Sisters
oil on canvas
24" x 18"

Rojo y Verde  
oil on canvas
18" x 24"

Odds and Ends  
oil on canvas
11" x 14"

A Private Cossack Toast 
oil on canvas
18" x 24"

Umbria Vagabond 
oil on canvas
30" x 24"

Katherine Taylor was an English teacher by profession and an artist by passion for two decades in New Mexico. In the mid-1980s, she began studying with renowned artists of the Southwest, oil painters such as David Schwindt, Louis Maestas, Jan Keefer, and Zhang Wen Xin, all of whom came from a rigorous fine art background and who instilled in her a profound respect for technical virtuosity. In more recent years, Katherine has studied with Richard McKinley and Cheri Christensen, the latter of whom introduced her to Russian Impressionism.

Now living in Central Oregon, Katherine is an artist devoted to painting oils that are characterized by a soft, romantic style, using saturated colors and loose brushstrokes. Striking nightscapes, cityscapes, nudes, interiors, figures, and still life are all among Katherine’s favorite subject matter, many of which are painted in the strong tonal contrast of chiaroscuro. In this her influences include the great Renaissance masters of the chiaroscuro technique, those like Caravaggio who were native to the parts of Italy where she has traveled and studied.

Katherine’s work has been included in juried exhibitions and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. She is represented by select galleries and venues in the Northwest and Rockies.

“Robert Henri once said that there is nothing in the world more beautiful or significant in the laws of the universe than the nude human body. We may not be conscious of this belief, but it shows in the way we constantly humanize everything around us, seeing ourselves in all that we look at. In great still life paintings, whether of flower, fruit, or landscape, interweaving human forms appear throughout, and I think we subconsciously respond to that wonderful familiarity.

“It is my feeling that all the topics found in the visual arts – landscapes, cityscapes, figure, objects, even abstraction – are but still life snapshots, a moment in which the artist captures a glorious stillness. These are images that invite us to see beyond the mundane and the usual to the profound. Eastern philosophy has taught me that elevating the ordinary to the sacred is one very good way to appreciate the subtlety of life and to stay in the moment.

“Beauty is all around us, and my task as an artist is really mining. I mine the gold that lies beneath banal surfaces. Chiaroscuro is one painting method that helps me do that. Out of dark, the light shines more brilliantly and showcases what would otherwise be an ordinary object. Its shape and color become both simple and sublime. This act of creation is what excites me the most about painting. Beyond that, it would be hard to say why I paint. Without a brush, I’m fairly mute.”