Kitty Horton is an architect of composition.
Growing up surrounded by carpentry, and with a formal background in drawing and printmaking, Horton builds her work in raw material layers – expressive line, solid form, oil stick, charcoal and conte. Her practice has always focused on the process of resolving the image through building, layering, concealing and refining – leaving just enough of the construction details visible for those who delight in process-driven work.
Variegated Spaces is Horton’s most romantic collection to date, representing a shift in her roughly hewn visual language. In this body of work, her usual frenetic treatment of the surface is revealed instead through delicate line, soft dry brushed layers, and translucent colour blocking that feels free and minimal.
For Horton, work is informed by inner personal contexts, and with each new direction, part of her life is reflectively examined. While the imagery is not directly referential, the work represented in Variegated Spaces is unique in that it is her most revealing to date.
These works are the expressions of Horton’s life — as a mother, teacher, wife, and exhibiting artist. They are the juxtaposition of responsibility and space, of rigidly navigating every second while holding on to a sense of self.
The variegated spaces Horton has designed here are personal and ephemeral — reflected in shades of light and dark. Expressions of chaos and clarity are encoded in soft pools of colour and tight windows of energy — refined constructions that seek to balance a thousand meaningful moments.
By Jessica McNicol
