnish them with, bear significantly on our present domestic situations, as we isolate ourselves from the world around us.

Kate says “The ‘Interior’ represents place, as it is an expression of personal values, experiences and the ‘sacred’ objects of its creator. My interiors emanate from the personal spaces of family, friends and other places of importance to me. They reflect the spirit created by the everyday juxtaposition of objects and patterns which go into the making up of people’s lives, and the need to create their own ‘nest’ in our world”.

Kate’s interiors evoke the relaxed and comforting atmosphere of contemporary living – and aptly, now, deeply embedded in cultural visions of human happiness. Large windows have been thrown open to reveal gum trees, fruit trees and gardens of the sunny backyard. Within the interior, Kate explores a range of rich colours and decorative patterns around everyday objects, souvenirs from travels, gifts from family and friends, and also other domestic delights, striking up immediate relationships, preserving memories of their cultural origins and functions. The artist has painted variants of savvy interior views with differing colouristic effects, always exploring colour, line and space. Often graphic, bold, and always colourful – it’s the perfect trend in the making.

Our special southern hemisphere Australian light renders rejuvenation, warmth and hope. In Kate’s paintings the interior and exterior intertwine. The way the light percolates through windows and shutters; its ability to trigger associations and bring back memories, allowed Kate to embark on a series of dialogues with light: playing interior light against exterior light. She juxtaposes the transient light of the outside and the permanent light of the interior lighting.

As a master of intense decoration and expressive use of colour, Kate’s work has gravitated to the beautiful and often floral – a celebration of bright and appealing colours and placement. The patterned-tiled floors and colourful decoratively, often arabesque-patterned wall-paper are present in many of these works, as are the intimate dressing tables, embellished mirrors, opened and closed French windows, and verandas. The window and opened-door views are in fact was one of the artist’s favourite themes, allowing her to link internal and external space into a continuum structured by patterns and modulated light.