Creativity cures
One of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists offers a master class in atmospheric realism.
“If I’m not being creative, I feel like I’m missing something,” says Katie Trinkle Legge, an internationally-acclaimed artist who paints from her sunlight-bathed studio on Waiheke Island. It’s here she finds a cornucopia of colourful inspiration. Citrus trees surround the studio and the light filters in through the day creating unique opportunities to explore composition. “Art usually takes on the essence of the artist’s surroundings,” Katie says.
Gravitating towards painting larger than life forms, Katie describes her speciality as “atmospheric realism”, a still life contemporary painting style that depicts a scene or sound enveloped in a sense of calm.
Born in 1965 New York, Katie graduated from Philadelphia’s University of Arts in 1988 and began her professional career. She and Kiwi husband Darren moved from Nantucket Island to Waiheke Island in 2010.
Katie’s colour palette is based on impressionism with multiple layers of oil paint mixed and applied in a way that creates a colour resonance.
With her work internationally recognised and collected, Katie continues to exhibit in the USA and across New Zealand.
