/Kat O’Connor
@katopaints
Kat O’Connor
Untitled #537
watercolor
7 1/4″ x 7 1/4″
2023
The circular motion of this painting conveys the motion of the tide washing up onto the sand. It represents and explores the possibilities of what ocean water carries with it and in it. Fish bodies, white bellies, luminescent scales, pink flesh. Watercolor pigments gather and distribute themselves in ways that can be encouraged but can also surprise. The painting is my visualization of walking on the beach, day after day, discovering what might wash up on its shores.
@katopaints, www.katopaints.com
H2O Series: 1 + 1
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
H2O Series: 2 + 0
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
H2O Series: 2 X 1
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
H2O Series: 7 – 5
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
H2O Series: 16 (divided by) 8
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
H2O Series: 100 X .02
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
Girl Next Door
acrylic on PVC panel
24″ x 24″
2021
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
The Assignation
acrylic on PVC panel
28.75″ x 25″
2021
This painting is currently on view in Made in Paint IX at the Sam & Adele Golden Gallery in New Berlin, New York. The gallery is currently closed to the public.
Swimming the Jewel, #2
oil and acrylic on wood
9.5″ x 18.75″
2021
Typically, I photograph my subjects underwater, frequently looking up towards the sky. Light bends as it leaves the water, creating abstract swirls of color that I later paint in relation to the figure. Swimming in the crystal-clear water of the Aegean presented me with the opposite water distortions. I could look down through the water at the sand and rocks fifteen feet below me, stretched and altered by the waves moving above. Occasional flashes of blue-sky reflections were bounced back towards my eye, creating a plane of sky interacting with the jewel-like colors of the bottom of the ocean.
Through Light and Color
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
12″ x 12″
2021
This painting was created on an aluminum composite panel. The aluminum has an extremely smooth and accepting surface that allows the brush-mark to sit on the ground rather than being absorbed into it. With this piece I experimented with a variety of paint pigments to amplify the effect of incandescent light bouncing from the surface of the water at the same time that light from inside the pool was bouncing off the figure itself.
Through a Dream
oil on acrylic pour on PVC panel
10″ x 10″
2022
Through a Dream was created by pouring a number of carefully mixed acrylic colors onto a PVC Panel. The resulting surface has a delicate satin sheen and a complicated structure of value and color that interacts in a way that is similar to reflections and distortions seen underwater. The portrait was then painted in oil on top of that surface, integrating and contrasting the colors of the original pour. The resulting image has a dream-like quality that feels both cosmic and meditative.
Time Folds in on Itself
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
30″ x 22″
2022
This painting explores the idea of how a memory can be associated with a particular time in our lives. Once you recall that memory, other memories of that time surface and build one on top of the other, reflecting things in a slightly altered and perhaps distorted way. Some of those memories are anchored and specific, others flow and change with new perspective. This painting was created on an aluminum composite panel. The aluminum has an extremely smooth and accepting surface that allows the brush-mark to sit on the painting ground rather than being absorbed into it.
Stardust and Dreams
acrylic and oil on PVC panel
10″ x 20″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
Aurora Borealis
acrylic and oil on PVC panel
22″ x 30″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
You Look Like a Ripple in the Black but You Sound Like Love
acrylic and oil on aluminum composite panel (ACP)
24″ x 24″
2022
Included in Fathom: The Art of Kat O’Connor at Worcester Art Museum
Kat O’Connor
American Reclamation Project
Inspired by: Robert Adams, Bulldozed Slash Unknown artist, Tapa Cloth
watercolor
22.25″ x 22.25″
2022
Robert Adams’ Bulldozed Slash, Tillamook County, Oregon hit home after seeing a trail that I often rode horses on destroyed. Trees were knocked over and piled up to use as temporary roads for logging equipment to move into an area that had previously been full of wildlife and beautiful, peaceful, spaces. Daily I walk through several neighborhoods in Worcester. Thinking of the repeating designs on the Tapa Cloth, I sought out circular shapes that evidenced nature’s tenacity in reclaiming space altered by human beings. Lichen and moss grow back on rocks moved to create walls and architectural elements. They cover and begin to erode walkways and macadam. Erosion from water, ice, wind, rust, and even human activity (vandalism, bullet holes, or changes in planned use) all indicate that nature is constantly in a state of reclaiming her space. American Reclamation Project is a small bit of hope for the future.
@katopaints
Kat O’Connor
Just the Dress
acrylic, watercolor, and graphite on wood panel
9 1/2″ x 4 3/4″
2023
Just the Dress is part of a series exploring the idea of clothing hiding or exposing the body beneath. It takes its cue from Greek sculptures of women where thin drapery allowed the artist to explore the human form. In order to create a diaphanous, ethereal quality to the fabric, I repeatedly layered paint on the wood surface, rolled over it with a portion of pipe, then scraped, rubbed, or washed it off. The body exists only where the dress exists, all other figurative elements are reduced.
@katopaints
Kat O’Connor
Light Years
acrylic on PVC panel
22″ x 22″
2024
These hands are wisdom. They give, they accept, they nurture. The figure is the universe. It is the sea.
@katopaints, katopaints.com
Kat O’Connor
Shift
acrylic on wood panel
9 1/2″ X 4 3/4″
2022
Shift’ plays with the idea of clothing hiding or exposing the body beneath. It takes its cue from Greek sculptures of women where thin drapery allowed the artist to explore the human form. In order to create a diaphanous, ethereal quality to the fabric, I repeatedly layered paint on the wood surface then scraped it off. The body exists only where the shift exists, all other figurative elements are removed.
@katopaints
Kat O’Connor
Returns
Inspired by: Jules Aarons, West End Meat Market Paul Quain, Loading Cattle, Aran
acrylic on paper
30″ x 22 5/8″
2023
Why the fascination with painting (or photographing) dead things? I’m not exactly sure, but historically speaking, artists paint form and beauty. Think of the Marco d’Agrate sculpture of St. Bartholomew. For me that has always been about studying the structure and anatomy of the human form. ‘Returns’ feels almost religious to me. I was inspired by the Blue Fish so common on the shores of Cape Cod. Fisherman discard the heads and take the body to eat, much the way the chickens of Jules Aarons’ ‘West End Meat Market’ hang headless and ready for the dinner table.
@katopaints
Kat O’Connor
All A Life
watercolor
22″ x 22″
2023
In the organization of day-to-day life, things alter, slip, and change. The medium of watercolor is much the same. I set up a grid for structure, then aim to make circular forms with no drawn guides. I choose pigments that separate naturally and mix them with other pigments that do the same. Occasionally, my hand slips and one color bleeds into another. The pattern of that bleed changes based on the amount of pigment vs. water. The pattern of the overall image changes with the accumulation of those alterations.