Kate Beatty
New Zealand artist working with native birds, botanical imagery, pattern and colour.
Kate Beatty is an established New Zealand artist whose distinctive practice brings together native birds, botanical imagery, pattern and colour. Her paintings are known for placing highly observed birds within richly layered decorative fields, creating a tension between the familiar and the unexpected, the natural and the constructed. Over more than a decade, her work has been exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and internationally, with solo and group exhibitions in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, as well as participation in the Hong Kong Art Fair.
Kate graduated from the Ilam School of Fine Arts in 2014 with a Fine Arts degree, majoring in painting, following earlier study across printmaking, sculpture, painting and photography. Since graduating, she has developed a sustained body of work centred on New Zealand birds and the ways imagery, pattern and objects can carry ideas of place, heritage and value. Her work has been recognised through awards and finalist selections, and is held in private collections in New Zealand and internationally.
Her exhibition history includes solo exhibitions with Exhibitions Gallery in Wellington and Auckland, most recently a solo exhibition in Wellington in 2024 and a joint exhibition there from December 2025 to January 2026. She has also exhibited through galleries and art events across New Zealand, including the Christchurch Art Show, Parkin Drawing Prize and Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award.
Image, object, pattern and place
Kate's painting practice explores the hierarchy of image and object through processes that draw on seriality and originality. Repeated botanical studies can become pattern, wallpaper or ornament, while the depicted bird is given a different visual status through detail, scale and placement.
Colour and layering are central to the work. Botanical imagery is built up and interrupted so that elements move between background, middle ground and foreground. The resulting spaces are at once familiar and uncanny, balancing the visual language of decoration with the specificity of the native bird.
Across the work, New Zealand birds function as both observed subjects and familiar cultural symbols. The paintings consider how imagery acquires value and how ideas of nature, domesticity, heritage and belonging can be carried through an apparently decorative image.
Colour Series
Repeated botanical studies form the background while a native bird is depicted in the corner or centre of the artwork. Patterning can shift the botanical image towards the status of design, while colour and layering bring elements forward and back through the picture plane.
Black Series
Repeated lines and dots form intricate geometric patterns that draw together ideas of ornament, domestic objects and spirituality. A New Zealand bird is placed within the pattern, creating a tension between focal image and decorative field.
Birds on Hand
In Birds on Hand, the relationship between the bird and the human hand becomes central. The hand provides a physical point of encounter while the patterned botanical ground continues the visual language of the earlier work. The series considers care, intimacy, connection and the human relationship with the natural world.
- 2014 — Graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts, majoring in painting.
- 2016 — Christchurch Art Show Top Ten Finalist Winner and People's Choice Award Winner.
- 2016 — Parkin Drawing Prize, Wellington — Finalist.
- 2017 — Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award — Finalist; Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Wellington.
- 2018 — Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award — Finalist; Hong Kong Art Fair; Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Auckland.
- 2019 — Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Wellington.
- 2020 — Christchurch Art Show; Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Auckland.
- 2022 — Vanitas – self reflection, Exhibitions Gallery.
- 2024 — Solo exhibition, Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington.
- 2025–2026 — Joint exhibition, Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington (December 2025–January 2026).
Exhibition history
Local Light, Chambers Gallery, Christchurch · Birds of a Feather, Chambers Gallery, Christchurch · Remake/Remodel, Ilam Campus Gallery, Christchurch · Christchurch Art Show, Air Force Museum, Christchurch.
Murrays & Co. in collaboration with Catch, Victoria Street, Christchurch · Christchurch Art Show — Top Ten Finalist.
Christchurch Art Show — Top Ten Finalist Winner and People's Choice Award Winner · Parkin Drawing Prize, Fine Arts Academy, Wellington — Finalist · Unique Ubique, Little River Gallery, Canterbury.
Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award, Ashburton Art Gallery — Finalist · Christchurch Art Show · Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Wellington.
Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award — Finalist · Birds of a Feather, Selwyn Art Gallery, Christchurch · Hong Kong Art Fair · Christchurch Art Show · Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Auckland.
Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Wellington.
Christchurch Art Show · Exhibitions Gallery solo show, Auckland.
Vanitas – self reflection, Exhibitions Gallery.
Solo exhibition, Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington.
Joint exhibition, Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington, December 2025–January 2026.
Works available directly from the studio
Selected paintings from Kate's practice are periodically released directly to collectors through the studio. Current availability can be viewed through the Studio Release and Paintings pages.