Katherine Mcnenly - Still Life & Portrait Artist, Ontario

Katherine McNenly – Still Life and Portrait Artist – highly developed, highly competent in a Naturalistic tradition living in Almonte Ontario near the capital of Canada, Ottawa. Mainly still lives and portraits in oil on linen in exquisite detail, control of her media, and characterization of her subjects that completely honors their unique being,..

Seeing her work on line I became even more excited at the prospect of talking to her about her life and work as an artist. Mainly still lives and portraits, in oil on linen,
She works in exquisite detail, control of her media, and characterization of her subjects that completely honors their unique being,.. I think seeing them it would be a huge privilege to know how Katherine McNenly sees me, a chance to learn something really valuable about myself. And so must her subjects feel the same…
Her still lives are so fine so accurate they transcend reality, make me realize what I have missed, make my eyes greedy. Her apples look ready to eat, yet I would not eat them, but would want to preserve them to enjoy them forever as she have done. All her work suffuses me with a kind of longing, always wanting to stay in front of it, knowing I cannot, must tear myself away to pursue other more mundane pursuits. And those are my thoughts after introducing myself to her online work, i can only imagine how enthralled I would feel to be in their actual presence…

Slideshows with my conversation with Katherine:

How Started
Media, Theme and Method
Evolving
Marketing

Her Website a feast for eyes: https://www.katherinemcnenly.com/

Some of her paintings:

cooking

lemons

The Beekeeper

The Dreamer.

Some words from her web site:

Katherine is a BFA graduate of York University. She is interested in visual perception and memory and views her paintings as a continual exploration of the visual language associated with realism. Her still lifes, portraits and landscapes are in private collections across Canada, the United States and Europe. Please view current images of her work on this page.
Katherine is originally from the Northern Ontario town of Espanola. She followed her passion to be an artist, attending York University in the 1980’s. With an interest in the traditions of the Old Master’s, she sought out a more classical approach to painting, apprenticing for several years with the renowned teacher and portraitist John Michael Angel. Her ongoing curiosity for a traditional methodology, lead her to attend the 19th century French inspired Atelier Cecil-Graves in Florence, Italy. Katherine has also participated in workshops at the Grand Central Academy in New York. The extensive studies have helped to shape her meticulous technique and passion for the visual attributes of realism and its continued relevance in our modern society. She has been painting professionally for over 18 years and currently is also teaching traditional painting techniques courses for the city of Ottawa.
Katherine’s subject matter ranges from portraiture and still life to landscape. She has been a finalist in the 2007 Kingston National Portrait Prize, the 2008 Still Life competition of the International Artist Magazine, 2010 Canadian Portrait Society Competition and a semi finalist in the 2009 ARC International Still Life competition. Most recently she was a finalist in the prestigious 2012 International Portrait Competition of the American Portrait Society in Philadelphia, where she received an Honor Award for her painting “The Beekeeper”.

filed under Artist Bios - Canvassing the Artists, Featured.