Bio
Kim Fletcher has traveled the world and pursued various artistic forms of creativity. In 1999, a dear friend, no longer able to drive at night, asked Kim to drive her to an oil painting class. After Kim sold her first ten paintings from this class, she decided it was time to pursue the once abandoned dream of art as a career. However, before the year would finish life dealt a hard blow - a child diagnosed with cancer. She spent the next two years at the National Institute of Health (NIH) caring for her son.
Kim used her art to entertain and educate the pediatric patients, comfort parents, pay bills, and distract herself from the endless stress. Art offered her the opportunity to connect with patients, families, and staff. Ultimately, this environment became a blessing to the deeper understanding of arts emotional impact in the world of the human experience. This venue provided professional commissions opportunities untimately resulting in portraits in 40 states and 18 foreign countries. As word of Kim's art work with the families spread, NIH Main Gallery hosted a month long exhibit of 30 of the children's portraits. Following this event, International hockey stars Peter Bondra and Steve Konowalchuk (Scoring for Children) commissioned action portraits for the Olympic Gala held in the Slovakian Embassy, Washington, D.C.
Known as a figurative and portrait artist, Kim also paints still life, western, and plein air landscapes. She is primarily attracted to color and compostion but intrigued by the challenge to translate natural images to poetic and colorful beauty on canvas. While many artists pursue single styles and mediums, Kim prefers to work with diversity in image and medium; this allows her to interpret the image in a manner that best suits the artistic vision. She works in oil, acrylic, watercolor/gouche, ink, colored pencil and charcoal.
Selected Exhibitions of Work:
- 2008 Beaux Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona, invitational show
- 2007 RTS Foundation for the Arts, Washington, DC, invitational show
- 2007 Beaux Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona, invitational show
- 2007 Scottsdale Fine Art Gallery, Two Artist Show, Scottsdale, AZ
- 2006 Scottsdale Fine Art Gallery, Grand Opening, Scottsdale, AZ
- 2006 Beaux Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona, invitational show
- 2006 Bonner David Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, Two artist show
- 2006 Channel 12 Food & Life, Solo feature artist for TV show
- 2006 Phoenix Art Museum, “Breast of Phoenix” art auction
- 2006 Arizona Business Journal, October 2005 feature article
- 2005 Bonner David Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, Group show of works from France
- 2005 Best and the Brightest, Scottsdale AZ juried show
- 2005 Beaux Arts, Fresh Paint, Scottsdale, AZ, juried invitational show
- 2002 The Olympica Gala, Slovakian Embassy, Washington DC
- 2001 National Gallery at the Institutes of Health, Solo show, Washington, DC
Formal Training and Affiliations:
- Docent, Phoenix Art Museum
- Member of Oil Painters of America
- Member of American Women Artists
Workshops and classes at Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, Scottsdale Artists School, Scottsdale, AZ, Yellow Barn, Glen Echo, MD.