Do What You Love interview: Katherine Quinn (with special giveaway!)
Katherine Quinn of Sleep and Her Sisters is a New Zealand-based artist who creates dreamy paintings and sells her work through galleries and online. So Katherine blogs about the works she creates, her creative process and the thoughts and ideas behind them. Katherine also blogs about being creative in amongst a busy family life, which she readily admits is not always easy.
Katherine is also offering an exclusive giveaway of one of her gorgeous creations – see the end of the interview for details.
(‘I just want you to know who I am’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
How would you describe your art to someone who has never seen it?
Hmmm I found this question really hard… But I guess I would say the girls depicted in my paintings are quiet, calming and content in the worlds that surround them.
(‘Take time to calm your breath and choose your moment’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
I love the gentle characters in your paintings. How did they come about?
My characters didn’t start out so gentle… the first figures were alien like and had their mouths stitched up and their clothes were plain and very simple, more like cloaks. So they have slowly evolved over the last 15 years to what they are today although one thing that has never changed it the fact that they still don’t have hands (I could never paint hands so I just made their arms longer and left the hands out).
(‘I just want you to know who I am’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
What is your favourite piece of all the art you have created to date, and why?
I think my favourite piece to date is “sadness flies away on the wings of time” painted just after a really hard time and it made me realise that it won’t always be like this, things will get better in times.
(‘Sadness flies away on the wings of time’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
What would your dream studio look like?
It would be a very large room/s where all the walls will be lined with bookcases and storage cupboards.
Although one wall will be left bare to display finished works.
There will be work stations on wheels that I can move to wherever they are needed.
A wet area, a dry clean area, a computer area and a wrapping/posting area.
A very large inspiration wall.
And room for friends to come and work if they want.
(‘I’ll save a place in my heart’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
How important is the online community to your work?
The online community has made the world I live in a much smaller place and has made my own personal world so very big. My first glimpse into the online world was after a tutor at work said to me to look at Etsy. I had a look and the first work I saw on the front page was Kelly Rae Roberts. I was drawn to her girls and followed the link that lead to her blog… at that moment my world changed.
(‘There’s a dream still in my heart’ courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
What is the hardest part about juggling art and the other aspects of your life?
I always think about life as a 50 cent mixture of lollies/sweets… a little bit of everything. I have had people tell me I am lucky to be ‘arty’ but sometimes it can be a curse. I think that is hardest thing to deal with… that need to create when you don’t have time and other things need to be done first (like feeding grumpy children).
And what is the best part about being an artist?
Being an artist, being able to create is like a vitamin suppliment my body needs, it feeds me and makes me happy. Another very good thing about being an artist is my fellow artisans, they really feed my soul as well.
(‘Hope Floats’, courtesy of Katherine Quinn)
Can you tell us a bit about some of your favourite other New Zealand artists?
I have just discovered Mandy Emerson… http://www.mandyemerson.co.nz/ completely different to my work but when I first saw it I was left gobsmacked.
What is your big creative dream?
To keep on doing what I am doing, maybe write and illustrate my own children’s book. I would really love to be able to do an art retreat in the States or the UK one day and maybe to be a part of organising a retreat here in New Zealand.
Find out more about Katherine on her blog ‘Sleep and Her Sisters’, or visit her Etsy shop
Special giveaway
Katherine is generously offering this gorgeous pendant and accompanying signed print ‘Fly’ for one reader (below).
Just leave a comment below in response to Katherine’s interview, and a winner will be chosen at random after two days!
***THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! The lucky winner was Nadia of http://beyourselfcreateart.blogspot.com Congratulations Nadia! Some lovely creations are heading your way***
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See here for more interviews with inspiring people doing what they love
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I really love the girls clothes and wouldn’t mind wearing some of them. Very gentle, and as Katherine says, calming paintings.
Oh yeah – FLY my way!
Great blog!
Have admired your work for a couple of years now…LoVe LoVe LoVe it!…
Stunning works of art – I could feel the stress floating away just looking at them and reading through your interview Katherine. I’d like to live in their little world for a while! Beautiful
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Love Katherine’s work, and particularly the painting she highlights as her favourite. Sadness indeed flies away on the wings of time…
I’m not a stranger to Katherine’s work, and I am always in awe with her style, which is very appealing to me. I have difficulty evoking the gentle calm her work always seem to portray to me. I believe her work reflects her soul, and the really sweet person she is.
Love this interview and seeing these paintings, and i especially love the fact the arms are longer because you don’t like painting hands!! It really works for the girls in your paintings. My favourite is the girl with the orange hat, world map details on her clothing and her quirky little expression, the colours in it are so bold but still dreamy. Glad I’ve stumbled across your art!
What beautiful paintings! I love the girls & the concepts behind them.
Yay! Well done Katherine! I’m a massive fan of Katherine’s work and having had the pleasure of meeting her in real life through the wonder of first meeting online, I can say she is truly as lovely and gentle as she seems!
I find her approach very inspiring, and am very proud of her for patiently following her dreams and making them real.
I am a huge fan of Katherine’s work!!
oh i would love to have this pendant…..sososo much
Thanks for the giveaway!
how beautiful! my word for the year is “fly” so this would be perfect! love the post! happy thursday! ciao!
Lovely interview. I have loved Katherine’s work for quite some time and it still delights me every time I see a new artwork. ~Theresa
Beautiful, delicate imagery combined with strong messages of hope. I love your work, Katherine.
Thank you for such a wonderful interview. I adore Katherine’s work. Xx
Beautiful beautiful art refelecting a sweet and gentle soul. I LOVE Katherine’s art!
I absolutely love Katherine Quinn’s work,I first saw it in a gallery in Napier and was drawn to it,and bought a card.I went home and googled her and learnt that she was a NZ artist,and could’nt believe it when I also found out she is from Taradale,where I live,how cool-have since bought heaps more ,especially enjoy reading her blogs:0)
I too adore Katherine’s work and have been known to be envious of creative folk. However, Katherine has echoed the sentiment of lots of creative people I know who also feel that it can be a curse. I suppose I am just a little bit selfish as I love to be surrounded by beautiful things like Katherine’s girls and wish I had the skills to contribute to that beauty and make others smile.
The paintings are beautiful. Made me feel quite calm just looking at them! Fantastic interview too.
I think innocence and hope spring eternal through life and your characters seem young and old and the same time which somehow captures that perfectly -reminds me of Marc Chagall in a wierd way not that the works look like his but that you feel like you are looking in on an private world which you cannot know and yet you do feel you can connect to it
Katherine’s girls and houses in calming pastel colours are beautiful and the pendants are just gorgeous too. Well done Katherine.
hi katherine – i have your prints over my bed and i love them. they add such simple joy to the one room i go to for calmness and me character. i love that you say ‘vitamin supplement’. so true . x
Katherine, you are inspiring and fearless … a soulful illustrator of the feminine that lies within …
I love, love, LOVE Katherine’s work! Especially loving “Fly”. She’s so beautiful.
Thanks for the generous giveaway! 
I really love Katherine artwork. I am glad i found this interview, I realize we “think alike” on several points.
Thanks for the giveaway too.
Love these paintings, and the necklace too – great work!
I have several of Katherine’s work and love them. She is a very talented artist.
beautiful, whimsical, etherial… love Sleep and her Sisters!
Gee you make me homesick with talk of 50 cent bag of mixed lollies. I love your paintings they are beautiful.
I love the style, the colours and the titles of the pieces, Katherine.
Katherine’s work is beautiful. Thank you for a glimpse into her inspirations and apsirations. A retreat led by Katherine sounds magical.
I love the whimsical girls, very generous giveaway.
I love Katherine’s work, the red version of ‘take time and catch your breath’ is looking down at me right now. I am saving for another print, have fallen in love with ‘Fly’. Please can I win, please?
Hi, I’ve been following Katherine’s blog for awhile now… I love her work, it’s so dreamy and girlie. I love the fact that she is so normal too… another very clever juggling Mum.
Great inner-view. Katherine is so generous and inspiring. I hope all her dreams come true. look forward to exploring this site.
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Great interview with a talented artist .. thanks.
Great interview and beautiful paintings! I love the calmness, colours and the expression on the girls’ faces.
***THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!*** Thanks for entering everyone, and thank you to Katherine for generously offering such a lovely prize.
The lucky winner was Nadia of http://beyourselfcreateart.blogspot.com
Congratulations Nadia! Some lovely creations are heading your way
I love the wind and the rain the sky and the stars at night I love warm and gentle people bird song I love my cat and my dog I love my job and the people I work with I love dawn light and the evening sky I love being silly and laughing I love sunshine on a winters day I love music and singing I love the highs as much as the lows and I guess it is safe to say I am in love with the power of love because from love all good things grow and I love my beautiful son most of all because he was made from love……I just want more love to rain down on everyone
Hi, Katherine is such a sweetie, I know this giveaway is closed, but I do love her art. cheers Marie