Katie Leigh Stewart is a mixed media artist living in Wellington, Aotearoa NZ. 

Katie's paintings explore floral landscapes, portraiture, everyday life and nature. Her bright and bold palette as well as signature brush strokes gives viewers a moment to pause and find joy. 

In this episode Katie talks about her early nursing career and how she finally came to focus on her artist career as a new Mum. We explore her paintings which are mostly inspired by her life, everyday experiences and her love of gardening and nature. Katie talks us through the ways she captures the feeling of the moment she is responding to and the essence of her subject, her painting process and the ways she manages the different media she uses in her work including combining acrylic and oil paints. We talk about why she often likes to underpaint using a fluoro paint and her use of colour, her layering technique, the ways she introduces details, how she paints flesh, light and shadow and the tools and mediums she uses.

Katie shares her approach to sharing her work on social media, diversifying within her practice, experimentation, mark making, commissions and how she manages her days as a homeschooling mumma of 3 young girls.

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