Kathleen Moore

A native of Philadelphia, Kathleen Moore returned to her hometown to study at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Studio Incamminati, an art school founded by world renowned portrait painter Nelson Shanks. After completing the four-year Professional Fine Art program, she now works in her Buckingham Township studio painting portrait, figure and still life. Her work has been exhibited in Philadelphia at the Union League, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Freeman’s Gallery, and Avery Galleries.

Moore’s passion for portraiture and the Alla Prima one-day painting style inspired her to create The Portrait Project. The program, funded by grants, entails painting one-day portraits of students in high school art classrooms. Students are engaged in all aspects of the portrait painting experience. The portraits are theirs to keep.

Artist Statement

In the digital age, is portrait painting still significant? Why would someone want a portrait painted as opposed to a photograph to hang on the wall?

As one of the students I painted for The Portrait Project so eloquently expressed, we’re often unhappy with our appearance in snapshots taken of us, but with a portrait that takes time to develop, just as people take time to know and understand, something more meaningful and representative of who we are can be accomplished. Through my painting, I endeavor to do this while connecting others with my love of figure and portraiture and the narratives created as contemporary realism.