Katie formerly trained as a textile designer and has for many years run a successful knitwear business. Her main strength has always been her use of colour and her fascination and love of colour has more recently taken her down the Art path.
Over the past couple of years Katie has been collecting vintage cloth bound books from local charity shops, the cloth from which she uses as both her palette and canvas.
I slice, cut, rip and skin these beautifully marked and faded cloths from their boards; this is all part of the making process – deconstructing to then reconstruct into something new.
The array of colours from the book cloth is infinite, many of them faded and marked through time . . . they all have a former life and story.
I spend hours arranging and rearranging shapes and colours, often starting with one idea which evolves into something else along the way. I like this fluidity – it is all about colour balance, positive and negative spaces and creating a sense of tranquillity.
During the process of making there are so many different emotions going on, it can be exciting, daunting, frustrating, hopeless . . . all of these feelings along the way. When I think something is ‘finished’ there will be a brief feeling of satisfaction before my critical eye comes in again. This is where I stop, moving on to the next piece of work.
Katie lives in the Lake District where she has a studio. She wild swims at sunrise throughout the year; the quietness and calmness of these swims, along with the changes in weather and seasons, inform her work as does the ageing process within more urban environments. She likes to juxtapose the beauty of urban decay and dereliction with the purity of nature.
Katie shows her work around the UK and in 2025 was successfully selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show. She has many collectors around the world.
Note: Due to the delicate nature of Katie’s medium, artworks should be hung in a dry environment, away from direct sunlight.
