Kate Hyland

Statement from Gallery Curator – Sue Sturton

Take basic and complex emotions, life, love, hurt, pain, sorrow, laughter, empathy, longing and a myriad of others; congest them, scarify their surfaces so they mingle, wrap them up tightly in a tiny ball and then place the ball carefully on the tip of a sable paintbrush, then simply add Kate Hyland…. The result artistic alchemy in the extreme.

Artist statement

I am a painter of people; my portraits and figurative paintings are as much about capturing the inner world of a person as a likeness. I paint myself, other artists, friends, family and anyone in my life who I can persuade to sit for me. I also paint still lives; typically, they are of just a singular object and almost approached in the same way as you would a portrait.

Often caught in a moment of contemplation and thought, my painted subjects are emotional reflections of the psyche. A gentle and compassionate perspective of what it is to be human.

Inspired by the old masters I use a contemporary take on traditional oil painting techniques to build paintings in layers, each piece taking weeks to complete. My vision is simple, focused on detail and above everything I love light for its sculptural qualities and the way it falls upon the surface of an object or face.

Lessons with Robert Lenkiewicz as a teenager.

BA (Hons) Fine art Falmouth University 2006

Since graduating I have consistently painted alongside being a parent, full time since about 2010 (when my children started nursery and school) sold work from studio and undertaken portrait commissions.

Exhibited as part of the 2015 Hans Christian Anderson festival in Denmark.