ARTIST OF THE WEEK - KATE WALTERS

Kate Walters


Kate Walters works with drawing to explore the body and its relationship to various phenomena and how we can gain understanding about our lives.
The body is the material base; it is simultaneously evidence of, and sensory alerting mechanism to, all our experience as humans on earth.
As she works Kate seeks to inhabit an intuitive, open place which Agnes Martin calls ‘Free and easy wandering’; that is, she allows her drawings to find their own way to the surface of the paper.
Kate makes her drawings with ink, gouache, watercolour, charcoal and shellac on gesso [which she prepares herself] on paper.
Her works are not large; it is important for the viewer to be close to the work, to be intimate.


1 Favourite living artist - is Eiija-Lisa Ahtila, Film maker from Helsinki, saw her work at Venice Biennale[05], beautiful, poignant, loving films about our inner existences, loss, love, synchronicity, joy, song.

2 Favourite historical artist - Giotto. His frescoes in Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi are breath-takingly beautiful, serene, full of spirit.

3 When and where did you first want to do what you do? - As a little girl when I constantly drew horses and faces, I could escape into my own little world that way. Then later, seeing an early abstract work by Kandinsky opened a door for me, relating to the relationship between art and consciousness.

4 What place in the world has inspired you - Italy, Cornwall and Hebrides. I like wild, open, natural places.
5 Do you work best on your own or in collaboration - I always work on my own.

6 What was the last art/craft/design thing you purchased - I love unusual/top quality clothes. My father bought me a John Galliano jacket for my Birthday. It was in the Harrods sale, very reduced because it had lost a button. I have some antique jet buttons so I will put one on, it should be a fine jacket then!

7 At age 15 who influenced your style? - Age 15 my style was influenced by Biba, the store in Ken High St. I had just discovered London with a friend, and I painted my bedroom brown and filled it with velvet, feathers and mirrors.

8 Last best read - 'Stigmata' by Helene Cixous.

9 How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace? - I don't bend my vision at all. Not even 1%!


10 How do you set about starting a new project? - I start a new project by a gradual process of development from a previous one. I let it cook in my unconscious, I wait for signs.

11 What do you have on your pinboard? - In my studio on the wall I have photos of my family, my horses, my friends, other animals, a few postcards.

12 Where and what is your studio? - My studio is one of the living rooms in my home. I always work alone, always playing music, usually Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler. I need the music to help me reach deep places, to let go.

13 Do you have a good work/life balance? - I have a good work/life balance. I am able to juggle and to let go. I don't like to be away from my studio for too many days though.

14 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work - Discovery.

15 Would you rather be doing something else - I gave up a good teaching career to pursue my dream of being an artist. It has been a struggle financially but I wouldn't want to do anything else.



Kate is showing at the Todds Gallery in Hastings in September in a show called Approaching Rapture