About Kate
Kate Tooke is an award-winning representational oil painter focused on capturing an intimate connection with the animal subjects she paints. For Kate, a successful work goes beyond a technically competent depiction to create a relationship between the seer and the seen.
Kate shares her life with with her husband, dogs, cats, horses and chickens in beautiful Vernon, BC. With their three kids grown and left home, she is dedicated to daily painting and continuously learning and honing her craft. Kate was awarded Associate Signature Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists in 2023.
Artist Statement:
Painting feels like communicating in a language of pure love that speaks on a soul level. What our eyes “read” as truth in a painting is different that what the logical mind tells us we are seeing. For me, painting goes beyond technical expertise and accurately depicting local colour and detail. Learning to express in paint the beauty of what we can experience in the moment feels like the most compelling way I could possibly imagine spending my time.
When I began painting I focused on wildlife, connecting with the majesty of the mysterious wild creatures. After a ten-year hiatus from painting to pursue my own growth, I’ve returned with a passion, maturity and dedication that I was not able to access before this deep inner work. Now I know that ineffable quality is not limited to animals in the wild, but most surely exists within all our domesticated animals, the humblest beings, and in us all. My hope is when I can successfully express the breath and soul of a chicken, it’s an invitation to experiencing this beauty within ourselves.
Since the start of COVID, I have been painting with a commitment to practicing every day as well as dedicated study with masterful and inspiring artists.
Behind the Art:
Anima is latin for breath, spirit, soul, or the vital life principle that lays beyond the rational mind.
The animals that surround us are windows through which we can glimpse our own souls. This is what I aim to express through my paintings.
“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” – George W Carver, Scientist
The animals I’ve painted have all lived on our farm. The process of presence and intense study required to paint them has opened a deeper relationship than I thought possible. I have learned so much and received so many gifts from these magical beings that I feel compelled to pay it forward through my paintings.
Moving to Vernon 13 years ago and hobby farming, while incredibly rewarding, has not been the idyllic fantasy I had envisioned. There are truths about animals and farming that I was willfully blind to seeing. My ethical and emotional internal conflict in raising chickens for eggs and meat could fill volumes.
Can one love a chicken that’s raised for slaughter?
What I’ve come to understand is the answer is yes, emphatically yes. The moment the chicken becomes a commodity, I separate from it, the chicken objectified and the relationship; transactional. I impoverish not only the chicken, but myself from the riches of our shared experience.
Animals are sovereign beings. I’ve realized my worry, pity, needing to “save” them, or keeping them alive at all costs is more about me needing to feel like a “good” person than it is about the actual welfare and destiny of the animal. It is an absolute privilege to share my life with theirs and care for them with grace, gratitude and reverence.
What I’ve learned is when you choose to be in relationship with animals (or anyone) there is NO avoiding heartbreak. To try and avoid it is to either withhold from being in true relationship or numb emotion which comes at the cost of the boundless joys of life in all it’s complexity.
What you love, loves you.
What I long for is to share is the essence of something beyond the label “chicken”, “horse, “cat”, but the intricate beauty, complexity and depth, an access to the breath and soul that animates all of us, that we don’t always allow ourselves the time to truly see.
Exhibition History
2006 – True Nature | solo exhibition | Botega Salon & Gallery, Banff, Canada
2007 – True Being | solo exhibition | Botega Salon & Gallery, Banff, Canada
2008 – Creative Possibilities | solo exhibition | Botega Salon & Gallery, Banff, Canada
2011 – T&T – Topp & Tooke | Botega Salon & Gallery, Banff, Canada
2020 – Small Works Exhibition | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2021 – Active Member Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2021 – Playing with Light | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists North Okanagan Chapter
2021 – Small Exhibition | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2021 – Animalis | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2022 – Arts of March | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists North Okanagan Chapter
2022 – TNSC Spring Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists Thompson Nicola Shuswap Chapter
2023 – Active Member Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2023 – Anima | Solo Show | Gallery Vertigo
2023 – SUCCESS! | Signature Status Show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2023 – For the Birds | Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
2023 – Hither & Yon | group show | Headbones Gallery
2023 – Oil Painters of America Western Regional | juried show | Brushworks Gallery
2023 – TNSC Fall Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists Thompson Nicola Shuswap Chapter
2024 – Animal Exhibition | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2024 – Spring Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists North Okanagan Chapter
2024 – Artists Choice Show | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2024 – 15th Annual International Representational Exhibition | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2024 – Valley View | group show | Headbones Gallery
2024 – 3 Artists | 3 Visions | Mountains & Seas, Forests & Chickens | group show | Granville Island
2024 – Federation of Canadian Artists Chapter Challenge | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
2024 – Perspectives | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists North Okanagan Chapter
2024 – Associate – Signature Member Exhibition | juried show | Federation of Canadian Artists
Awards/Recognition
First Place: “Snickers” – NOFCA Playing with Light – Vernon Arts Centre
Honourable Mention: “Red Rooster” – FCA Active Member Show – Federation Gallery Vancouver
Honourable Mention: “Morning Snooze” – FCA Active Member Show – Federation Gallery Vancouver
First Place: “Rooster Tail” – Animalis – Federation of Canadian Artists – Federation Gallery Vancouver
First Place: “Morning Light” – TNSC Spring Show – Federation of Canadian Artists – Kamloops Courthouse
Special Merit Award: “Gandalf” – Art & Colour Magazine Oil Painting Competition
Honourable Mention: “Florence the Poser” – TNSC Fall Show – Federation of Canadian Artists – Kamloops Courthouse
People’s Choice Award: “Florence the Poser” – TNSC Fall Show – Federation of Canadian Artists – Kamloops Courthouse
Special Merit Award: “Good Boy Banjo” – Art & Colour Magazine Animal Competition
First Place: “Curious Gren” – North Okanagan Federation of Canadian Artists 2024 Spring Show
Honourable Mention: “Gandalf” – Federation of Canadian Artists Chapter Challenge
Second Place: “How nice for you…” – North Okanagan Federation of Canadian Artists – Perspectives Exhibition – Gallery Vertigo
Honourable Mention: “What the Cluck?” – 2024 Associate-Signature Member Exhibition – Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery
