Kathleen Robbins earned her MFA at Massachusetts College of Art where she later became a faculty member. A resident of the Button Factory Artist Studios in Portsmouth, many of her landscapes reflect the Seacoast area and recently the Maine coast. Professional experience also includes her work over the past decade, as an art therapist at Exeter Hospital.
Inspiration comes from many sources including still life and landscape. The process of building the painting is critical to her work. Gesture, color, line and surface all play with the space to create a distinct back and forth motion between representation and abstraction.
What drives the work is the initial response to a moment in time. Layers are then built upon or removed to create the final piece as the painting takes on a life of its own.
The surface is often calm and time is suspended, with the ever-present tension on the verge of movement and change. How one object or shape affects the other is a continuing source of fascination for her.