Poise

Oil on canvas
76cm x 61cm

York-based Kitty Bellamy was born in 1982, Dover, England. With an arts heritage going back over six generations, she followed her innate creativity and in 2001 undertook a Foundation Diploma in Fine Art at KIAD (Canterbury). After graduating, Kitty left the art world briefly to pursue other interests, returning to the arts in 2007 after the birth of her first daughter and continued to paint.

Kitty has spent her life making works of art which have varied in subject and style as she evolved and honed her skills. She now concentrates her time on producing representational portraits and particularly enjoys working on a large scale; the use of light and shadow, and latterly playing with adding gold leaf or strong colours to heighten the sense of illumination.

“I was lucky to be born in a family with strong creative roots; I was surrounded by artistic individuals who encouraged and nurtured my enthusiasm for art from the moment I could hold a pencil. At a point in time when most of my peers were being discouraged from following the arts as a career, I was positively pushed toward it.

I developed an early love for drawing people and producing figurative sculpture, but went on to explore a number of subjects over a 20 year period, until I finally realised that I’m at my happiest when I’m in my studio, playing with paint and trying to capture the essence of what makes a portrait look and feel like the person it’s supposed to be”