KAY (b. 1941) was born in the United Kingdom, with herr artistic story began under unusual circumstances. Her mother had been evacuated from the island of Jersey just before the Nazi invasion, and Kay spent her early childhood in wartime Britain before returning to Jersey in 1945 after liberation.
“Kay paints and draws non-stop. Every time I visit, there are more paintings piled up. Sometimes I worry she spends too much time alone, but she’s having a ball posting to Instagram and talking to like-minded people from Australia to Japan.” — Rachel Ara, Kay’s daugther
A naturally curious child, Kay was drawn to drawing from the start, and her talent blossomed early. She studied at Bath Academy of Art from 1958–1962, learning from British art icons such as Howard Hodgkin, Adrian Heath, Henry Cliffe, and Gillian Ayres.
After graduating, she moved to London, where she taught art while raising her two children – continuing to paint when time and life allowed.
But it wasn’t until much later, after a life-altering fall in 2017 left her unable to walk unaided, that Kay’s creative fire was fully unleashed. The accident that caused Kay’s disability also became the defining turning point in her artistic journey. No longer tethered to the demands of everyday life, Kay turned inward – establishing a daily drawing and painting routine that transformed her home in Trinity, Jersey, into the heart of an astonishingly prolific practice.
About the FolkArtwork Collective
Not only can you shop original work from this great artist, there’s much more where that came from! It brings me great pleasure to introduce the FolkArtwork Collective — a phenomenal group of self-taught and contemporary emerging artists from across the globe. Jackie Bradshaw, Esteban Whiteside, Sarah Lee, and Noel Hatfield are the first artists to bring original artwork directly to the FolkArtwork web store on both FolkArtwork.art/shop and directly on Instagram. I am very pleased to also add Reneesha Mccoy, Jordan Sullivan, Gabrielle K Brown, Christopher Bame, Max Kuhn, Ben Gardner and in 2024, Melody Jean Moulton, Dinah Hanson-Carrillo, Lindsay Carraway, Kathy Edwards Hayslett, Lorena Eliasen, Mike Combs, and James Ash to the collective. More artists art continuing to join in 2025 including Des Moines own Alexandre Shiffer, Lesley Miserables from London, and contemporary visionary artist Linda DiLeva.
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