Katherine Ann Hartley

Katherine Ann Hartley

Katherine Ann Hartley (b. 1959) was born into an artistic family in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. While her mother is an accomplished water-colorist, Hartley did not begin painting until her twenties, when she attended Scottsdale Community College. Here she trained under Steven Missell while simultaneously taking care of the studio of John Court, a well-known portrait painter based in Portugal. Under Court, Hartley learned how to produce still-life works with a focus on light and shadow. "His technique required me to lay a dark wash over the entire canvas, wipe out the highlights and slowly add color. Using simple still-life setups, I was to complete at least four of these studies a day for nearly six months," she recalls.

Hartley's first studio was an ancient stone shed in the Azores once used for drying onions that she remembers as being "far from American life and all I had ever known." However, the space provided solitude and a lack of distraction that allowed her to focus on the abstract qualities of light and shadow. At Court's recommendation, Hartley went on to study with David Leffel of The Arts Students League in New York. She spent two and a half years at the League and continued in private instruction for one and a half years. She then acquired her own studio in Union Square, NYC, where she began concentrating on still-life painting using only natural light from her high North window. 

Her paintings stem from the inexhaustible still-life tradition that began with the Old Masters. Yet, they are not photo-realistic, rather works that capture the essence of objects. In her compositions, there is a play between man-made objects and nature that provide a harmony between movement and stillness. "I want my paintings to be timeless and evocative. For subjects, I choose old silver, iron, clay, or pewter pots and bowls from other eras, which have survived because of their intrinsic elegance and utility. I mingle these with driftwood, old bottles, or things I might find on a walk such as rose hips, choke cherries, money plants, privet or bay berries—things from nature with rich, deep colors, and translucent light," she says.

Hartley is affiliated with the Allied Artists of America, Oil Painters of America and the Art Students League. She has received many awards and has been featured in numerous publications, including American Artist magazine. She currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.