Katharine Alecse

I am devoted to studying life, light and form.  I'm a constant student and believe that the more I understand something or can reproduce its essence, the better I can create a language of expression that the viewer can understand.  In this way, I can paint impossible scenes, as with realistic lighting or juxtaposition, any scene can look plausible and incite the viewer to dream.  Alternatively, sticking to a more rigorous realism, by distorting a person's facial features or anatomy just a tiny bit, I can say more about them than you would see if you looked at them in the flesh.

I'm fascinated by animals, humans most of all and have a compassion for wildlife and a concern for their habitats. Particular areas of interest are:
- How different animals can mirror different human characteristics. 
- Power structures such as the predator-prey relationship in the animal world.
- The human condition and our place in the universe.  

Oil Painting was love at first sight. The colours are so vibrant! The Renaissance palette i use is limited so i can mix for exact colours. Oils have a slow drying time allowing for wet-on-wet painting, which you can't neccesarily get with fast drying paints like acrylic or water colour. They also last fo...

I am an American contemporary artist. I live and work in the UNESCO protected village Viscri in the heart of Transylvania, Romania. I studied at Pratt Institute between 2003-2007 in New York and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts with an honourable mention at the senior show. Prior to that, I had a fantastic mentor as a teenager who taught me the exact technique that I still use today; how to draw what I see rather than what I think I see, and how to use a renaissance palette to achieve exact colours. 

Notable professors at Pratt included Robert Horvath, Shirley Keneda and Doug Parry. 
Shortly after graduating I started 2 art collectives called "Hospitium" and "Potion Collective" They were developed so that fellow artists could work together to create a community and also chances to exhibit where they could keep all of their sales price.

'Annual Portrait Show' Store Street Gallery, London 2017

'Jungle Group show' Store Street Gallery, London 2017

Pancakes and Booze, London 2016

'Tesselate' European Medical Association 2016

'Tesselate' Solo-Exhibition Lacey Contemporary Gallery, Holland Park, London 2016

'Likeness of Layla' Solo-Exhibition, LAcey Contemporary Gallery, Holland Park 2015

'States of Three Group Show.  Dock Street Gallery, London 2014

'Metamorphosis' Solo-Exhibition Brick Lane Gallery Annexe 2013

More exhibitions in NYC with Potion Collective and Hospitium Collective including in The McKibbin Lofts, Galapagos Art Space, Spread Gallery and others.