Katie Brines

I am a painter based in northern Virginia, originally from the windy and watery landscape of northern Michigan. My work is rooted in a deep reverence for the natural world—its rhythms, textures, and quiet transformations. I draw inspiration from the changing seasons, from memory, and from the spaces where emotion and ecology intertwine.

My paintings are lush and evocative, often exploring the connections between the wildness of nature and the feminine qualities of empathy, humility, and intuition. I’m drawn to materials that reflect the earth itself—using pigments made from crushed rocks and minerals, bound with natural resin—to create surfaces that are rich with texture and life.

Repeated drawn motifs weave their way through my work: symbolic plants shapes, footprints, clothes hanging in the sun to dry, and elemental forms that reference an imagined, whimsical world. These marks become part of a visual language I return to again and again—an ongoing dialogue between the seen and the felt.

Through my process, I aim to create spaces that invite reflection, wonder, and a sense of connectedness to the natural world.

WHERE TO FIND MY WORK:

QUIRK GALLERY IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

ELDER PIPER BEER IN PETOSKEY, MI

IN MAY AT THE OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA ART FAIR

IN JULY AT THE 4TH OF JULY ART FAIR IN HARBOR SPRINGS, MI

IN JULY AT ART IN THE PARK IN PETOSKEY, MI

IN AUGUST AT OLD BUSTHEAD BREWERY IN WARRENTON, VA