Katharine Cartwright

Nest Eggs on Wall Street, 19" x 28"

"I think in pictures and my paintings are my voice," says Katharine Cartwright. "As with speech, the central concept is the most important aspect of what I paint. Without meaning, my paintings would lack relevance and uniqueness." She paints in series and often has several different series going at the same time; a series may include only a dozen paintings, but frequently more, and may take anywhere from a year to a decade to complete. Starting by formulating a concept, she then selects materials, a color palette, and compositions to support her idea. In the series featured here, she has utilized broken egg shells in a manner that bridges realism and abstraction to express the fragility of life and our investments. Because the work is allegorical rather than representational, she disregards realistic color in favor of color strategies that contribute to an effective composition. Katharine has completed over 50 paintings in this series in the past four years and intends to continue it with the goal of incorporating new and meaningful elements with each new step.

All Cracked Up XXI, 28" x 19"

All Cracked Up XXII, 28" x 19"

Katharine's parents encouraged her to become an artist, providing her with a formal education in fine art at Linden Hall School for Girls, Kutztown University, The Maryland Institute College of Art, and The College of Charleston. Trained in techniques for oils and acrylics, she only began using watermedia ten years ago and fell in love with it. She is an inducted member of the National Association of Women Artists and a signature member of the North East Watercolor Society and the Missouri Watercolor Society. Her watercolors have been accepted into numerous national and international juried exhibitions and have won top awards, and her work is included in over one hundred private and corporate collections. In addition, her work will be featured in two books to be published this year -- Best of America Watermedia Artists Volume II and The Artistic Touch 4. Katharine maintains studios in New York and Maine and teaches painting workshops in all media throughout the U.S., with a special focus on concept development.

All Cracked Up XXIII, 28" x 19"

All Cracked Up XXIV, 28" x 19"

Please link over to Katharine's blog to see more of her work and get further information about her workshops. Be sure to link through to her website as well.

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