Katie Oliver

I am Katie, I was born and raised in South Africa. I moved to the UK at 18 and gained my citizenship in 2021 after living, working and earning a BA in English Literature.

It’s difficult to pin down my artistic influences, I am self-taught and have never received a formal art education. Growing up, our resources at school and home were very limited and my exposure to art came from my dad’s record collection, comics like Tintin and Asterix, animated film and chance encounters with the greater artists in the historic canon.

I have been building on my interests in the years since coming to the UK and have great love for the art of the middle-ages and renaissance and the landscapes of Constable and Turner. However, I do enjoy graphic novels and scientific illustration too. It’s an eclectic mix that has furnished me with a distinct style.

I currently work with pen, a UniPin 0.1 to be precise,using stippling to create my artwork. The size and scale of my pieces mean that the process is a long one, but the precision and detail I can achieve is something I strive for. My first love was acrylic painting, and I’d like to revisit that in the future, but I switched to pen after the birth of my daughter and I didn’t have the time or space to create art the way I had been. My pen and stippling work has given the freedom to create works of art where I might not have had the opportunity.

Media

Pen

Subjects

Animal or Wildlife, Fantasy

Favoured Products & Brands

Uniball Unipin

Awards

'Highly Commended' Sketch for Survival 2021