Studio

Visit Kate Modern set at the foot of the Malvern Hills Worcestershire. You are welcome to pop in and browse a wide selection of current paintings “in the flesh”. My studio is nestled in the same space as the Gallery this sits alongside The Kate Modern Gift shop, where you will find quirky and different gifts all curated by me, Kate Rees. You will always find a gift for that someone who has everything Kate Modern is an eclectic mix and a feast of colour an experience like no other……..

The gifts that are for sale in the gift shop are all selected by me. I try and source something different. The gifts range from coloured pencils to soaps, stickers, cards and a selection of mugs, tea towels and wrapping paper all with my paintings printed on them. So if you can’t take a painting you can take a bit of Kate Rees art home with you at a small cost.

My Paintings

I work predominantly in Oil paint although I also use Acrylic and mixed media, I love the paint as much as the painting. People ask me where I get my inspiration, my answer to them is my mind is never still, brimming with the next idea. I have a small orange book that I write down the titles of the paintings before I even paint them., and refer back to the titles and choose the next painting. Having stretched my own canvas’s for years I decided to try different surfaces, I painted on an old piece of MDF and I was hooked. Once primed I find that paint applied has a smooth and sharper edge than painting onto canvas. I go through phases of plain block coloured backgrounds to layered and textured backgrounds depending on my mood. I find enjoyment in the juxtaposition of a chaotic background then detailed controlled work over the top. My colour palette very rarely changes and when I select the paints ten times out of ten they are the same.

Colour is a consistent within my work, it fills me with joy and inspires me to paint every day, a world with no colour is not for me…….

Although I wouldn’t class myself as an artist who paints animals that appears to be the particular stage I am at, at the moment. My paintings are a mix of fantasy, humour and reality sometimes bonkers with no sense at all and sometimes lifelike but who says a hare has to be brown???? Why not green????? And who stays birds don’t wear parrot shoes!!!!!

After many years of rushing paintings to finish them I now work on ten to fifteen at anyone time. This has enabled me to finish each painting when the time is right for me.

I LOVE painting and so working in the studio while people browse at my work is great, I chat to people about the work I am painting at the moment or we discuss the finished paintings that are on display in the gallery. I am a artist in residence! I think every artist would like to sell from the wall rather than be commissioned to create a piece, I used to get nervous when I started a new commission however after many years of experience I find the process exciting, challenging and simulating, it pushes your boundaries and makes you think differently, stops you becoming complacent. The people I have had the privilege to paint for have given me so much. Some will start with a simple photograph some will say “ I would like this “ and leave it up to me. I photograph each piece from start to finish this helps me and is nice for the customer to see. I like challenge so will undertake anything, some are easier than others!!!!! But I am lucky enough to paint every day what a job!!!!

All paintings are framed and finished ready for sale, commissioned pieces are finished and then the customer can choose a frame.