In Kate Turpin’s Fredericksburg studio, birdsong breezes through the open casement windows, as sunlight dances on paint-splattered floors. The airy, renovated space — a former shed behind the artist’s 1920s farmhouse and family home — exudes peace, with its soft white walls, vaulted ceilings, and verdant views of the surrounding countryside. The serene environs are a fitting reflection of her widely coveted and collected paintings, with their soothing color studies and pastel abstractions depicting the natural world.
Long before moving to Fredericksburg and selling her work to collectors everywhere from California to Kuwait, Turpin grew up in Houston with an appreciation for the arts. “My mom is super creative, and always fostered that creative spirit in our house,” she said. For the budding artist, drawing was a foremost passion, as was photography and the lure of the dark room.
After graduating from the Studio Art program at The University of Texas at Austin, Turpin moved to Cusco where she worked at a small, mission-based café, and spent her days discovering the Peruvian community with camera in tow. Later, she returned to Austin, got married, and worked on wide-ranging commercial photography jobs, until the pandemic hit.
To fill the void during lockdown, Turpin, who’d recently welcomed her first child, started to paint. From the quiet of her city garage, she painted while her daughter slept, putting brush to canvas in an array of calming color studies layered with watered-down acrylic. Together with her husband, Luke, the couple later escaped the confines of the city for their family’s guesthouse in Hunt, where they found a surprising salve in Hill Country living.
“It was a really sweet time,” she remembered of the early pandemic days. “I was so inspired by the colors of the area … and with all the noise and stress that COVID brought, those paintings felt like an escape.”
Turns out, her work’s tranquil, escapist energy resonated with a broader audience too. After sharing her art on Instagram, Turpin began attracting interest from prominent influencers like Athena Calderone of the popular lifestyle brand, EyeSwoon. “It just went nuts,” Turpin recalled of the following that ensued after Calderone posted a photo of her commissioned painting. “It was a good confidence boost.”
By the fall of 2020, the Turpin’s made a permanent move to the Hill Country upon receiving an off-market offer on their Austin home. Following the sale, they purchased a 1920s farmhouse belonging to a family member in Fredericksburg and went straight to work on its renovation. Their first project entailed reimagining the backyard shed into a working studio space. “The ceilings were low and there were no windows,” Turpin remembered, motioning to the antique glass casements standing ajar today. “We found these in another shed and put them in.”
Apart from the resident birds that sing from native trees, Turpin finds joy in the menagerie of animals who surround her as she paints. The family’s two dogs, Dandy and Penny, frequently stop by to snooze or say hello, while Turpin’s Christmas present — a donkey named Romeo — drops his head through the open window, lured by the sounds of her painting playlist.
Pets aside, Turpin is also the mother to two young children, a role she admits has directly influenced her artistic evolution. In the last two years, she’s taken her layered, light-filled canvases and adorned them with pastel abstractions of clustered flowers, pastures, rivers, and trees. “The more chaotic and beautiful my life got with kids, it was just inevitable,” she says of the developments in her work. “I was needing to express that more.”
One of her most recent paintings, a 48×60-inch taupe-colored canvas titled Here and Listening, conveys these sentiments, with its yellow scribbles, pink petals, and periwinkle patterns expressing the boundless fun, frustration, chaos, and comforts of motherhood. “When I did that one, I felt like something unlocked and was coming out,” she shared of the title.
As Turpin’s aesthetic evolves, so has her artistic process. In the early days, she worked without music, and painted her canvases laid on long wooden tables. She likened the experience to developing film in a dark room, unable to fully see the result until she lifted her canvases up to the light. “It was about letting the water and paint do its thing, which was very Zen-like and meditative,” she said of her early approach. “Now, I’m releasing more, and want to express myself.” Today, a rotation of classical music and alternative rock plays in the studio, adding to Turpin’s energetic field.
Regardless of the subject or style, each of the artist’s pictures exudes a palpable luminescence. The layered pastels further complement the depth and feeling of her work, which is currently sold through her popular Instagram sales. “I think pastels fit my personality as a scribbler and a doodler,” she explained. “Because the canvases are unprimed, the backgrounds are more luminous, and the pastels are opaque, so they have this nice contrast.”
Today, boxes brimming with rainbow-colored sticks lie scattered across the studio, including one Turpin brought home from a recent trip to Paris. Over the years, she has found wells of enjoyment and creative stimulation from visiting the French capital.
“Every time I go to Paris my art changes,” she said of the sensory city, with its leafy streets, gleaming bridges, and stately institutions like the Musée d’Orsay and The Rodin Museum. Though far removed from these prestigious museums back home in Fredericksburg, Turpin still surrounds herself with great masters and their works, as evidenced by the books on Millet, Van Gogh, Hockney, and Bonnard stacked on wooden tables. Inspiration, as it turns out, is everywhere for this talented artist, who need only look outside to conjure her next creation.