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Katherine Swift (artist)
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Katherine Swift was a painter, illustrator and ceramicist.

Biography

Family: Katherine was the first child of Patrick Swift
Patrick Swift
Patrick Swift was an artist born in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Swift was a painter and key cultural figure in Dublin and London before moving to the Algarve in southern Portugal, where he is buried in the town of Porches...

 (painter) and Oonagh Ryan. Her uncle was the artist John Ryan
John Ryan (Dublin artist)
John Ryan Dublin, Ireland was an Artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, patron and publican.John Ryan was many things but primarily a key figure in Bohemian Dublin for many years. He knew nearly every artist of note that lived in, or passed through, Dublin from the 1940s onwards...

; Her aunt the film actress Kathleen Ryan
Kathleen Ryan
Kathleen Ryan was an Irish actress.She was born in Dublin, Ireland of Tipperary parentage and was a spirited and heart warming Irish actress who appeared in British and Hollywood movies between 1947 and 1957.-Family:...

. Born Dublin: Katherine was born in Dublin in 1956. Her father gave a portrait he had made of the poet Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...

 to the doctor, Michael Solomons, as a gift for delivering Katherine. The doctor, in turn, bequeathed the portrait to the Dublin Writers Museum
Dublin Writers Museum
The Dublin Writers Museum was opened in November 1991 at No 18, Parnell Square, Dublin, Ireland. The museum occupies an original 18th-century house, which accommodates the museum rooms, library, gallery and administration area. The annexe behind it has a coffee shop and bookshop on the ground floor...

, where it can be seen today. Upbringing: As a child Katherine then moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Digswell Arts Trust
Digswell Arts Trust
Digswell Arts Trust was the brainchild of Henry Morris, a pioneering educationalist. Through his enthusiasm, dedication and influence he persuaded the Government and the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation to establish a Trust for professional artists in Welwyn Garden City, England.It was...

, London again, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and finally the Algarve in Southern Portugal. Growing up she would have met the various artists that were her parents' friends, such as David Wright
David Wright (poet)
David John Murray Wright was an author and "an acclaimed South African-born poet".-Biography:Wright was born in Johannesburg, South Africa 23 February 1920 of normal hearing....

, Patrick Kavanagh, John McGahern
John McGahern
John McGahern was one of the most important Irish authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. Before his death in 2006 he was hailed as "the greatest living Irish novelist" by The Observer.-Life:...

, Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart (author)
Elizabeth Smart was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, detailed her romance with the poet George Barker...

 (who wrote cookbooks with Katherine's mother), et al. Study: Katherine had shown a gift for drawing and painting from an early age. Her father taught and encouraged her. As a teenager Katherine attended boarding school in England and later studied at art college in Lisbon and London before moving back to the Algarve more permanently in 1982, when her father was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Painting: Katherine was an outstanding portraitist and landscape painter. Her portraits include David Wright and her father, Patrick Swift. She also illustrated several books including a guide to Portuguese Restaurants. Throughout her life she continuously painted the Algarve landscape. For some years her work was inspired by ancient Celtic and Iberian imagery (as can be seen in the "Acrobat" displayed here). Katherine had exhibitions in Dublin, London and Algarve. She worked in a variety of media including oils
Oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...

, acrylics
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...

, ink, watercolour and ceramics.

Ceramics

Porches Pottery (Olaria Algarve)
Porches Pottery (Olaria Algarve)
Porches Pottery is a producer of hand-painted pottery in the town of Porches, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The pottery was founded in 1968 by artists Patrick Swift and Lima de Freitas, in order to revive a traditional Algarve pottery industry that was rapidly dying out in favour of more...


Katherine had, naturally, been around and involved with the pottery her father founded, Porches Pottery, from its inception. She showed an artistic flair from a young age and, as a child, would often pass the time by decorating ceramics. By her teens Katherine was already an accomplished ceramicist and painter. Katherine, like her father before her, only ever decorated free-hand, never using stencils or other reproductive techniques.
After her father’s death in 1983 Katherine was to take over the management of Porches Pottery. At Porches she concentrated primarily on painting tile panels while also training Porches Pottery decorators in the free flowing style that is associated with Porches Pottery.

Estudio Cynette She was later to leave the fold and found Estudio Cynette. It was here that Katherine developed her own, unique, style of ceramic decoration. As all her ceramic decoration was free-hand her work on ceramics is always vibrant, loose and brimming with vitality. At Estudio Cynette she began to explore different techniques, materials and paints to those that were employed at Porches. Inspired by the landscape around her, the colours she began to employ at Estudio Cynette were richer, deeper and more vibrant than those used at Porches, and her work at Cynette becomes more daring, individual and brilliant- in a sense, 'modern'.

Estudio Destra

In the late 1980s Katherine founded, with the ceramicist Roger Metcalfe, a ceramics workshop and studio, Estudio Destra
Estudio Destra
Estudio Destra Internationally renowned Ceramics/ Pottery Workshop based in Silves, Algarve, Portugal.Specializes in handpainted murals on tiles....

. Estudio Destra (which continues to be a working studio & workshop run by Roger Metcalfe) is located in a 16C Jewish townhouse in the historic town of Silves, Algarve. Silves was once the capital of the Algarve and an important Moorish city that rivalled Lisbon. Among the very few buildings to have survived the earthquake of 1775
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...

 in Silves were the Cathedral, begun in the 13th and completed in the 15th century, and the building that today houses Estudio Destra. During the building's restoration a small indentation was noticed on the doorpost where a mezuzah- the little case containing a handwritten scripture from Deuteronomy and a fixture on a Jewish home- once hung.

Katherine is credited with re-introducing Moorish decorative patterns and techniques to the area.
At Estudio Destra, apart from re-introducing ancient ceramic designs and methods, Katherine specialised in painting magnificent tile panels. Her tile panels were lauded and bought by collectors from around the world. Here she was to "gain international repute as a ceramics painter. Kate’s splendid works are free interpretations of ancient Iberian, Islamic and pre-Islamic designs. Every piece is unique and no stencils or any kind or reproductive technique is used". Katherine and her studio were the subject of a documentary on Portuguese national TV
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, S.A.,commonly known as RTP, is Portugal's public service broadcasting organization. It operates four terrestrial television channels and three national radio channels, as well as several satellite and cable offerings....

.

Katherine Swift, after a prolonged battle with cancer, died in 2004.

Sources and further reading

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