Dragonfly Gallery Artist of the Month

Kati D’Amore is the Dragonfly Gallery Artist of the Month for April. She is a lovely, energetic artist and member of the Aromas Hills Artisans and the Monterey Bay Plein Air Artist Association. She is the painter I always wanted to be—able to capture the essence of people, nature scenes, architecture, you name it with quick, flowing, easy stokes and perfect color. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Kati’s are worth ten thousand.

Kati will be meeting people and demonstrating her painting skill, April 12 from 2 to 4 pm at the Dragonfly Gallery in Aromas, 380 Blohm Ave. Aromas.

I asked her how she became an artist. Here is Ms. D’Amore in her own words:

“As my daughter so eloquently described on my shop page on (my website), I was influenced by my father who was a painter well known for his portraits and landscapes in Germany. So I grew up with paintings all around me and visiting many art galleries in Munich Germany. My actual kick off to painting was after having moved to Florida for my husband’s job and being in Sarasota at the Ringling Museum of Art. They had a show on Grandma Moses and her paintings. They showed an interview with her on a screen and I heard her answer the interviewer’s question why she started painting at 70: “well I could have cleaned the house more or fed the chickens more often…” That made me realize that it is never too late to follow a passion, and so I started with one watercolor class.

“I now prefer oil over any other medium, watercolor requires a lot of preplanning and that is not how I paint. Oil lets me develop the painting and correct my mistakes, so I feel much freer as I work on the canvas.

“The most fun to paint are landscapes in plain air. I belong to the Monterey Bay Plein Air Artist Association and we have monthly paint outs at all these wonderful spots in this area. You get to experience the smells and sounds of your landscape because you are right in it.

“The most difficult are portraits of babies because they don’t have very developed features yet. But in general, I love doing portraits the most.

“I live in Royal Oaks on five acres. My studio is a newly converted two-car garage with skylights and windows and I love the privacy and rural feel of our home. My husband and I love to hike and bicycle, I like gardening, reading, and occasionally cooking.

“You can find my work at www.etsy.com/shop/KSDStudio and by contacting me at katidamore@gmail.com to arrange a visit to my studio, and of course, at the Dragonfly Gallery in Aromas :)”