Mother of three now grown-up children, Kate was brought up in Edinburgh, lived in London for ten years and Manchester for twenty, but is now retired and has moved back to Edinburgh.  She began rediscovering an art practice with short courses at Leith School of Art, Paintbox and the BHA summer school. The Portfolio Course has provided an opportunity to fully immerse herself in this.

Personal Statement

The theme for my independent practice is moths. I was drawn to this theme to explore a long-held aversion stemming from a childhood fear. Moths are at once mysterious and terrible, fragile and incredibly robust. They are night flyers which contributes to their mystery, and charcoal seemed the ideal medium to capture this and also their dusty fragility.

The characteristics of the species are widely diverse – some live only for a week or two but other varieties migrate for thousands of miles, sometimes by employing a prevailing wind, sometimes navigating by the stars, often confused by artificial light. Researching them has addressed a lot of my fear, certainly increased my respect for them. There are varieties that can be found in almost every corner of the world. This led me to my pen drawings which are created using the word ‘moth’ translated into thirty different languages, and to my focus on the migration of moths and moths in flight.

We accept without question the migration of animal species for their survival,we are much less sympathetic to the increasing need for human migration. 

My moths are not specifically representational. They are generic moths usually battling with weather and I enjoyed exploring the depths and dramatic blackness that charcoal can give to describe this.