Growing up on a small farm in Iowa, Kathleen Coy developed a hands-on appreciation for animals and nature, and was drawing animals from a very young age. Kathleen’s passion for depicting animals in her art has continued throughout her life. She practices self-directed study and experimentation in her pursuit of artistic growth; her work blends classical realism techniques with impressionism.
Kathleen became well known for painting dogs, starting with her little Rat Terrier, Cloud, and then her Greyhounds, Sephy, Train, and Lenny. They became her muse – their physical beauty and expressiveness were an endless source of inspiration and fascination for her work. Her greyhounds have sadly all passed on, but she’s found a new source of inspiration in her gorgeous new female Doberman, Sage.
Kathleen and her husband, (Forged in Fire champion, Jason Coy), live in the beautiful Ozarks of Southern Missouri, where they create art and raise grass fed beef using regenerative farming practices on their ranch.
Artist’s Statement
I strive for realism in my work, with abstract and impressionistic elements to lend a surreal feeling to the moment I’m capturing. By heightening the senses, art gives these moments the potential to become even more real. While I do paint other subjects, I have a special fondness for painting dogs. I paint dogs because they’re beautiful to me, sighthounds especially so. I paint dogs hoping in my own small way to thank them for being so wonderful, for loving us, and to celebrate the joy they bring to our lives. In them I see our best qualities. Looking at a dog, we can see our own bravery, our own loyalty, our own uninhibited joy, our own unconditional love. I paint to honor the partnership and bond we’ve formed with them over millennia. I’m never painting, ‘just a dog.’
What is it about my greyhounds that inspires me so? The soft eyes, the arch and turn of the neck, a ballet with every step. A flash of sunlight and shadow, incomprehensible power beneath the stillness, a heart as big as all the world. A feeling that you’re living with the most perfect creatures on earth. Laughter and love, the rush of the wind and the open air. I savor each of these moments every day. My dogs make me a better person. Through them, I release my beauty into the world..
