Springfield Art Guild
          Springfield, Virginia
 

                    Kathryn Simons Cochrane

ksc3138@verizon.net  
3138 Woodland Lane
Alexandria, VA 22309
703-360-7305

Kathryn Simons Cochrane has been drawing and painting since she was a girl.  She has also been interested in the natural world since a young age—especially plants which she began studying as a Girl Scout.  These two interests provided the background for her decision to major in Landscape Architecture in college. 

In 1957 she graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in Landscape Architecture.  She worked first in private practice; then for the National Park Service.  She was the first woman landscape architect ever hired by the eastern division of the Park Service.  In the Park Service she designed campgrounds, planting plans, roads and interpretative developments for battlefield parks.  She also supervised the implementation of some of this work.  Later she worked in Washington, DC. And was involved in Mrs. Johnson’s beautification work.  At this time she designed a number of small parks in Washington, which were then built.

In 1978 she began to devote herself more to watercolor painting.  She started taking classes or workshops in either drawing or watercolor. 

She has also traveled to different parts of this country, returning frequently to the Adirondacks or to the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore.  During these visits she has kept sketchbooks of her observations.  She continues to study plants when she travels. 

Underlying all her painting is a belief in God as Creator.  For her, painting is an affirmation of that which is good, in the face of what seems, at times, overwhelming evil.  Her paintings of mountains, lakes, fields, plants and trees etc. express her love for the created world and her concern for our need to be connected to “a sense of place”. 

Another area of interest throughout her life has been in movement, either in sports or dance.  Consistent with this interest she painted athletes in track and field events and dancers in jazz, ballet and modern forms during the 1980’s. 

She has written poetry for most of her adult life.  Frequently she writes poems when she is sketching a scene.  She sometimes places this poetry on her paintings. 

She has exhibited in juried shows in the Springfield Art Guild since 1983.  She has had a couple of art shows in her home and garden.  She exhibited her work in Gallery 5 of Chestertown, Maryland from 1985 until it’s closing in 1994.  During that time she won a competition at the gallery and the winning painting of “Chestertown—Treasures by the Chester River” was printed and is still available from Kathryn. 

Since 1988 she has been a member of the Potomac Valley Watercolorists and exhibits her work in their shows.  She also enters other northern Virginia exhibits and is sometimes accepted in the shows.  In 1988-89 she exhibited in Gallery West in Alexandria, VA.  In 1992 she had a representative exhibit of her watercolors, landscape architectural drawings and poetry in the Sophie Wrenchy Gallery of Fremont Baptist Church in Seattle, WA.  In 1995 one of her paintings was accepted in the Virginia Watercolor Society juried exhibition.  She has exhibited twice at Goodwin House in Alexandria.  In 1998 she had an exhibit of paintings in the gallery of Seekers Church, Washington, DC. 

In 1990 she started an eco-theological program in a local church where she used her expertise as a landscape architect to lay out a Creation Awareness Center.  In this program she also used her art skills in doing illustrations for a guide for the center.  She used her paintings in classes she taught on eco-theology. 

She continues to paint in an impressionistic style using watercolor—sometimes combining it with ink or collage materials.