Cover Artist: Kathryn B. Phillips

By Gina Malone

Artist Kathryn B. Phillips was fortunate to discover early that avenues and inspiration for creativity are endless. She grew up on a farm on the Mississippi River in Arkansas where her father and grandfather raised cotton, soybeans and cattle, and her mother gardened. “She created winding paths and secret landings throughout our large garden that invited observations of nature, quiet thoughtful moments and elements of surprise and play,” Phillips says of her mother. “Her garden was much like a living painting. Once she was helping me to shape a bed in the garden of our first home. She commented that the rake she was holding for shaping a garden was much like a brush used to paint a painting. She was right!”

Artistic expression beckoned to Phillips from an early age. “I drew in the dirt, painted on rocks or mixed pastels with buttermilk to paint,” she says. “I enjoyed making things. My mother sought out art teachers in our little town and beyond to give me exposure to new ways to create.” She continued her studies through college, graduating with a BFA in painting, and, as a young mother, attended workshops with her mentor M. Douglas Walton.

Phillips works in watercolors and finds that painting as a consistent practice keeps her creative rhythm strong. “I like to think that I live creatively,” she says. “Whether I am painting or gardening or setting a table, I am thinking about how it all works together to be pleasing to the eye.”

She finds inspiration in memories and in everyday moments. Her Contraptions series grew out of remembering large iron farming machines she saw all around her on the family farm. “I found beauty and order in the design of the different parts—some vintage machines and some modern—it didn’t matter,” she says. “I then gathered the parts that I liked and put them together to form contraptions. The series is meant to be fun and entertaining, and is, for me, a love letter of sorts to my heritage and to my father.” The series is one that fellow artist Victoria Pinney especially admires. “What Kathryn is able to do with watercolor almost seems impossible to me,” she says, “large, lush, colorful florals—and especially her wildly imaginative Contraptions: whimsical interpretations of farm equipment. Her work is uniquely her own. I’m her biggest fan.”

When Phillips visited France, she connected emotionally with images there, including a French schoolgirl on the metro. “She had on a tiered skirt, a blouse with a Peter Pan collar, braided pigtails and tiered earrings repeating her skirt’s layers,” Phillips says. “Weeks later, I started a series of that little French girl from my memory. I put her in an upholstered chair and added pattern behind her. She was a wonderful inspiration for a fun series.”

As a watercolor artist, she notes, her supply needs are few. “One of the things I love about painting with watercolors is how easily it accommodates a busy lifestyle,” she says. “It is so convenient to pick up and move, stop and start. Each of my paintings begins the same way. With a large brush loaded with water and a little paint, I loosely block out my composition onto a cheaper paper, cut or torn to the size my painting will be. This first step keeps the composition loose and lays down proportions. The subject is then drawn along these marks with pencil, then marker, so that the drawing can be seen on a light box and drawn onto the watercolor paper. Now I am ready to paint. As far as color goes, I typically start with a restricted palette only to explode with color somewhere in the middle of the painting process. It’s just what I do.”

Phillips moved to Western North Carolina when her husband Doug’s career brought them to Asheville, which she describes as a “little haven of creatives.” Here she has found not only beauty in the landscape but also a community of diverse thinkers. “My eyes and heart were opened to new ways of thinking that I had never really experienced,” she says. “It’s strange maybe to say this, but I feel like Asheville is the place where I did most of my adult ‘growing up.’ Listening to new ideas and becoming good friends with others who didn’t necessarily think like me caused me to examine myself a little closer. I either moved away from some of my thinking or became stronger in my own convictions. Of course, this had an effect on my art. I could become more confident in what and how I would paint.”

Although she was spared Helene’s ravages, her daughter lost her home to flooding. “Our focus became taking care of each other as she and her family were able to reinstate their lives,” Phillips says. “I did not paint during this time; we were all busy with basic living. The bright hope I saw during that time was people caring for other people. It was happening all over the city.”

Of her many inspirations, Nature is a constant. “Both of my parents enjoyed the outdoors,” she says. “The Mississippi River is lined with miles of tall levees for flood control. Occasionally we would take drives on top of the levees and sometimes even go onto the sandbars next to the river. We searched for driftwood and such treasures before we opened up the picnic baskets. I loved these little adventures. Today, I enjoy small wonders in Nature, like lichen, the grains of wood and seed pods from plants.”

Find Kathryn B. Phillips’ work locally at Molly Courcelle Studio and Gallery in the River Arts District and at K2 Studio, in downtown Asheville. Phillips works from a home studio and does not hold open hours, but does see clients by appointment. Contact her at 828.318.7743. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram (kathryn_b_phillips).