Kate Aubrey has been a devoted water colorist for the last 33 years and has recently expanded into multimedia works, including combinations of watercolor with gouache, pen and ink and/or pastels. Having lived in Colorado, Alaska and northern Nevada she especially enjoys working out in nature creating plein air landscape paintings.
While florals and figures are also favorite subjects, Kate is best known for her series of old Nevada steam locomotive paintings featuring volunteers at the Nevada State Railroad Museum. Kate continues to be fascinated by the combination of machinery and men. A second ongoing series is of landscapes in Nevada, California, Colorado and England, her favorite places to paint. And, returning to an old love, she has also begun a series of figure paintings and portraits.
A self-taught artist, Kate has studied with noted artists Stephen Quiller, Charles Reid, Carol Orr, Ted Nuttall, Don Andrews, Lian Zhen, and Mike Bailey. She was a regular Museum School teacher at Reno’s Nevada Museum of Art for four years, where she taught all levels of watercolor classes and workshops. Kate teaches drawing and watercolor classes at the Truckee Meadows Community College Continuing Education campus, as well as classes and workshops at her studio off Geiger Grade. Workshop locations include Filoli Gardens south of San Francisco, Mono Lake, and Virginia City, among others.
She advocates painting from life whenever possible, and can often be seen with her large black dog, easel and palette painting en plein aire in Reno, Carson City, and the Sierras or any other place she happens to be.