"The Artist's Task is to Save the Soul"
The Artist Studio
Live Creative. Live Free.
At the heart of Kati Kaia is our hand-painted exclusive artworks. Each painting is created by our founder, Kati in our art shed, nestled in the Surrey Hills, England. An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), The Surrey Hills is a nationally protected landscape in the UK, embracing an amazing variety of countryside, from the rolling chalk downs to acid heaths and ancient woodlands of the Greensand Hills that rise to form the highest point in south east England. Tapping into the powerful source of nature as a key inspiration throughout her work and reflecting the energy surrounding this most beautiful area, the human fire energy within and the simplicity of mark-making into her abstract expressionist style.
This area of The Surrey Hills is very special and holds the most important sites for Yew Trees in the whole of the UK, the ancient trees date back at least 1,000 years and some are thought to be 5,000 years old. Yew trees are deeply entwined in our history. They are some of the oldest living species in Europe and native to this area. Yews have a deep-rooted and sacred ties as you walk these woodlands you can feel the energy, especially where they are grow together like they do in the Surrey Hills, it is highly unusual for them to grow in the wild like this. Many Druids and Pagans live and visit the Surrey Hills, keeping old practices and commune.
Openly sharing our creative process, hand-work and inspiration that goes into the evolution of each design, makes our pieces special. From my soul to yours. Each artwork takes many months, painting and re-working layer upon layer of paint to create the story, musing or connecting to energy chakras for colour work. These large oil paintings are then scanned at our fine art digitaliser, where they are worked upon further, enhancing the story and getting the positioning of each section just right, so you can't wait to step on the mat!
Cross Country...
Walking through nature trails behind the historial West Horsley Place, dating from the Saxon Age, our artist studio is nestled between the fields to the back of the Opera House and Hatchlands Park, a stunning National Trust ancient parkland.
Palette Play...
Layering up mark-making textures of oil paints onto large canvases and scraping them back to create energy stories, creating large fields of colour that envelope the beholder.
Kati moves across the canvas dancing the palette knife and building stories that reflect the innate creativity within and by switching off from the modern world, is able to speak and move the soul, using colour alone.
"Purple the colour of transcendence, a colour of healing, soothing headaches and inspiring connection to the higher realms and higher self. Colour therapy is such an interesting part of being an artist and working with colour to impact mood, change your energy and channel vibrations are topics close to my heart."
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Colour and movement has been an obsession for some time, using colour and shape to interpret musings, emotions, meditations and looking at how tones of colours work together to impact mood and speak to the soul. The profound emotional escape and expression I feel through painting is transferred to canvas, you can see the movement, drench yourself in colour and expressions.
Storytelling is also an important part of my process, from ancient mythology to the current waves of the modern world, I try to channel the empathic feelings in my our nature and express emotions. This is counterbalanced by the juxtaposition of marks, not visual forms with human emotion and my deep love and expression of nature.
COLOUR AS THERAPY
By removing form, technology, noise and the constant stream of media, stripping imagery back to the beginnings of colour and the beauty alone in that, as communion, is something I will be exploring for some time to come. Intrigued by the effect this has on our own movement and spiritual practise of yoga with the enhancement of colour and therapy. Looking at the effect colour has to play on the mind, our mood as it interacts with everyday objects, our own movement with that, our skin close with colour, touch, texture, it is a project close to my heart. To be able to address the imbalance of stresses in our lives by saturating ourselves in the colour right where our gaze turns inwards and using colour as a catalyst to bring positive change, radiating ease, flow and deeper connection.
