BIOGRAPHY

Among Katy’s earliest memories of drawing in elementary school art class, was the joy of sketching her new white running shoes. The refuge of the art room offset long hours of tedious school work.

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Diligently, Katy pursued a language and literature degree, satisfying family expectations. On graduation, she finally was able to begin the drawing classes she so desired and enrolled in night classes for classical drawing. She persevered with study of the basics for two years, guided by her teacher Dong-up Lee.

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Katy also trained as a graphic designer, broadening her sense of visual order and communicating through art. In 2019, she became a founding member of the Wellington School of Drawing, giving vast amounts of time and enthusiasm to projects, catalogue design and facilitating the ever-popular Saturday Portrait Sessions.

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Katy’s portraits are drawn from life, with a model sitting between 3 to 12 hours. Charcoal drawings take 3 to 6 hours and pastel works 6 to 12 hours. Initially, charcoal studies are made to gain familiarity with the sitter’s features and their particular manner. Katy experiments in designing the pose, colour arrangement and viewing angles to understand the ambience being created.

 

Given limited time, when drawing from life, she must work spontaneously. This requires extreme focus to place the right colour at the right spot at the right time. This constant decision making of what to emphasise and what to understate creates a multidimensional view. Katy has a broad, generous style; her pastel strokes leave many traces and she hopes people enjoy seeing the process revealed through each work.