Katherine Webster

Biography

Katherine Webster is a British artist whose practice emerges from years of nomadic life, traveling and working within Roma communities, painting traditional horse-drawn vardos across Europe. This immersive cultural experience, combined with a lifetime in the saddle, positions her work at the intersection of authentic lived experience and contemporary artistic expression.

Her paintings and ceramic sculptures explore memory as archaeology—working intuitively to build dense, layered surfaces through acrylics, charcoal, and mixed media, then excavating through sanding and removal to reveal earlier states. As a professional art restorer of medieval frescoes and Baroque churches and a ceramicist drawing from ancient traditions to contemporary forms, Webster brings a unique understanding of how artistic symbols and processes endure across centuries, informing her contemporary practice of creating “visual archaeology” where archetypal forms emerge from accumulated layers like memories surfacing from the subconscious.

Having lived between cultures—British working within Roma traditions, restorer of ancient art creating contemporary work, nomad now settled—Webster’s practice speaks from the “undefined” spaces between identities and centuries. Each painting becomes an excavation of what it means to belong nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, capturing the emotional imprints of encounters that bridge past and present across cultural and temporal boundaries.

Webster’s work has been exhibited internationally, from the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh to galleries across Europe and North America. Her paintings invite viewers into dialogue with their own memories and connections to the natural world, exploring themes of belonging, cultural identity, and our primal need for authentic connection.

Email: katherinewebsterartist@gmail.com

Instagram: @katherine_webster_art

About my images

1. Palimpsest 61 x 61 x 2.5 cm, Acrylics & inks on canvas
Working from memory, I build layers of paint then excavate through sanding to reveal earlier marks beneath. Each layer holds traces of what came before—personal and cultural memories embedded in accumulated surfaces.

1. Equus; Moorland Vermillion 61 x 61 x 2.5 cm, Acrylics & inks on canvas
Bold vermillion paint built up in confident layers against a weathered, textured background evoking Derbyshire moorland. The horse emerges as an archetypal presence within the landscape of memory.
3. Mare and foal Acrylics on canvas
Capturing the tender relationship between mare and foal, this piece demonstrates range within equestrian subject matter while maintaining the emotional depth that characterizes my practice.