The Romance: Kathe Fraga

Artist Statement

My nature narrative paintings are inspired by the romance of vintage Chinoiserie, layered with pattern, botanicals, color and hidden motifs. We live in a 110-year-old Bainbridge Island home built with barnacled beach rock and weathered grey shingles. The old fir floorboards of our home, milled from the surrounding trees, remind me on a daily basis of the love and gentle patina of time—the sound and scent of the forest. With their decay and rebirth, they send their message to my art as I explore how the fresh beauty of the “new” evolves, over time, into something far more interesting and dramatic. Worn surfaces and distressed textures combine to create a sense of something soft and lovely and familiar; but yet, I feel the need to add a bold swath of color to add the modern and unexpected. It’s a resting place for the eye, a welcome peaceful voice as something reinvented emerges: gentle old meets dynamic new.