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ARTIST FOCUS
Katherine Galbraith
F
or artist Katherine Galbraith, nothing
is as interesting or compelling as the
human face and figure. She started life
as a portrait painter, focusing on busi-
nesspeople, clergy, wives, mothers and
teenagers, but mostly children. “I loved
painting children. They just are who they
are, not worrying or caring what others
think of them, but curious and happy to
be themselves,” she says. “It was always
fun to paint that shining hair and eyes.”
After a while, though, Galbraith wanted
to get away from the business of being
a portrait artist and began painting still
lifes, florals and landscapes for galleries.
In the last few years, she has returned to
her first love—people. Her style today is
representational, and lately older peoplehave captured her attention.
“While it’s a treat to paint the beauty
of youth, I so enjoy the challenge of an
older face and figure. I had the privilege
of watching Jeffrey Hein paint an older
woman at the Portrait Society of America
conference a few years ago—you could
hear the collective sigh of relief when he
announced that he loved to paint older
women,” Galbraith says. “He spoke about
the translucence of the skin, how you
could see the blood through the skin and
really get a sense of what lay beneath the
surface—what a wonderful approach to
portrait painting.”
Galbraith has found herself captivated
by the qualities of their hair and faces.
“With some, there is evidence of a lifewell-lived, others, not so much, but they
are all valuable and beautiful to me,” she
says. “I see such poetry in these faces; it
is as much a joy to paint them as it is to
paint the beauty of youth.”
Castle Gallery in Fort Wayne,
Indiana, and Beverly McNeil Gallery
in Birmingham, Alabama, represent
Galbraith. Her artwork is also available at
her gallery, Katherine Galbraith Fine Art,
in Westfield, New York.Want to See More?
(770) 366-1448
http://www.katherinegalbraithfineart.com/katherinegalbraith.948011Yellow Slicker, oil on linen, 24 x 18"Golden Girl, oil on linen, 16 x 12" Montana Man, oil on linen, 24 x 18"