KATHARINE HOLMES is an artist who has become known for her paintings of the Northern British landscape, predominantly her native Yorkshire Dales. Following training in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Katharine returned to Yorkshire in 1990. She paints both in her Dales studio and outside in all weathers, often incorporating into her paintings elements of the landscape such as grasses and gravel found on site. Katharine works in a range of media from oil on canvas to acrylic and watercolour on paper. Her paintings capture the feeling of being in the landscape.

Exhibiting her work nationally and internationally her paintings are in many private and corporate collections including that of Leeds University where she held her first major solo exhibition in 1999. In the last decade Katharine has travelled widely and painted in Japan, Kenya, New England, Italy and Greece each time returning not just with paintings but with a renewed appreciation of the landscape of home.
 
1962 Born near Airton in the Yorkshire Dales
1973-80 Attends Skipton Girls High School. Encouraged to develop her interest in painting by the Head of Art, Michael Leeming.
1980-84 Studies Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Tutors include Norman Adams RA. Visits Florence and Siena. Writes dissertation on Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence
1985 Works as a curatorial assistant at the Abbot Hall Museum and Art Gallery in Kendal, Cumbria. Studies 18th and l9th century watercolours of the Lake District, especially the work of John Ruskin. Admires the art museum's fine group of modern Scottish landscapes, including works by Joan Eardley, Anne Redpath, William Gillies and William Mactaggart.
1985-87 Lives in Glasgow. Works as gallery assistant at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, cataloguing the print collection. Studies the Scottish Colourists and 20th century Scottish landscape painters, especially Joan Eardley whose work makes a deep impression. Frequent painting trips to Wester Ross. Has a studio in the west end of Glasgow and is given her first solo exhibition at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh
1987 Moves to Ipswich to work as a conservation assistant at Christchurch Mansion, the town's principal art gallery. Studies the work of Gainsborough and Constable.
1988-90 Studies for an MA in Conservation of Works on Paper at Gateshead College. Works in her spare time in the conservation studio at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and at Bowhill, Selkirk on the private collection of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.
1990 Returns to the Yorkshire Dales to live and work on a hill farm on Malham Moor overlooking Ribblesdale. Sets up studio in a barn nearby.
1990-95 Paints many series of watercolours and oil paintings of the countryside around the farm capturing it through the seasons and at different times of day. These include a group of paintings showing the limestone rocks at Attermire and Victoria Cave, above Settle. Shows her work in small exhibitions around the Dales selling to a growing band of collectors.
1995 Begins to experiment with different media, mixing grasses, sands, gravel and other materials from the landscape into her works. Seeks professional advice from the specialist art consultancy Sheeran Lock on how best to develop her career.
1996 Starts to exhibit more widely. Included in the Leeds Art Fair and sells out. Her painting 'On Boss Moor in January (No.4)' acquired by Provident Financial for its notable corporate art collection.
1997 Exhibitions of her work continue to sell out. John Sheeran collaborates with film director Nic Young to make a documentary on her painting Approach to 'Gordale Scar (No. 16)', her largest work to date, a 5 by 7 foot watercolour with mixed media which she produces in the landscape over two weeks in early summer. Exhibits and demonstrates her various painting techniques at the Business Design Centre, London. Experiments with the latest artist pigments and materials supplied to her by the Australian company, Art Spectrum. First illustrated publication on her work produced by Sheeran Lock with an essay by the art historian and critic, Susan Morris.
1998-99 Visits to Japan and India
1999 Major solo exhibition at the University of Leeds Art Gallery, curated by Dr. Hilary Diaper.
2000 Crown Estate in Art - mixed exhibition at The New Academy Gallery
2001 Solo Exhibition - The New Academy Gallery, London
2003 Solo Exhibition - The New Academy Gallery, London
2007 Solo Exhibition – Curwen & New Academy Gallery, London
2009 Solo Exhibition – Curwen & New Academy Gallery, London
2009 A Malham Family of Artists - Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University - 3 generations of women artists (1 July - 2 Sept)