Kate Bentley RI

Kate is an award-winning professional painter from the Lake District, in 2021 she relocated and is now based on the Solway Coast in Southwest Scotland. She originally trained a sculptor and theatre designer, becoming a professional painter 1999.

Kate’s location and landscape hugely influences her subject matter and historically is a ‘painter of life’, using her en-plein air sessions and life drawing to feed her narrative paintings. In the studio Kate usually works from her imagination often referring to sketches for inspiration.

In oils she works in a traditional way but uses resin-based glazes to enhance her finish and build multiple layers. She sometimes experiment with layers of printing at the underpainting stage (in both media). Mark-making and getting rid of the ‘white’ is always her first port of call…the rest is a journey of discovery with no planning involved.