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Reverse painting on glass is far more exacting than traditional painting. Kate Dwyer is a master of this technique, and she is largely self-taught. Originally trained in horticulture, Kate worked for 12 years as a landscape designer, an experience that helped to mold her aesthetic. Her work is also influenced by a passionate interest in art history and extensive "art travels." In the choice of style and subjects, she is inspired by early modernists, primitive art, German expressionism and icons. However, her approach is anything but conceptual or academic. "My appetite is for color and mood...I paint from the gut or the heart, anywhere but the head."

Kate"s chosen métier is technically exacting and involves serendipity as well as skill. "The painting is led by the process. Depending on what happens in the first minutes, I pursue whichever technique I think will work best." Because the paint (sign painter"s enamel) dries so quickly, errors are almost impossible to correct. Not surprisingly, Kate attempts far more paintings than she completes. Finished works are typically mounted on sheets of aluminum that Kate "abuses" to produce complementary tints and textures. The frame then becomes an integral part of the work. Kate"s home/studio is hidden in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she can indulge both her horticultural and artistic appetites in a peaceful setting.