I want to represent nature in the most honest way that requires being out and among the earth. Growing up mainly outside shaped me to feel an immense feeling of belonging and endearment for working this way. At the Hudson River Fellowship, the experience of working plein air makes me feel complete, challenged, and curious. Attending HRF has greatly encouraged me to keep directing my whole life towards being an artist.

Kate Irene Kristian (b. 1996) was raised in a small, Bohemian town in Northern California. Growing up, she was inspired by the incredibly vast, bio-diverse beauty in all directions. Kate has always sought strongly to represent the greatest gift we have been given: the ability to see and experience nature. Her passion for realism began in Middle School: drawing portraits and animals and painting still life in watercolor. Dual-enrolled as a teen, she graduated with an Associates in Fine Art (with Highest Honors) from Santa Rosa Junior College in 2017. During High School she also began plein air painting, focusing mostly along the coastline of California and Oregon. She discovered classical training in 2018 at Russian River Atelier where she studied closely under mentor Linda Schroeter, for two years (2018-2020). In 2020 Kate moved to New York to study at Grand Central Atelier, where she is now enrolled in her final 4th year of the core program. Kate has been a participant of the Hudson River Fellowship for the past 3 years, received various scholarships and a Structure Prix Award at GCA. Her work hangs in private collections across the United States.