Hello and welcome!

Originally from the UK, I’ve been based for 11 years in Vejer de la Frontera, a beautiful white town on La Costa de la Luz in southern Spain.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to travel to Cape Verde; I recorded my trip in words, photos and sketches and posted them in my ‘Latest Work’ blog. También hay una versión española de ese blog. 

My other ongoing art projects and interests are:

• The Black Dawg – an illustrated poem about depression and hope. Last year I raised funds on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform, to self-publish this beautiful picture book for adults which aims to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental health issues. It is a joint project with my friend Louis McIntosh who wrote the poem; I illustrated it. 

• Sketching: whether alone or out with the Vejer Sketchers, I like to regularly crack open my watercolour paints for some loose drawing and splattery colouring. I particularly enjoying painting food.

• Textile design: I’ve had a number of my designs digitally printed onto fabric, so far I’ve had fun sewing cushions, scarves, skirts and I recently made my first ever dress using my dragonfly fabric (below and top right).

• Exhibitions: Most recently I had a mixed media piece included in a group show organised by Arte Vejer to celibrate Federico Garcia Lorca. Prior to that I showed pieces in La Pinturera, a hair and beauty salon in Vejer and in the tiny Vejer Inspira shared exhibition space with groups of other local artists. I’ve also staged solo exhibitions in London, Cádiz and Vejer.

• Illustration and graphic design: I recently converted my cockerel design into vintage style labels for the furniture upcycling magicians RetroNuevo.

• I have also designed logos, prints and postcards for local businesses and cover art for various books and CD‘s produced by writers and musicians in the area.

The writer Jackie Cornwall says

“I came to Kathryn Hockey’s art through a St. Ives prism, seeing in her clear colours and careful outlines the legacy of Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood and Bryan Pearce. How wonderful then, that when I asked her to create a painting for a friend’s birthday, she gave me that most quintessential St. Ives discovery, a windowless windowsill! Her work vibrates with a life-affirming joie de vivre. Her ability to find colour and interest in unregarded objects is one of the most engaging aspects of her art.

Everything in Kathryn’s work has its own glamour, from bulging gas bottles to clustered flowers. A white skull, an elegantly strutting rooster, a squadron of peppers are almost tamed by her instinct for line and pattern, but in their exuberant colours nature has its way. A dancer’s boots, crowned with roses and creased with use, lead our eyes into a looking-glass world. Beyond her delicately wrought townscapes dance the lights of infinite possibility.

Sometimes cartoonish and stylised, sometimes lovingly detailed, her people are not strangers; they look straight into our hearts, and whether they smile, wink knowingly or merely look out at us from the sanctuary of their own thoughts, we know them and their humanity. To encounter one of her subjects is to find a friend. Her animals too, are real personalities.

Kathryn’s work would enliven any context, but in the brilliant light of the Costa de la Luz her feel for both colour and line have come together in a unique combination. She is a true artist, one who makes art out of everything she sees, and I trust that in the future, her reputation will increase as she deserves.”

You can see blog posts about all my latest creations here.