The art of visual storytelling
By Lele Galer, Columnist, The Times
Katee Boyle is a local painter who describes herself as a “visual storyteller.” Though born and raised in Chadds Ford, Katee spent much of her adult life as a student and artist in New York. This week’s local art watch focuses on some of the recent images that Katee has been working on.
Katee received her BFA with honor awards in Painting from School of the Visual Arts in New York, as well as degrees in Illustration from FIT and Cooper Union, and she has studied under numerous celebrated artists, including Marilyn Minter, Faith Ringgold and Ana Ishikawa to name just a few.
Katee Boyle. Photo by Alessandra Manzotti.
Her work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Italy, Miami, New York, India, and this week she will be showing at the Galer Estate Winery Pop-Up Artist show this Thursday and at the Unionville Art Gala on November 8th and 9th. We are very glad that Katee has come back to Chester County, and are excited about what she will do next!
Her paintings are often a mixture of strong lines and a combination of painterly techniques. Katee says of her work, ” I seek to transfer information through lines and complex imagery while maintaining a composition of design, line and an understanding and respect for the use of color.” To be honest, she is hard to describe exactly because her images do not follow any consistent painterly method. The only consistent thing about her work is that it is always interesting, passionate and full of talent. She knows how to paint, and she will go off into any direction to express her intention. Her subject matter includes, as she says, “Flying chickens, broken deer, tattered barn-scapes and whispering trees create a lovely setting for whimsical stories.”
“Haskells”
Looking at “Haskells” you see a glimpse of a red house or barn in an environment of expressionistic layers of brushstrokes and texture. There is a sense of a fairytale setting, set in a wash of remembrances and reactions. Katee scrapes into her painting and combines unconventional paint combinations to achieve the emotional response that she is aiming for.
“Pride”
In “Pride” you see the overlarge image of a mother bird smiling with pride over her brood of three perfect eggs in a nest. The mother’s halo, the sunny yellow over the top edge of the canvas and the flash (or wing) of orange red all work to express that intensely proud and powerful emotion that every mother feels when she is looking at her resting children. Katee’s painting works at the juxtaposition of the quiet, solid resting eggs again the passion and energy of layers of painting and textures of the background. The mother bird looms large, protective and loving.
“Diagram I A”
In Katee’s beautiful painting “Diagram 1” she paints and draws what appears to be a design diagram for a garment – but the garment is angel wings, first painted in white and then tethered to broader multi-colored wings. At the base of the painting Katee writes in a childish cursive “Pulling you through the atmosphere…sifting through the real and unreal we woke from the dream.” Some of the words are covered in paint so it is hard to read. She says, “Conversations started in my thoughts and dreams are carried over to canvas have most effectively relayed my life’s whims, desires, and experiences.” Whatever her painterly style of expression, her works are layered with color, texture, lines and emotional reflections that draw you in and keep you captivated. To see more of Katee Boyle’s work, check out her online galleries at: www.kateeboyle.weebly.com and www.dripbook.com/katee.
This Thursday Katee shows from 5-9pm at Galer Estate Winery ‘s Thursday Pop-Up Artist show to benefit the Chester County Art Association’s new building fund. These Thursday shows are open to the public and free admission.
This series of articles highight one local artist every week. Lele Galer is an artist who has chaired numerous art shows, taught art history and studio art, public art and has chaired, written and taught the Art in Action Art Appreciation series for the UCFD schools for the past 12 years. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and wrote for the Asociated Press in Rome. She has been dedicated to Art History and art education for most of her adult life. Lele and her husband Brad own Galer Estate Winery in Kennett Square and she is President of the Education Foundation and co-Chairs the CCAA’s New Building Campaign.
Lele elegantly captures the heart and soul of Katee’s work. The magic of Katee’s work is that it leads you through a wonderland of colors, textures and drawings filled with emotive imagery.