Reminiscing Dubai

The proficient Dubai based artist, Kathryn Wilson is slowly making her mark in the art world with her exquisite creative streak and an inherent flare for art. Having grown up in the hot sandy desert scene of Dubai, when she revisited her native home in England’s Lake District as a teenager, the relocation created a surprising reaction of homesickness within her.

Proficient Dubai-based artist, Kathryn Wilson

It was not that she resented being back in the majestic, picturesque countryside of the United Kingdom, it was more like a reminiscence of the cultural lifestyle, the deserts and the wadis of the UAE that lingered in her memories, ones that she latched on to till she decided to move back to Dubai six years ago.

Wilson returned when she was in her mid-20s, and immediately accepted a job as an art teacher at Repton School to keep herself sustained. She soon realized during her term as a teacher at the school that Dubai had evolved radically and was nothing like she had left behind a few years back. She remarked that the experience of returning and witnessing the revolution of the place was absolutely surreal, and in order to make it her home once again she would have to relearn it.

She expressed that this process of trying to refresh her memory of the place is what stimulated her creative streak and led her towards exploring her innate artistic talent. She said,  “When I arrived back in Dubai, it was like coming home, but it was also overwhelming because I knew the place so well but there was so much that was new. I found it inspiring to find my way again and I got hooked on painting and photography specifically during that time.”

Wilson was quick about working towards her goal and displaying her remarkable artistic flare in the art world. It was in 2011; when she managed to host her first solo debut exhibition under the patronage of Al Madina Art Gallery in Muscat, Oman in a temporary space available in the city’s Al Oraimi Centre. The show was titled, “Coffee and Kaleidoscopes” and was a tasteful display of many pieces that Wilsom had been working on since her return to the UAE.

Wilson's one of many paintings at 'Coffee and Kaleidoscopes' 

When asked about how her experience was during her debut show she stated, “My paintings had evolved and I was doing a lot of it and it was very different from anything I’d done before,” and added that, “It was really encouraging to see people appreciating it and buying it at that first exhibition”. Wilson’s journey from there forth was quick paced as she soon became a part of several group shows hosted by Jamjar, Mojo Gallery, and the Abu Dhabi Art Hub.

She has become quite popular in Dubai’s art scene with her work appearing in frequently visited public places like on the mural wall outside the Dubai Ladies Club on Jumeirah Beach Road and also in the lobby of Centurion Star Tower in Deira, the latter being a contracted work prepared in alliance with the renowned, Capsule Arts.

Kathryn Wilson artwork

At present, Wilson, 32, is the director of art at Brighton College Abu Dhabi and is continually making a name in the UAE’s art scene through her phenomenal artworks. She specializes in the abstract form of art with most of her paintings being abstract, flaunting vivid colors and symbolizing the essence of the place that she has loved and cherished during childhood. She explains, “My abstract paintings are like a journey. I sit down having no idea what is going to happen and just let them evolve. When I’m finished, they really remind me of a place I have visited either in Oman or the UAE – usually deserts, wadis, caves or plateaus – they are not realistic but they are my perception and the result of letting my subconscious go.”

Wilson has recently started dabbling with painting waves and capturing the ferocious power of the sea, something she expresses she has concurrently been charmed and petrified by but has inspired her artworks tremendously. Her waves paintings are a significant theme in many of her larger mural works. She also draws inspiration for this subject matter from the beach side view of her Dubai Marina home studio, which overlooks the sea and is in her view every time she sits down to work at her easel.   “There is a sort of flow to my work, which is because painting for me is a way of letting a creative flow continue”, she remarks.

Wilson holds a very optimistic vision for her future as an artist, promising never to abandon painting and says, “I hope to carry on creating in this way and getting involved in more bespoke work and commissions and would also like to gear myself up for another exhibition in the near future.”