Hi my name is Katie

and I am a pet portrait and wildlife artist based in east Kent, the Garden of England. Growing up in the countryside the natural world has always been a big influence on my life and is something that inspired me to draw and paint from childhood.

This interest in wildlife eventually led to me working out in Africa as a conservation volunteer. In helping to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife that had been snared or poisoned, I was greatly motivated to focus my artwork on animals as well as to continue to volunteer at a more local level.

I paint using oils as I love the play of the paint and the luminosity that can be built up using them. This allows me to blend and build up layers to create realistic portraits of wildlife. My paintings usually begin with a spontaneous idea or simply when I am inspired by something I see. I then produce a few compositional ideas and once the composition is finalised, I sketch it onto the canvas. Areas are roughly blocked in and slowly detail, colour, and contrast is built up and refined until the painting is complete. I particularly focus on colour and light to try and bring the subjects of my paintings to life.

Through my paintings I try and capture moments of natural beauty as well as a more personal focus of individual animals’ lives. Wildlife conservation often needs to be directed towards population numbers, as a contrast, I try to focus on more intimate portraits to give a more personal connection for the viewer towards wildlife. Animals in my paintings are placed in natural settings, largely away from man-made features, to give a feeling of wilderness so that the viewer is peering into their world. I hope to express my passion for nature through my paintings and hope that I am able to share some of the inspiration and enjoyment I get from the natural world.