Katherine Simpson has been making things for as long as she can remember. As a child, she spent hours in her father’s shed—building, joining, altering and experimenting with whatever she could find. That early instinct to construct and discover has remained with her, naturally finding its way into painting.

She lives in Titirangi, Auckland, surrounded by native bush, birds and the ocean. The sea and boating have always been part of Katherine’s history and continue to influence how she observes, responds to and experiences the world.

Katherine graduated from Whitecliffe College of Fine Arts in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Painting. She exhibited extensively for many years before stepping away from exhibiting for almost a decade as life and work moved in another direction.

That time away became its own kind of gathering—a period of living, observing and allowing ideas to form beneath the surface. Now, the need to paint has returned with clarity, and Katherine has deliberately created space in her life to return to the studio and the practice that feels inherent to who she is.

Autonomy is central to Katherine’s work. Painting gives her the freedom to follow instinct, experiment and allow each piece to evolve without a predetermined outcome.

“My work explores the tension between what is seen and what is hidden. I build the surface, attack it, bury it, strip it back and expose it again. Nothing is fixed. Everything remains in motion.”

Earlier marks remain visible beneath later ones, creating a history within each surface. Balance, space and time sit alongside the tension between control and chance, as Katherine searches for what might emerge unexpectedly through the process of making.

Rather than telling the viewer exactly what to see, she leaves room for uncertainty—for personal interpretation and for the painting to remain alive.

For Katherine, painting is a continual process of searching, responding, removing and rebuilding. It returns her to the instinct she had as a child: making something without always knowing what it will become and experiencing the moment of surprise when it finally finds its form.

And if something within the layers feels familiar, perhaps it has found something in you too.