Katie Ree
AJ Fletcher Foundation
August - October
I am a wanderer, explorer, and experience-r of nature. I interpret the landscape around me and try to express the wonder and beauty I feel surrounded by. I currently work in and around the Durham, NC area and love the forests, rivers, streams, and creeks. I often start a painting on location and finish in my studio. My needs are minimal - some watercolors, a nice rock, sun if I’m lucky, paper, and ink.
My work is a deeply spiritual experience for me. I endeavor to capture not only what I see but that which is unseen. There are lines connecting us all and I try to share them. Each painting is both a meditative experience and a means to push myself to notice more. What colors are really in a sky, a field, a river, a mountain? What lines and spaces make up a tree? How do you express the gentle breeze, the whispering of trees, the sound of a peaceful sky? How do you be still and one with yourself and the world around you?
I hope to create images and objects that people want to live with. That speak to them as creating them has spoken to me. Most importantly, I hope to share my love of nature and landscapes. I hope to inspire others to look around more closely. To see the beauty we are surrounded by. My hope is that we can all come back to ourselves, our best selves, in nature.