In her first year of marriage, with no formal art training, Kaitlyn Etchison purchased a four-foot-square canvas and some acrylic craft paint and challenged herself to make a painting. Though she was always creating as a kid, it had been a while since she’d indulged in art. “I’m all or nothing,” Kaitlyn reveals, “so I figured a big fat canvas was the way to dive back into [painting].”
When her husband saw the abstract she had created, he asked if he could take it to a fine art gallery in Winter Park, Florida, near their home. “Absolutely not!” was her initial response, but she eventually agreed, on the condition that he not tell her the gallery staff’s reaction to her work.
She was shocked when her husband came back and informed her that the gallery owners wanted to see her portfolio—which did not exist. To meet their request, she set her creative juices flowing.
After Kaitlyn and her husband moved to Greenville in 2016, Art & Light Gallery showed her works on paper and established her connection to the local art scene. She utilizes acrylics and watercolor to explore texture, depth, and color while constructing and deconstructing memories of places she has seen.
Kaitlyn describes her paintings as minimalistic, an “unapologetic offering.” “My work doesn’t create a lot of demand to look at,” says the mother of two (soon to be three), who confesses she still has to practice calling herself an artist. Her new series, Old Light, contains several pieces with stucco and paint on panel. “I’m not sure what will take precedence over the [next] year, but I’m super excited to play around and see what else I can make.”
View Kaitlyn’s art in her new K. Etchison Studio in Hampton Station (1320 Hampton Ave Ext, Unit 604; Fri, 9am–1pm; Sat, 11am–4pm), or online at ketchison.com.
Photography by Eli Warren; portrait by Tara Ashton
