Kate Irish is a local artist based in Pymble in Sydney's upper North Shore.  She has a degree in Fine Arts from Sydney University and has completed a diploma at the School of Colour and Design in Willoughby. She has also studied with Annette Pringle,  exhibiting with the Edge Group at the Mary Place Gallery in Paddington, and with Lyndal Beck, exhibiting at Hunters Hill Gallery.

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Her first solo exhibition was at Gallery Oscar, a local Pymble Gallery,  in 2005 followed by another in 2006. Since then she has participated in group shows at the same gallery, as well as being represented by the same gallery at Art Sydney and Art Melbourne. She has also participated in several private school exhibitions including Macquarie University college exhibition,  PLC and Queenwood.

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In more recent times there has been a continuing preoccupation with perspective and the way in which certain viewpoints can increase the drama of a composition, drawing the viewer into the painting. Rather than creating a three dimensional effect, whereby the painting seems to come forward from the canvas, there is an attempt to lure the viewer into the scene portrayed. These works have been more representational than earlier works, which tended more to the semi abstract. 

 

In March 2015 Kate exhibited with Lesley Vogel in an exhibition titled Archways & Waterways, which was held at Studio W Gallery in Woolloomooloo. This exhibition further explored the attempt to draw the viewer into the composition and featured more works inspired by overseas travel. These paintings can be viewed in the gallery section of the website. 

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The most recent exhibition  was 'Eucalypt Country', held at Van Rensburg Gallery, Milton NSW, in July 2021. This body of work explored the incredible resilience of the Australian gum trees in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

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Kate continues to paint, exploring both abstract and more representational works.

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"No artist has ever saved the world; self-fulfilment is the best an artist can hope for. His creations are nothing more than expressions of his own sensations, his imagination and waking dreams, narcissism and masochism, insatiable desires and particular preoccupations."  Gao Xingjian Return to Painting.

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