a rather long bio...

I was born in Cornwall but came to Australia when only two years old to be brought up running a little wild on Kangaroo Island. It was a great childhood, where we kids disappeared in the mornings to return hungry at dusk. We had such adventures, becoming self-trained naturalists, learning every secret of the bush, deserted homesteads, rivers, and most of all the cliffs, rocks and the sea. What a lucky foundation for a would-be artist! Later, I studied at South Australian School of Art and University in Adelaide, but although I’ve drawn and painted all my life, I didn’t then have the maturity to take my art any further as a career. Instead I travelled widely, lived in London for a year, a Greek island for 18 months, and moved to Tasmania (another island of natural beauty), had 2 each of children and husbands, and a busy career leading to my own very enjoyable business as a management & workplace reform consultant. But… I could never be rid of the itch to paint. In the year 2000, single and with all responsibilities gone, I sold my house to move to Sydney and take up painting full time - and for the first time, seriously.

 It was so exciting finding a studio in bohemian Newtown, and as a result of my first exhibition at an artist collective, I was asked to join the stable of the Rushcutters Bay Gallery. What luck! I had 5 solo shows there in Sydney, then independently, two in Hong Kong, and two in China (Shanghai and Guangzhou). My next studio had a small downstairs gallery in Rozelle, in the inner west of Sydney – I called it Kate Owen Gallery because it was only going to be selling my own works. Or that was the plan! It was bubbling along nicely when fate took a hand – an art dealer came in to show me some Aboriginal Art, and suggested I hang some alongside my own works in the gallery. I had never really looked at Aboriginal Art before, and knew nothing about it, except that I LOVED it immediately! These paintings had a wonderful energy and resonated with the desert colours of my own works so beautifully that I happily invited them in. 

 So began an enormous journey for me. So much to learn, and it was engrossing travelling to remote Aboriginal communities, meeting the often very ancient artists, acquiring fine examples of their works and learning how to manage a quickly growing gallery! Over the next six years, this passion for Indigenous Art and the Aboriginal people, grew the gallery to encompass three floors and over 1800 pieces of original Australian Indigenous art at any one time. My studio was edged out, so it (and I) moved to live in the magnificent “old tram shed” nearby - a space to continue my own painting. 

Unfortunately, the gallery had become much more than a full time job, and although it was a source of great personal satisfaction, no time was left for my painting…. In July 2013, I sold the gallery and cast off (with Larry, an old friend who was to become my 3rd husband) to take up a low-key lifestyle of travel and painting. We built a studio in Hobart Tasmania, and Kate Owen Gallery has remained an agent for my artworks in Sydney. In search of warmer weather and the glorious colours, land and seascapes of Northern and Central Australia, we have now moved to Noosaville and at last I've found a new Studio - on Gateway Drive. I’m loving having plenty of room to paint and hang my works.