Kathy Thurston Art

Artist Statement: Kathy North Thurston

Nature is all at once beautiful, exhilarating, and a window to my soul. It offers opportunities to pull away from a hum drum crazy life, explore and breathe. I love to hike, kayak or walk in my garden. Sea life, birds, or whatever is in front of me captures my imagination. During my adventures I photograph and enjoy, then retreat to my studio and create. My favorite medium is Chinese Ink and (watercolor) Color and I paint in a Westernized representational style of Chinise Gongbi painting . This method is contemplative, relaxing and welcomes the detail I love. Gongbi means “meticulous detail. Painting became my second career after retiring from school nursing in 2007. I was invited to an artists’ cultural exchange in China sponsored by Asia Pacific Cultural Center. Patsy Surh O’Connell, artist and founder of APCC, invited me to take her Chinese Painting class at Tacoma Community College in Gig Harbor. Other influences are watercolorists Lian Zhen, Joe Garcia and David Lobenberg. Over the years I have had solo shows in Seattle and Tacoma, displayed at local art shows and won numerous awards. In 2018 Harbor Wild Watch (an environmental stewardship group in Gig Harbor,) invited me to create an exhibition on shorebirds and I taught a children’s painting class. My Painting “Beneath the Lilies,” was chosen for the 2016 Gig Harbor Garden Tour poster. I am a member and President of the Greater Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour well as member and past president of Peninsula Art League. My art has been made into colorful greeting cards, tiles, cutting boards and prints. 

FINDING MY ART:

>Gig Harbor Garden Tour: vendor in the gardens during the last weekend of June

>Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour: at work in my Wild Bay Studio the third weekend of September (Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10-5)

>Visit my Wild Bay Studio by appointment: email me at kathythur@gmail.com