Artist Reception: Katie Atkinson, Seasons of Painting

Katie Atkinson is an illustrator/artist who has lived in Norfolk for 30 years.  In her college experience, she studied in France during her junior year and graduated from the University of Connecticut with a major in French and a minor in art.  After college, she spent four years in New York City working in advertising and graphic design.  She has licensed her art as greeting cards, magazine covers, and gift products, and for many other uses.  The Illustration Source  https://www.illustrationsource.com/  represents a collection of 150 of her illustrations.

Broadening her additional background in drug and alcohol rehabilitation counseling, Katie has enjoyed creating and facilitating therapeutic group art workshops in a wide variety of settings, including Mountainside Treatment Center, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and Brandywine Assisted Living.

Seasons of Painting will be on display from January 31 to February 25. Please join us at a reception for the artist on Sunday, February 1, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., graciously hosted by the Norfolk Library Associates.

Artist’s Statement

The paintings in this exhibition show my evolution as an artist as I looked to approach the field of illustration by painting what I loved.  Always inspired by the art in children’s books, I started with some paintings to express the magic of winter I felt as I saw it through my children’s eyes. I created a series of paintings to capture the love of those times in the surroundings of Norfolk’s natural beauty. 

In 1999, I brought a group of these early paintings to the New York Stationery Show and connected with Good Cause Greetings.  When I had a body of published illustrations, I got an agent to license reproduction rights to my art for many other editorial uses, including as American Lung Association for Christmas Seals in 2004.

I had always admired the art I saw on covers of the New Yorker Magazine when I lived in the city.  After sending out many submissions to magazines, the door that eventually opened for me was with Bookmarks Magazine.  To date, I have been fortunate to have illustrated over fifty Bookmarks covers.  What I love best is being able to come up with my own ideas, experiment with unique perspectives and imaginary concepts on the subject of reading.  People often describe my work as “whimsical.”

I love to create an image that has personal meaning to me and find a way to make it universal. Painting colorful scenes that inspire peace, love and hope gives me great joy.