A woman sitting comfortably in an armchair in a well-lit living room, smiling. She has blonde hair, wears a white shirt, and dark jeans. A side table with a potted plant, a bookshelf with photographs, and a window with bamboo blinds are visible in the background.

Hi, I’m Kathy Connolly,
a visual artist, living in Arizona.

I started painting in watercolor about 10 years ago. My formal training and degree is actually in interior design. I should’ve known I would eventually turn to creating art after realizing my favorite design class was hand-rendering. I loved bringing those spaces to life with colored pencils, markers and watercolor washes.

The pivot to becoming an artist after being an interior designer isn’t such a great stretch. The principles and elements of good interior design also apply to creating beautiful artworks. Proportion, scale, balance, emphasis, rhythm, space, form, texture and lines are all considerations in both practices.

Currently, Im painting mostly with acrylics, as they allow for a beautiful building up of layers that create interesting textures and intriguing patterns.

Elements of nature are a very strong inspiration for my work, but I tend to also include signs of human life intermingled with the natural aspects. Plants, but they’re in pots, or trees, with houses that found their way onto the same canvas. That sort of thing.

While I love and sometimes even envy interior spaces that are completely calm, serene and neutral, I’ve found I’m not capable of living or creating with that same restraint. I’m pretty much a color gal. Give me all the pinks and oranges!

Contact me ➝