Biography

"My art has become such a part of my life that there is no longer a distiction between the beginning and the end of the creative process. Seeing shape and noticing value and color subtleties is constant for me.  I believe this awareness feeds the creativity from which I draw spiritually and mentally in order to relay the details of beauty onto the paper and hopefully to the viewer.  God made the beauty of this world for all of us to enjoy and hopefully my work will refresh those who need to be reminded.  I believe that if you surround yourself with beauty and goodness, you absorb it and reflect it back to others"
Kathleen S. Giles

I have been drawing and painting since childhood. In third grade I drew a Fred Flintstone that really got a lot of attention and seemed to stand out from the work of the other children. That is when I started to believe that I could be an artist someday. After high school I attended S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo to study art but my art dreams got fuzzy and I left early to marry.

Eighteen years ago while I was a stay at home mom with three children, I took a watercolor class and I felt that I had found my medium. I joined several art groups and began to show my work. I took workshops from watercolorists Margaret Martin and Skip Lawrence, but I am mostly self-taught. I won many awards and was hired as a gallery director from 1995 through 1998, when I left to focus on my own career full-time.

I now have a studio in my home where I paint, frame and show my work. I am very busy with commissioned paintings and art shows. I have paintings and prints in collections around the country.

Recent awards have been a first place in the 2009 NFWS fall show for her painting"Stone Stairway, Letchworth. Ihave received a first place in Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society (NFWS) fall show 2004, second place in NFWS spring show 2005, second place in Lewiston Art Show August 2005 first place in the NFWS fall show 2005 and third place in the NFWS Spring Show. I also received an honorable mention in the fall 2008 NFWS show and another honorable mention in the NFWS spring 2009 National show. I did a two person show with Joe Whalen in May 2006. I won an honorable mention in the spring 2007 NFWS show and fourth place in the fall NFWS show. I won first place at the Market Street Art Center in summer 2007 for "Under the Bridge" and another first the summer 2008 for "Dreamy Rose of Sharon." I won a third place in the 2008 NFWS spring show. I am in my eleventh year teaching watercolor classes at the Dale Association in Lockport. I do demonstrations for art groups and school children. I am a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists and the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society.