Former Laois nurse launches two art shows
Exhibiting artist Kate Knowles pictured with Freya Doyle and Hannnah Delaney. Photo: Stan Henderson
ARTIST Kate Knowles from Wolfhill has launched an exciting solo exhibition of 20 new charcoal and graphite works in the Gallery of Divine Inspiration at Bloom HQ, Mountrath.
The exhibition is on view for the month of August and is running alongside a second solo display of 20 oil paintings, which will run until mid-September at the CaToCa Tea Rooms in Emo Court.
Kate said that she always felt she was an artist at heart. However, at 19, she trained to become a nurse and went on to work in intensive care. During 2021, she decided to retire early to realise her lifelong dream of becoming a full-time artist.
She began classes in 2015 with Carlow artist Lorraine Fenlon, who became her first mentor and taught her what the life of a full-time artist is like.
Although Kate didn’t do art in school she studied QQI Level 5 Art, Craft and Design and QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Art in Abbeyleix Further Education and Training Centre (FETC), with coordinators Jackie Carter, Edel O’Keefe and Jock Nicholl who are also working artists.
Kate is well-known for her oil paintings and has had several exhibitions since her first solo show in Abbeyleix Library in 2019. However, her new exhibition at Bloom HQ features her never-seen-before charcoal works.
She said: “There is work that I do at home but I don’t show it to people. For the most part, it’s pieces featuring textiles but mainly charcoal. I will always do oil paintings but there are things that I want to express that I am better able to achieve through using different forms of charcoal, graphite and textiles.
“In this exhibition there’s a graphite and charcoal image of Indian activist Hansa Mehta. Very few people know who she is but she was generationally academic. In 1947, when the UN was exploring its declaration of rights, it was a declaration of men’s rights which was that ‘all men are created free and equal’ but she got herself into that room back in 1947 and they changed it to ‘all human beings are born free and equal’.
“Look what bother we would have today if we didn’t have somebody in the room like her. There are loads of people like her today, but they are just not getting into the rooms in the mad world that we live in today.”
Kate said that she is looking at the good in life. She said: “I love to focus on the good that we have in front of us. If you concentrate and focus on something good like Hansa Mehta it opens a conversation because people have always existed, the bog has always existed and animals and nature have always existed.”
Commenting on Kate’s works, Gallery of Divine Inspiration curator and fellow artist Kevin McCann said that Kate is one of the most productive artists that he has ever met.
He said: “Kate is on her first solo exhibition here and she has been part of two other monthly shows. She’s also exhibiting in Emo Court and she is just back from Wexford, where she was doing plein-air painting. Where she gets the time and energy to produce so much good work so quickly is unbelievable. Apart from that, she is a really nice woman and very easy to deal with.”
The exhibition remains on view in Bloom HQ throughout August, while her second exhibition is currently on view in Emo Court until mid-September.
Kate Knowles Art can be found on social media sites. Kate can be contacted directly with enquiries by emailing ktjknowles@gmail.com.
