Kate Sully is a visual mixed media artist, facilitator, and project manager for all kinds of community and educational settings based in Sheffield and she supplied the artwork for Cubo Sheffield and Leeds.
Though she embarked on a Ceramics degree before continuing her education completing a MA in Fine Art, Kate has always had a different approach to materials and process.
Realising her practice was about ideas she was able to use this approach to create both sculptural and wall-based pieces to reflect the world around her often creating large scale challenging work. Over the years as a practicing artist Kate has used all kinds of materials and processes to capture the essence of her ideas such as textiles, mixed media, digital imagery, metal, wood and acrylic and has a huge body of artwork which she has exhibited regionally and nationally.
There are common threads which appear thought out Kate’s back catalogue of work which are colour, texture, shape, and a desire to look beneath the surface of the world around us and examine and understand it.
Her interest in science has always been there but in more recent years Kate has sought to collaborate with the University of Sheffield to use cutting edge science research to inspire her work and create new ideas.
Q. How long have you been an artist?
A. I have been a professional artist since 1989
Q. How would you describe your artist style?
A. Mixed media and in the last couple of years my work has focused on large scale abstract paintings.
Q. Which artist, past or present, inspires you the most and why?
A. Currently I am very inspired by the work of Frank Stella as he creates large bold colourful abstract artworks that are often wall bases, but 3D and I want to develop my work using more layers.
Q. How has your style changed over time?
A. My work has changed with my ideas I suppose so I have created artwork around that, but the common thread has always been the world around us and what lies hidden. My interest in science has been more focused this last few years working in collaboration with researchers around different cutting edge science.
Q. How did you begin your career/what is your background?
A. I did a degree and Masters in Cardiff as I always wanted to be an artist and have had a studio space of some kind since 1989. I learnt to balance work and my own art practice and over the years my career has taken me into all kinds of work from being a community artist, project manager of arts events and projects and an exhibiting artist.
Q. What do you hope to achieve with your artwork?
A. To create high quality paintings that inspire and engage people through the colour and form.
Q. Do you think about where your artwork will be placed when you are creating them?
A. No I am just interested in making the work to exhibit but I am keen to show the work in non-gallery spaces too.
Q. How long on average does each piece take to create?
A. 4 weeks full time
Q. What is your dream piece to create?
A. Every painting to be as good as it can be and to capture the essence of the idea in rich colour and form.
Q. How do you feel artwork impacts a workspace?
A. I think my work is different but also engaging so it brings a new focus to a workplace and a vitality that contemporary art can bring to inspire creativity to all who see it.
Q. What are the tips you would give to people when choosing artwork for the workspace?
A. Be bold and find high quality artists and also think big!
Q. Which is your favourite piece and why?
A. Self-portrait as it tells a very personal story.
Q. How can people connect with you?
A. My website www.katesully.com or via Instagram @katesullyartist
It has been a great opportunity to show my work at Cubo in Sheffield and Leeds and it brings colour and interest to these amazing workspaces, and I hope to do more in the future.
