Visual Art – Vancouver
What I can remember most about the first time I approached a blank canvas with a set of acrylic paint is pure and utter frustration. I was 13 and I couldn't understand abstraction for the life of me, but at the same time, I couldn't seem to make the picture match what was in my head. It took years of lessons, of painstaking reproductions and of looking, truly looking, before I realized the subtle capabilities of acrylic paint and learned to see the shapes and layers that compose our visual relationship to the world.
I came to the University of British Columbia in 2009 thinking that detail and precision were enough to make one a good artist, only to become frustrated once more with the notions of 'concept' and theoretical grounding promoted by a post-secondary education. My strength as a painter seemed utterly at odds with the detached, documentary approaches of my more post-modernist professors and the painting-is-dead rhetoric saturating contemporary art history. When I realized that it is precisely this action of carving out one's own niche that defines developing an artistic practice, I began searching for ways in which my realistic style not only enhances minor details, those that are often beneath notice, but makes them necessary to the image's broad concept.
As an artist, I specialize in realistic, detailed acrylic painting, portraiture and commission work. Since 2007, I have participated in 11 exhibitions and shows, and sold work across Canada and the United States, including 3 provinces and 10 states. In 2015, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with degrees in Visual Arts and Psychology and opened my Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/KatherineBrownStudio). My recent and current non-commission work has focused on creative portrait styles as in the City in Her Soul series as well as work addressing issues of mental health stigma and visibility.