Kate Hopkins

Kate Hopkins is a painter with still life at the heart of her practice. Always working from direct observation, she has a particular interest in visual perception, which underpins her teaching.

She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1985-1991 and currently teaches at Heatherleys and the Slade.

She is represented by Browse and Darby, with work in numerous private collections.

Kate is also teaching short courses at the West Dean London Bloomsbury campus. (Please see the link in the Short Courses toolbar on the website)

Describe your approach to teaching
My teaching reflects my interest in observation and perception- the grand illusion created by our brain- and the resulting issues surrounding representation and visual language in painting.

What inspires your own work?
Working always from direct observation, I create sets which I observe over extended periods, scrutinising the abstract patterns and colour relationships in the scene.  In response, I make, revise, disrupt and remake repeatedly, accumulating and obliterating, in search of a tension, order and structural integrity across the picture plane that satisfies my intentions.