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Kathryn Le Grice was born in Swansea in 1972. She
obtained an honours degree in Philosophy, with a focus on Aesthetics, from
the University of Leeds in 1991, and a Masters degree in Museum Studies
from the University
of Leicester in 2004.
Since then she has worked as a full-time artist, dividing her time between Wales and California. She is currently based in Ojai,
Southern California.
She is primarily interested in the
patterns and forms we see everyday, both in the movements of the natural
world, and in the landscapes, cityscapes, and interiors in which we live. Her
native South Wales has provided the subject
matter for much of her work, although she has gathered inspiration from many
places. Her unique style of highly patterned cityscapes developed as a result
of visits to New York and Paris,
and she has been inspired by the landscape and light of Italy, Spain
and California.
Her painting also reflects her deep appreciation of the work of Matisse,
Picasso and Rouault. Kathryn has synthesized these influences into a number
of approaches to painting, often rich in pattern and colour. Over the past
few years, Kathryn has become interested in painting both interiors – her
studios, living spaces and hotel rooms – and also ‘patterned portraits’,
sometimes from life but often from her imagination, including the ‘Painted
Ladies’ project, comprising more than 70 larger-than-life-size portraits.
During the recent years spent in Ojai, Southern
California, she has turned to the subject of landscape, flight
and natural forms.
Kathryn has exhibited widely,
participating in solo shows as well as many joint and group shows both in the
UK and the US.
She has undertaken commissions for Swansea
University and Abertawe
Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, which appear on the BBC ‘Your
Paintings’ website. She has had her work selected for the ‘Welsh Artist of
the Year’ exhibition and has had design work published by Paperchase. Her
paintings are in many private collections throughout Europe and the U.S.
and also in the collection of the National Library of Wales. In 2016, she was
invited to produce a painting to form part of the Welsh Collection for the
international show Imago Mundi. Her work was selected for cover art
for ‘Devolutionary Readings’ ed. Matthew Jarvis (2017), a scholarly volume on
modern poetry, and for the acclaimed novel ‘Element of Water’ by Stevie
Davies (2019) as well as providing the conference image forthe 2018 AWWE
conference in Wales. One of her paintings was recently purchased by J D
Wetherspoon. In 2017 Kathryn was taken on by the renowned SFMOMA artists
gallery in San Francisco.
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