When award-winning painter and Flat Rock resident Kate Thayer creates a landscape, she wants you to appreciate the natural world the way she does. “I want viewers to feel what I experience when painting a scene. I want to rekindle the spirit and the sense of wonder we all have when we witness nature’s sorcery.”

Kate is best known for her captivating, almost dream-like paintings of North Carolina mountain scenes. “Nature is life-giving. We need to connect with nature to enrich our souls. Painting the magnificent colors within the seasons in these Western North Carolina Mountains connects me to these special places.”

Although painting with oils is a more recent passion for Kate, she maintains that she has always been an artist. “My commitment to my art was accidental as if it met me in mid-life after gardening, knitting and flower arranging. These were all about textures and colors, and they all had the same intent: to create sensory and spiritual experiences that are personal, provocative, and life-enriching.”

Kate uses a very distinctive layering process of applying oil paints with a palette knife. Working in her Flat Rock home studio which backs up to the property of the Carl Sandburg Historic Home Site, she will add layers upon layers that give each work a sense of depth and create a subtle sense of movement in the natural settings she loves to capture.

The layering process also allows each work to evolve as she paints. “When I return to an unfinished painting, it becomes a different painting filled with new ideas, colors, and marks. After looking into my paintings, the viewer may see the trees and rivers in a way they have not seen them before.”

Kate’s art is on exhibition locally at The Gallery at Flat Rock. Gallery owner, Suzanne Camarata, is particularly drawn to the emotional response the paintings can elicit in the viewer. “Seeing a painting by Kate Thayer is like reliving a walk through your favorite spots in the forest. Light dances through the canvas, and you can just feel the texture of the trees. This woman has a deep reverence for nature. We are so pleased to represent an artist with such a generous soul.”

Ultimately, Kate Thayer believes that beauty cannot be explained. It has to be experienced. And thanks to her incredible skills as an artist, those of us fortunate enough to see her work in person have that opportunity with every painting she creates.

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You can see Kate’s art in person at The Gallery at Flat Rock and online at katethayer.com.