Kathrin Longhurst
Visual Artist (Sydney, NSW)

Kathrin Longhurst holds a Master in Business Administration and is an autodidact painter who received her training at evening colleges, art schools and art centres in Germany, Sweden and Australia. Classes include oil painting techniques, still life, mixed media and life drawing. She started taking life drawing classes at 14 and developed a profound interest in the human shape, particularly women’s. But it took her almost 20 years to realise her call in life and become a full time artist.

Kathrin’s ultra feminine style stands in complete opposition to the proletarian and rather masculine art of East Germany where she spent the first 15 years of her life. It has become a visual response to her early life experience: like a gesture of artistic liberation. Her paintings fulfil a quest for beauty and luxury, which she was denied growing up in Eastern Europe. In her paintings she can now revel in luxurious, brightly coloured fabrics or the sensual femininity of woman out of forbidden Western fashion magazines.

“I remember women in East Germany being portrayed as rather unsexy, hard working, rosy cheeked farmers or labourers. I grew up longing for glamour and beauty.”

Kathrin’s work is contemporary and she works mainly in oil, enjoying bright colours, sometimes using only primary or secondary colours and often layering the paint to bring out the almost three dimensional images. Kathrin’s style is also deeply influenced by her year spent in Belgium; the delicate and elaborate detail of “Art Nouveau” enriches her paintings.

“Brussels is an amazing place; you find treasures at every street corner. You cannot help but fall in love and be consumed by it’s magic.”

Kathrin now lives on Sydney’s northern beaches where she is a founding member of an artist co-op called Northern Expressions. She exhibits frequently at SOHO Gallery, Salmon Gallery and SAUC Gallery in Sydney, David Hart Galleries in Queensland and Dabbert Gallery in Florida. She is also represented at major art events such as the Affordable Art Show in Sydney and Melbourne.

Kathrin is available for commissioned portraits.

"Kathrin’s work makes of us the voyeur. We are drawn into her canvasses with unanswerable questions. These beautiful women swathed in luxurious fabrics appear to us in unspoken moments from a surreal film.”
Anna Harpley, Salmon Galleries Curator

“I was looking for inspiration to fill the white space on my wall, when I met Kathrin. She immediately delved into my mind and produced a piece of art that is not only beautifully painted but invigorates me every time I gaze at it.”
Anton Buchner, Singleton, Ogilvy & Mather

Contact Kathrin Longhurst