Artist Spotlight - Contemporary Impressionist Painter Katie Fogg

As a youngster, Katie Fogg liked to experiment with acrylic paints. In middle school, she starting taking her work more seriously under the guidance of art teacher Mrs. Concascia, who encouraged Katie to listen to music while painting in the style of Wassily Kandinsky. 

In High School, Fogg shifted gears to work on fashion but she wasn’t sure if that was the right path for her. Guided by her art teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Webber, she turned back to painting and decided to apply to Lyme Arts Academy, where she honed her skills from 2006 to 2010.

“In just the first few weeks that I was there I could already see a big improvement in my work,” says Fogg. “I knew that painting was really what I wanted to do [and] each year my passion for my work grew stronger.” 

Katie sold her first big painting at the senior art exhibition. “It was a really big and emotional moment,” she recalls. For the first time, she saw that all her hard work and determination might actually pay off.

After graduating, Fogg was offered a position as gallery manager of the where she still works today.  Ever on the move, Fogg splits most of her time between working at the gallery and in the studio. If she had her way, however, she'd spend all of her time in the studio following her passion.

Many of her panel paintings are very large, although they'd be even larger if the door to her studio was bigger. By intention, viewers are compelled to look up at these larger-than-life portraits and the exaggerated perspective has an "Alice in Wonderland" effect, making you feel diminutive in stature relative to the scene. Her recent work includes a series of large monochromatic pieces with women posing in outdoor scenes that seem to leap off the surface and invite you into the scene at the same time.  

Fogg has been keeping busy trying to finish her portfolio with the intention of going to graduate school. She hopes to attend either Yale or the New York Academy of Art, although she says she's leaning toward the academy because its small size reminds her of the intimacy and individual attention that she received at Lyme Arts Academy.

Fogg's work is currently on display in the Ballroom of the New London Harbour Towers and in the Kate Gallery at the Maritime Gallery. Her next show is a group exhibit at the Maritime Gallery at Firehouse Square, which is a reunion show for past winners of the John Stobart fellowship award dating back to 1989.

Fogg coordinated the exhibit, contacting all the artists for this Juried exhibit chosen by John Stobart himself. The show opens on July 29 with a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. timed to coincide with the second art walk of the month.

For more information on Katie Fogg, visit her website at KatieFogg.weebly.com.