KATE WENDT

A lifelong maker and former design leader in major architectural firms, I have spent the past decade fully devoted to painting and building a sustained studio practice. While my earlier career informed my sense of composition, materiality, and spatial thinking, it was the steady accumulation of evening art classes and continual personal experimentation that led me to commit to art-making after retiring ten years ago.

Since 2016, I have painted almost daily, developing a body of work that investigates color relationships, textured surfaces, and the tension between abstraction and suggestion. My process balances disciplined structure with the unexpected discoveries of mark-making: layers of paint, collage, and surface manipulation to create works that reveal their histories over time and invite prolonged looking. Pieces range from intimate studies to larger canvases, each guided by an intuitive conversation between form and atmosphere.

A pivotal moment came in 2024 when I rented a dedicated studio, which expanded my capacity for sustained work and public engagement. The studio has also served as an exhibition venue for several solo presentations, where I debuted concentrated bodies of work and refined thematic sequences across multiple pieces. These solo shows provided invaluable feedback from peers and viewers and deepened my commitment to presenting coherent, evolving projects.

I have participated in numerous group exhibitions and received awards listed in my accompanying CV; those experiences continue to shape and motivate my practice. Community, particularly the networks of women artists and local art groups plays an essential role in my work, offering inspiration, critique, and collaborative opportunities. 

My current focus is on refining a visual language situated between memory and observation: distilled forms, evocative color fields, and surfaces that suggest layered histories of making. I remain committed to ongoing exploration, to expanding the dialogue around my work, and to contributing to a vibrant, inclusive arts community.

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