About

Kathleen Barrett

October 20, 1942 – May 17, 2023

Kathleen Barrett’s brilliant and multifaceted career can be summed up in a single word: ARTIST. Throughout her extraordinary life, Kathleen channeled her intellectual curiosity and boundless creative energy into a remarkable body of work spanning multiple mediums. Her artistic legacy remains just as she intended—understated, letting the art speak for itself.

Born in Nebraska but raised in Chicago, Kathleen spent much of her adult life in Europe before settling in the town of Shipston-on-Stour, England, which she would eventually call home. Her early years were shaped by a unique upbringing in the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago, where her father served as general manager. She graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and pursued higher education at Bennett College in Millbrook, NY, The New School for Social Research in New York City, and the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rome.

From an early age, Kathleen was captivated by the interplay of painting, music, and poetry, which she referred to as “counterpoint.” Her figurative, symbolist, and expressionist style emerged through her transatlantic education and deep immersion in the arts. She drew inspiration from Ben Shahn and the Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera, while also exploring the psychological dimensions of art through the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Arnheim. In Italy, her style evolved further – developing a Baroque-inspired expressionism, characterized by swirling motion and energy that seemed to animate every inch of her canvas.

A prolific and versatile creator, Kathleen mastered a wide range of mediums, including oil painting, silverpoint drawing, marionettes, digital art, egg tempera, and gold leaf miniatures. Throughout the 1980s, Kathleen had an array of solo artist exhibitions which took her work across the US and Europe. Her multicultural subjects and figurative painting often intersected with the performing arts.

These exhibitions led her to collaborate with iconic theatrical institutions, most notably her Artist-in-Residences at The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper). Spending hours in rehearsals, observing costume fittings and associated workshop activities, Kathleen would sketch performers in motion, later transforming those drawings into vivid, large-scale paintings that captured the full drama of the stage. Her work uniquely bridged traditionally separate realms – audience and performer, front-of-house and backstage.

In the early 1990s, Kathleen founded The Shakespeare Marionette Company, designing and crafting puppets for productions including Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These intricately made marionettes were both performed and exhibited across Europe. In her later years, Kathleen embraced figurative digital art that further evolved into innovative gold leaf miniatures, always exploring new ways to express her artistic vision.

Finding her heart and soul in Shipston-on-Stour, Kathleen established her art studio there and worked up until her last days. Her studio on Church Street became a beloved local landmark, its windows often filled with marionettes displayed on an intricately painted stage. Outside of her studio practice, she found joy in creative pastimes like gardening, baking, and needlepoint, always infusing her daily life with a sense of artistry and care. Kathleen Barrett passed away as she lived – quietly and fully immersed in her art. She leaves behind a brilliant artistic legacy with an extensive body of work that is both timeless and deeply personal.