Kate McGee
Kate is at Studio #1 during the 2019 POST tour.
www.khmland.com
Work in the Studio
I am a pastel painter who is inspired by the landscapes of the Willamette Valley. My paintings have a strong sense of the place I love. My goal is to make each painting the distillation of its place, light, time and season. My large blocky pastels don't lend themselves to detail which suits me fine. Pastels don't need to dry so color is at my fingertips and on the paper as ideas come to me. I am capturing energy and light, not only trying to make a faithful representation of just what I see.
I have always drawn and painted. Growing up in a busy family with five kids that valued creativity in all the arts, I was the designated visual artist. Later, I chose a landscape architecture career that honed my designer's eye and drawing skills. Those years of creating three dimensional spaces; designing with shadow, sunlight, color and texture, naturally inspired my passion for painting landscapes. When I turned 50, my children grown, I decided to focus on pastel painting. Now, many years later, I've participated in juried shows, solo shows and group shows and my work has even been published in a national magazine and book. I quit my day job and became a full-time artist when I fell in love and moved to the King's Valley area of Oregon.
I am a pastel painter who is inspired by the landscapes of the Willamette Valley. My paintings have a strong sense of the place I love. My goal is to make each painting the distillation of its place, light, time and season. My large blocky pastels don't lend themselves to detail which suits me fine. Pastels don't need to dry so color is at my fingertips and on the paper as ideas come to me. I am capturing energy and light, not only trying to make a faithful representation of just what I see.
I have always drawn and painted. Growing up in a busy family with five kids that valued creativity in all the arts, I was the designated visual artist. Later, I chose a landscape architecture career that honed my designer's eye and drawing skills. Those years of creating three dimensional spaces; designing with shadow, sunlight, color and texture, naturally inspired my passion for painting landscapes. When I turned 50, my children grown, I decided to focus on pastel painting. Now, many years later, I've participated in juried shows, solo shows and group shows and my work has even been published in a national magazine and book. I quit my day job and became a full-time artist when I fell in love and moved to the King's Valley area of Oregon.
A new children’s book! Once again, my sister, Laura Kvasnosky, and I have collaborated on illustrations for her sweet, noisy, amazing text. My main contribution was coloring the images using Photoshop and oh, how fun that was! Signed copies of Squeak! will be available during the tour. Laura has written, illustrated and published over 20 picture books and early readers.
It has been pure joy working together. Copies of Little Wolf’s First Howling, our first book together, will also be at my studio. We have a third underway, Ocean Lullaby, which will be on the shelves in summer, 2020.
It has been pure joy working together. Copies of Little Wolf’s First Howling, our first book together, will also be at my studio. We have a third underway, Ocean Lullaby, which will be on the shelves in summer, 2020.
Video Produced by Bryan Cargill, Fahmo Mohammed, and Stephanie Lambirth, University of Oregon JAM 2014
