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Born in Connecticut and raised primarily in southern Maine, Kathleen Best Gillmann grew up with a love of the outdoors, arts and culture. In grade school, her artistic talent was often noticed and in high school, she took first place in a state-wide Red Cross poster contest. She pursued a studio art degree with a focus on drawing and painting at the University of New Hampshire and then a second degree in art education at the University of Southern Maine. A summer job in college resulted in an opportunity to display her drawings in a solo exhibition at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine.

Her first jobs after college were in teaching art, museum education at a local history museum, and later she wore several hats at an architectural firm. At that point, she decided to pursue a degree in library science. Upon graduating with her master’s degree in 1991, she worked in Paris, France with archival materials documenting monuments on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. After returning to the States, her art interests took a back seat while employed as a librarian. However, she showed several art works in the student and staff art shows held annually in the mid 1990’s at Virginia Theological Seminary where she was Acquisitions Librarian. Marriage in late 2001 allowed her to step back from her full time career as a librarian to pursue other interests including art.

Beginning in 2002, Ms. Gillmann began her intentional re-entry into art making by taking figure and portrait classes in several drawing media, pastel, acrylic and watercolor painting through Fairfax County Adult Education and at the Art League in Alexandria, Virginia. This emphasis felt quite natural since her earlier art education had a strong classical emphasis on drawing and painting the human figure. She typically has knack for capturing a likeness in her portraits.

Intrigued by the natural world, Ms. Gillmann’s work usually focuses on the landscape, what it contains, and people. A series of paintings begun in 2006, “North Shore” was inspired by a visit to the north shore of Lake Superior. An avid gardener, she is often inspired by growing things which find their way into her still life work. In the autumn of 2006, a pastel, “The Trees of the Field shall clap their Hands” took first place at the Springfield Art Guild’s River Farm show.

Ms. Gillmann’s work tends toward realism and often spans the full range of classical genre including landscape, still life and the figure. What excites her about drawing and painting are the joy of color, form, composition and design, and the magic of creating an illusion on a two dimensional surface. A recent landscape in oil pastel (completed August 2007), “Red Tree at Fountainhead,” was juried into the Fall Show & Sale of the Springfield Art Guild at Green Springs Park, Annandale, Virginia. Other recent works may be seen at the Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA.