Hello and welcome!
I returned to my home county of Essex in the spring of 2020 after a decade or so of living, painting and designing in the south of Spain.
Here’s a bit about my art projects:
- I joined Burnham Art Club in September 2022. I love to paint outside if possible and it’s also been great to share a creative interior space, materials and techniques with other painting people when the weather is a bit rough.
- Signs and murals: My latest sign painting project for The Limes of Burnham-on-Crouch is below. I’ve also painted signs on windows, walls, wood, tiles, concrete and even a car door in Spain, India, the UK and the Netherlands.
- During the first lockdown of 2020 I was absorbed with my “Painted Snapshots of Bermondsey” project. I sent my original artist book to the Brooklyn Art Library and then self published a limited edition of 50 printed copies – all signed and numbered – which I sold to raise money for Southwark Foodbank.
- Exhibitions: To celebrate 50 years of The Steam Tug Brent’s residence in Maldon, a group exhibition of Brent related artworks was staged at St Mary’s Church Octagon in July 2021. I was delighted to have a pen and wash sketch included and to be able to help hang some of the paintings. I have taken part in several group exhibitions in Vejer and staged solo exhibitions in London, Cádiz and Vejer.
- Illustration: I’ve designed logos, cards, a food map, vintage style labels, prints and postcards for independent businesses and made cover art for books and CDs. I have a particular passion for food illustration.
- Sketching: I like to crack open my old tin of watercolour paints for some loose drawing and splattery colouring.
- Textile design: I’ve had my designs digitally printed onto fabric for various sewing projects including: dresses, a tea cosy and face masks.
- Travel Blogging – I recorded my trip around India in words, photos and sketches and posted them in my latest work section. I also drew portraits and painted a few murals while I was in Rajasthan.
- The Black Dawg – an illustrated poem about depression and hope. In 2016 I raised funds on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to self-publish this beautiful picture book for adults which aims to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental health issues. I made the illustrations and my friend Louis McIntosh wrote the poem.
- Portraits: whether ‘analogue’ – charcoal, pencil, watercolour or acrylic paints – or ‘digital’ these make lovely gifts and wedding cards.
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.