About the Artist
Oil Painter for Life.
Mood and Light depicted on every canvas . . .
Katherine Taylor is an oil painter whose signature style employs the dramatic lighting of the Old Masters. Taylor spent some time studying art and architecture in Italy and came away very influenced by the Baroque preference for chiaroscuro (strong contrast of lights and darks), which is partly why her images are often imbued with a certain glow. Although her early training was rigorously classical, eventually she was called to experiment with the painterly methods of Russian and American Impressionism, which helped her to loosen her style and become more expressionistic.
Taylor paints with a variety of techniques, media, and paint applications. After 35 years of smearing pigments on canvases, she reflects that it’s still “all about the paint.” Taylor’s style today reflects new explorations of painterly marks with tools beyond just the brush, in her drive to let the paint itself remain as beautiful as the subject. Yet her urge to depict the golden luminescence of light has never wavered and is now considered a signature element of her paintings.
Katherine Taylor was born in Maryland and raised among the timeless art galleries and museums of the Washington, DC area. Most of her art education occurred during the 16 years she lived in New Mexico (teaching high school Humanities by day and studying with accomplished Southwestern artists by night). She currently lives in Bend, Oregon. Her work has been included in juried exhibitions and private collections throughout the US. She continues to exhibit, teach, and lecture on art in both the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest.
Taylor notes: "I love painting all genres, but capturing the figure on canvas in a meaningful yet skillful way is my greatest challenge. I am especially interested in portraying people and even animals as both strong and beautiful. I look for models who exude a soulful aspect, some part of them that is mythic, heroic, compassionate, and uplifting.
In fact, these are the qualities I attempt to tease out from every form I paint, whether a still life object, a portrait, a landscape or even something more abstract and symbolic. I guess I do this because I am moved by these same qualities and want to inherit them; painting tends to be autobiographical after all. But it does feel like the world is calling out for more of these characteristics, too."
--- Katherine Taylor
To learn more about Katherine's work methods, click here.
Represented by these galleries:
