"Imagine you’re strolling down a fabulous old street in the heart of Paris and you spy a wonderful decades-old mansion, sooty with age and covered with gargoyles and window boxes overflowing with lavender, roses, honeysuckle. You stop to admire but then, out of the corner of your eye you see a big black wrecking ball about to smash the building down. 'Noooo,' you cry as you clutch your Lulu Guinness handbag and rush in, determined to save the age-old hand-decorated plastered panel walls."

The paintings in Kathe Fraga's French Wallpaper Series evoke the hand-painted, timeworn walls of a grand old Parisian mansion. Each piece resembles an aged decorative fresco panel adorned with birds and flowers, vines and leaves in a modern Chinoiserie style.

Kathe’s art is inspired by the beauty and romance of old: vintage silky kimonos, hand-worked embroidery, lacquered little boxes, blocked wallpaper and panels from years ago, distressed with age, revealing a soft loveliness still…you’ll see layered colors peeking out behind one another—pinks, blues, lavender—speckles of gold, a wisp of glitter. Look for a small shy heart. A nestle of lovebirds. A French phrase. Each piece meant to be seen as part of a larger scene that’s been hidden away…until now.

The influence of time spent by the artist living in the beautiful old cities of South America, Denmark, England, and France can be clearly felt.

Kathe's paintings are acrylic, ink, and plaster on canvas, finished with lacquer, surrounded by an ornate gold frame.
 

Kathe Fraga is represented on Bainbridge Island by Roby King Galleries
and on Whidbey Island by Museo. Her work can also be seen at Anne Irwin Fine Art, Atlanta. She is represented for publishing and licensing by Bentley Publishing Group.