Biography of the artist, Kathy Ammon
www.kathyammon.com
Kathy Whaley Ammon was born and raised in Spartanburg SC during the sixties.
She set her goal to become an artist from a very young age. She was fortunate
to attend a high school with a strong arts department and was able to experiment
in many different mediums. In her last year of study she was introduced
to acrylic painting and recognized a natural affinity to the medium. Painting
was second nature and she knew she would become a painter.
In 1979 Ammon attended the University of South Carolina to study art. She
focused on color theory, oil painting and art history for the next 3 years.
She transferred to the University of Texas in Dallas and completed her studies
in 1983 with a BA in Fine Art in painting. In 1984 Ammon moved to Melbourne
Florida with her husband.
In Melbourne she discovered a strong arts community. She started her own
business, Creative Arts for Kids, in which she taught private and group
art classes to elementary age children. At the same time, she continued
her professional training in Melbourne under the instruction of the renowned
Dutch artist First Van Eeden, a graduate from the Reitvald academies at
the Hague. Ammon studied with him for three years and credits Eeden with
a profound impact on her training. It was under his tutorial that she discovered
the power of the figure, developed her unique painting style, and found
her true calling as an figurative painter. In 1986, she began showing her
work professionally and was quickly rewarded with sales and awards at local
juried shows and exhibitions.
Ammon's art career took off in 1988 and she closed her teaching business
and became a full time artist. Since that time she has created and sold
many works of art. Through solo and group shows she has found recognition
with fine art galleries in the US and Canada. Her work has earned numerous
awards and sales, including placement in distinct corporate and private
collections in the US. And of most significance to Ammon, her work hangs
in the private homes of numerous patrons throughout the US.
In 1993, Ammon, her husband and two children moved to Raleigh NC to return
to the Carolinas. It is there she discovered Artspace, a unique artist organization
of studios and galleries in a renovated warehouse in Raleigh. In 1996 She
was juried into Artspace and has had her studio there ever since. Ammon's
studio at Artspace is open to the public and is located in the historic
City Market area of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
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