KATHLEEN BREATORE BRATT
Impressionist Landscape Painter
Growing up in Southern California, Kathleen’s influences were the landscapes of early California artists, Franz Bischoff, William Wendt and the Arts and Crafts movement. The smokey blue eucalyptus, tangerine sunsets and ochre hillsides became a part of her soul and eventual expression in art.
With a background of thirty years as a professional photographer, her sepia toned hand painted photographs were considered fine art. Her work appeared in galleries, published in magazines, catalogs, album covers and commissioned hotel art.
When digital photography diminished her interest and dark room skills were no longer needed, she returned to art classes at Napa Valley College to rekindle her passion in art. It was a natural progression having painted in oil on photographic paper to oil painting on canvas.
In 2005 she seriously began study with a long list of master painters.
Kevin Courter, Camille Przewodek, Brent Jensen, Elio Camacho, Paul Youngman, Brooks Anderson, Casey Klahn, Kathleen Elsey, Jan Schmuckal as well classes with local artists, David D’Andrade, Nancy Willis, Karen Lynn Ingalls, Vicki Long , and Theo Becker.
In 2008 Kathleen assisted Carlo Marchiori in painting public art on the Bank of America building, improving the alley in Calistoga which took three months.
Living the dream of more than 20 years in Napa Valley, Kathleen paints mostly plein air in California Wine Country and surrounding coastal areas.
Her paintings have a nostalgic but contemporary quality with warm earth toned base beneath layers of saturated color, a tonalist first, then a colorist or visa versa.
Represented by Blackbird of Calistoga http://www.blackbirdofcalistoga.com
Landscapes of California 