Katherine Mead-von Huene
P.O. Box 423   Woolwich, ME   04579

Education             

                   Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA                  1971 - 72, 74 - 75

                   Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA                 1976

                   Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA                        1980 - 82

                   University of Maine Augusta                                                          2009 - 13

Additional study

                   Oil painting with William Ewing; Chadds Ford, PA              1981

                   Oil painting with Elizabeth Knox; Damariscotta, ME          1993

                   Residency at Great Spruce Head Island, Maine                     2013

Group shows & galleries   1976 - present

                   Centre Street Art Gallery, LLC; Bath, ME

MOJAS Waterville 2022

                   Boothbay Region Art Foundation; Boothbay Harbor, ME

Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME

River Arts, Damariscotta, ME

                   Chocolate Church Center for the Arts; Bath, ME

                   Peale House; Philadelphia, PA

                   Delaware Art Museum: Wilmington, DE

                   Andre Wauters Gallery; New York, NY

                   EDS Episcopal Seminary; Cambridge, MA

Private collections:   

                   New York, Delaware, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maine, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Germany

Artist’s statement

         I have been drawing and painting since childhood, first encouraged by my artistic mother. Formal instruction mixed with self-taught artistic exploration has formed my approach to visual creative expression. In addition to art school and private instruction, years spent as a draftsperson honed my love of detail and structure as well as design, regardless of whether it was human-made or nature’s.

          As far as subjects go, I tend to delve into whatever grabs my attention and allow that to dictate the medium and style. It may lead into a series or stand by itself. In the early painting years, an enormous shared vegetable and flower garden acted as a constant muse. And nature offers both symmetry and structure as well as fluid and unpredictable forms;  unlimited color and stark contrasts of light and dark. Life in Maine has provided landscapes and creatures, water and light.

         For years I have let my subject and mood dictate the style of the work, allowing it to form as the painting progresses. Each individual piece has called for its own identity, often separate from its predecessor, rather than connected to it by style or technique, as in a series. Yet sometimes a theme emerges, and demands that one painting lead to another related work, as if belonging to a family.

Recently I have become interested in the subject of ocean life, connecting science and art in some way. As a volunteer plankton counter for a local land trust, microscope images have provided me with a new source of visual imagery. Exploration of the dark world of barely visible phytoplankton and ocean life has me on a new path and where it leads, we shall see.