A Little Introduction

Just over a week ago I posted a short intro about myself on Instagram. I was surprised to receive such a lovely response and realised that I don't often share much 'behind the scenes', which is something I'll be consciously doing in future.

Hello! - This is me!

-- Here I am super excited to be making croissants in Paris, a place that I'm desperate to move to!! --

My name is Katie and I live in London. I grew up in the South of England and have recently made the move to the big smoke - the best decision I've made yet! Light influences me a lot in my work, as well as in my life, and moving from somewhere that felt grey to somewhere so bright, reflective and inspiring like London has been incredible.

Travel & Painting are my two greatest passions and my dream is to to lace them together and for them to shape one another.

Growing up I loved to collect and study things and would fill my pockets (and others pockets) with as much as possible when I went out. My Dads running joke was that the 'ceiling was going to collapse' because of the huge amounts of rocks that I kept in my childhood bedroom.

I fell out of love with drawing in secondary school, when I compared myself too much to other artists and peers and hadn't really found my own 'style'. I studied art in school but decided not to take it any further and instead pursued Product Design & Innovation.

-- Exploring the Amazon --

Two years ago I picked up fine-liners (I had never really worked in pen), and started to draw a little in pen and pencil. It was only an occasional hobby, but it really made me realise how much I had enjoyed spending time drawing. Around this time I visited Guyana (an incredible, exciting pocket of the world) and when I returned I was BURSTING with inspiration and my ever growing love and interest in wildlife and the natural world skyrocketed! I started drawing from memory parts of the trip and six months later bought my first watercolour palette. I played around with different techniques and decided it would be fun to take it with me on my next trip away.

-- A glacial stream in Chame along the Annapurna Circuit, Nepal --

I headed to Nepal taking my paints with me, along with some postcard paper to record our trips memories in sketches. In the evening I sat and painted in tea houses what I had seen during the day trekking and I fell in love with watercolour! Since then, I knew I wanted to share intriguing parts of the world, whilst learning about its creatures and contents through illustration.

-- The Red Dragon's of the Forbidden City, Beijing --

It's amazing how much my surroundings influence what I paint. I have now been living in London for almost 18 months and recently my work has become very 'British'. It's all that I can think about!

-- 'Very British' scone recipe --

Now, almost a year and a half later, I am taking my first steps to make illustration my full time (rather than part time) career. The prospect of eventually being full-time self employed is daunting but unbelievably exciting all at once.

I love how travel entwines itself with what I create and how they grow simultaneously. I look forward to where future trips will take my drawings and where my drawings will take me!