Following in the traditions of Classical Fine Art, and inspired by Gainsborough's watercolour study, Kate Westbrook explores the myth of Diana and Actaeon.
Written by the Roman poet Ovid and found within the collected works entitled Metamorphoses, the myth describes the fatal encounter between the hunter Actaeon and the Goddess Diana.
Enraged that a mortal has seen her bathing naked, Diana splashes water upon Actaeon and he transforms into a deer and is subsequently killed by his own dogs.
Westbrook's' Diana and Actaeon are placed in the landscape of Dartmoor, an enthralling and inexhaustible subject she has been enjoying for a number of decades.
This current series of work represents three years of intense absorption and study, the paintings are finely rendered in oil, detailed and atmospheric, deserving of quiet contemplation.
Westbrook lives in Devon, she trained at Bath Academy of Art and Reading University and had her first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in the USA, where she lived for a number of years after graduating.
Since returning to the UK she has exhibited regularly and gained a significant reputation both as a painter and international jazz musician having joined the Mike Westbrook Band in 1974.