Painter Kate Nelson is drawn to and moved by the outdoor life. She has studied at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (there influenced by Chuck Close, Keith Hollingworth, and John Grillo), at Massachusetts College of Art, at Haystack Mountain School on Deer Isle, Maine and worked in residence at the Vermont Studio Center. Her work is in the permanent collection of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA; the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, MA and in numerous corporate and private collections, including Sony and Pfizer USA.

When painting, I act with minimal premeditation, like a jazz musician. I work from intuition, from impulse, using physical reflexes honed in hard physical labor and senses sharpened by a life in the outdoors. My painting is like jazz — disciplined yet free, within a rich tradition yet achingly personal.- Kate Nelson