Kathy Waltermire
Kathy grew up in an Air Force family. Her early travels in the U. S., Japan, Hawaii and elsewhere awakened her love of beautiful scenes and color.
Although she spent 30 years with the Defense Department in a variety of fields related to automated systems, Kathy’s lifelong love of drawing led her to pursue art classes whenever possible.
After retirement, she studied for a few years with several teachers at the Art League School in Alexandria. She also attended workshops with nationally known and local artists over the years.
Once introduced to soft pastels about twenty years ago, she had found her true love. Pastels are made of the same pigments used in oils and watercolors but made in stick form. The hues can range from a purple that’s darker than black to the palest yellow, and they range in hardness from a pencil to a stick that is soft as butter.
Thus, Kathy works almost exclusively in soft pastel or graphite with pastel and strives for work that is appealing to the viewer and is full of pure, lively color. Her favorite subjects include still life, people, pets, florals, and landscapes.
She paints mainly in her studio, using reference photographs of scenes or of portrait subjects, or from live set-ups for still life. She usually works on sanded pastel paper, does an under-painting, and then builds up a painting using many layers of pastel to achieve the form, color and amount of detail desired.
Kathy says, "This part of the process is the most fun—solving problems of space and color to finish a pleasing painting."
Before coming to Brush Strokes Gallery, she spent three years exhibiting her work at the Artists’ Undertaking Gallery in Occoquan, VA, and also briefly at Art First Gallery here in Fredericksburg.
She is a current member of the MidAtlantic Pastel Society, the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, and the Colonial Beach Artists’ Guild.
Kathy offers introductory workshops in portrait drawing and pastels and tutors students individually. She has occasionally judged area shows.