**[Kathleen Rhee](https://www.cohart.com/kathleenrhee/profile)** is an independent artist currently living in the Gold Coast, Australia. With a passion for working on large-scale abstract paintings, her beautifully calming works are inspired by the country’s picturesque natural environment. She studied at Brisbane Institute of Art, ANU Art School Canberra and Parsons School of Design New York City. She has exhibited across the globe with her works being held in private and public collections in 15 countries. 

Rhee’s pieces bring the outdoors indoors, with her gentle pinks, deep blues and turquoise greens adding a sense of peace to people’s lives. Kathleen has a deep connection to mother nature and can only explain her practice as a need to paint everyday, expressing impressions, feelings and experiences in her daily life. Rhee’s personal style has an atmospheric, powerful, mesmerising touch that she achieves by using subtle colour, depth and descriptive detail.

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##### Can you describe your artistic process? What materials and techniques do you typically use?

I work very simply. I paint with acrylic and choose my type of canvas or paper. I like simple, raw, easy, down to basics so it’s not distracting from the creating process and getting my ideas out. I want my process to be as close as I can get to creating as a child, just picking up my brushes and painting.

##### What message or emotion do you hope to convey through your art?

I try to spend as much time as I can out in nature, walking and swimming mostly. I just love it, the beauty and sense of connection to the earth. It brings me so much calm and peace; it’s really indescribable. It’s like that feeling of ‘everything is right and as it should be’. This is what I want to convey. I have this overwhelming need to try and translate and express those feelings into my work. I want the viewer, collector, and owners of my paintings to feel that too. If you have my paintings in your home or space you can have that experience everyday.

##### What role does spontaneity versus planning play in your creative process?

Spontaneity is very important. I don't like to do much planning besides what size canvas I am painting on and colours I will use. I try not to have any rigid pre-preconceived ideas, sometimes I do but they are very open, loose and mostly just feelings of colours and images from nature, but at some point they go and I just paint and allow it to come together naturally. When I start painting I like to keep painting until it has come to some kind of conclusion, something that I feel is basically finished. I let it dry, then I keep coming back for more layering until the work is finished. I combine colour staining, sketching and painting with a brush. This all happens in a natural flow.

##### Can you share a specific project or piece that holds special significance for you? Why is it important?

I always say, ‘It is a happy day when my paintings find their home.’ It's like they are just waiting for that special connection, waiting for their owners to find them. I am so privileged and eternally grateful to have worked on so many special projects. It really is an artist's dream come true to have collectors choose to live with your paintings in their homes everyday. And it is extra special when collectors send me photos of their new painting hanging in their special space.

There are so many but a few works come to mind. A 3 x 2 meter commission for a collector in Germany for his new house that was a year away from being built. He wanted bright yellows, pinks and lavender based on another one of my large oversized paintings that had sold. A Sydney Harbour collector loved my blue ocean works so much she wanted to have a large work (1 x 2.5 meters) in the living area alongside her while she looked out at the harbour along with two more paintings in her bedroom. A collector in Oregon USA had finished building her dream mountain home and was looking for a special painting to fill the main living room. It took her two years until she found my work. She chose a 2.5 x 2 meter double panel painting in soft mute greys and earthy tans. A collector from London was renovating a holiday home in Bordeaux, France and wanted a painting to feature on the wall in the main bedroom. He chose a 2.5 x 2 meter double panel painting in pinks and sienna.

My works live with collectors in over 150 cities across the world in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Japan, Canada, South America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy and Austria. 

##### If you could collaborate with any artist, living or deceased, who would it be and why?

Oh such a hard decision, it would definitely be between Claude Monet or Jackson Pollock. How amazing would it be to be painting with Monet in his garden in France, but I think I would choose Pollock. I was introduced to him as a kid visiting his work _Blue Poles_ in the Australian National Gallery Canberra. I am so fascinated by the abstract expressionist movement and especially New York in general at the time. So much was happening for the first time in art history. It would be incredible to see Pollock's process from the start to the finish and hear his ideas and thought processes.

##### What’s the most challenging part of your artistic process? And how do you overcome it?

Probably like most artists, my mind is always running and thinking, even dreaming about painting ideas, colours, shapes, feelings…. everything about art, the list never ends. I guess it's just the way my brain works. Too many ideas and not enough time. So it’s always a hard decision about what to work on or paint next, and then stop thinking, getting out of my head to start creating. I really have to focus on what is the most important to me, what is the most authentic to me at the time, and what my soul really wants to express.

##### What art piece would you enjoy most having displayed in your home?

Oh wow, if I could have any painting? It would definitely have to be Claude Monet's triptych, _Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond_, Not only would having the space to hang this painting be phenomenal, but just viewing this masterpiece everyday would be pure heaven. I would never in a million years become tired of it…how could you! Viewing his work in person is indescribable, I float away to another time and place.

##### What impact do you hope your art has on the community or society at large, if any?

I want individuals to find a personal connection special to themselves. I want my work to be a little escape from reality for a brief moment in time. An escape of pure beauty, calm and peace. An escape to step back from the fast pace of life, to give the mind a break from thinking, be in the moment and just feel good positive energy.

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Kathleen Rhee creates simple, nature-inspired acrylic paintings that convey peace, connection, and positive energy.

Spotlight: Kathleen Rhee on Creating Art That Brings Peace to Everyday Spaces

Spotlight: Kathleen Rhee on Creating Art That Brings Peace to Everyday Spaces

KathleenRhee by Carrie Mcleod

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