Kate Sherman, ‘Ash, Winter’

Kate Sherman grew up on the Jurassic coast of Dorset. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art she continued her painting practice while working in the London art scene, before deciding in 2005 to paint full time. She lives and works in Sussex.

Kate has exhibited widely, including in juried exhibitions ING Discerning Eye (2019, 2020, 2023), Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2015, 2018), Wells Art Contemporary (2018), and Figurative Art Now (2021).

The paintings, all oil on panel, originate from photographs. This photographic source is important because the paintings capture a reflective notion of memory, of the emotional distance between a real landscape and a photograph, between experience and longing. It is a poignant and quiet melancholy, expressed by the portrayal of sparse unpopulated landscapes and by her restrained palette which is often suffused in a reserved northern European light of chalky blues and pink-blushed greys. 

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Artist statement: “Quite often I paint things that remind me of something else; a memory, a feeling, a scene - real or imagined. The initial pull of a subject isn’t always clear, sometimes I work it out along the way, other times not. But always the subject or idea will have resonated first in an emotional way, and this is the starting point, with the formal and visual coming along close behind. 

Why realism?  In search for truth and authenticity; to create a sense of order and control; or to construct a protective screen? I don’t know, a combination maybe. The paintings feel something like a lens, to be viewed through, an expression of outer and inner worlds, nuanced, layered, complex.

Part hyper-real part gestural, the dialogue between image and surface can create tension, and ambiguity. I like the potential of paint to transform and transport, the alchemy of paint, the rhythm of the brushstrokes, the flow and lyricism of the forms, built up in layers.

The subjects are unassuming; everydayness evoking time, memory, experience. Hopefully these are collective and inclusive, creating a sense of familiarity, and maybe sometimes the comfort of nostalgia.”