The landscape, from both a physical and psychological perspective, has always informed my work. Since 1968, I’ve lived in places increasingly defined by water: New Haven, New Orleans, and currently on Vinalhaven, an island fifteen miles off the coast of Maine.

I’m interested in the way light and shadow, time and weather transform a particular landscape and the power of winds, tides and currents to change the surface and movement of water and redefine the land.

I explore a site with sketches that incorporate a grid and written notations. I collect scraps of color, text and texture – inventory for collage – compositions of chance, color, scale and form which provide new possibilities for describing a specific place and time.

Referring to the studies, I work on larger paintings and drawings which are composites of direct observation, memory and invention. Starting with an underlying grid, followed by layers of fluid acrylics, watercolors, and inks often combined with pastel, oil and encaustic, I try to capture the luminous, rapidly changing light, the convergence of water, land and sky, and the unique beauty and fragility of the surrounding landscape.

Katharine White received a B.A. in English literature from Connecticut College and an M.F.A. in painting from the Yale School of Art.

She has exhibited her paintings, drawings, and collages in galleries and museums in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Louisiana. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at the London Institute Gallery in England and the Espace-Saint-Benezet in Avignon, France. She has received grants and awards both for her own work and for her efforts in promoting the visual arts. Her work is included in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the United States.