Hello, My name is Kay Quist and Decorative
Painting is my passion! When I think about my earliest
recollections of “art work”, the first thing that comes to mind is
being four or five years old and having a fascination with the
magical, to my young mind then, boxes of “Crayola Crayons”. Those
boxes with tiered rows of many colors held my attention for hours
on end as I transferred that wonderful wax to the paper landscapes
of my imagination. When I was a little older, my young artistic
interest was further piqued as my parents introduced me to the
wonderful world of water colors with gifts of those intriguing
little tin boxes of “pads” of colors that could be transferred to
paper by means of a wetted brush. I’m not sure what the genesis
was for my predilection and early interest in drawing and
coloring. I like to think that there was some psychic connection
to my great aunt Millie – whom I never knew – and who during a
period of her life was engaged in producing – painting and firing
in a backyard kiln – sets of gorgeous China ware, many pieces of
which I am lucky enough to own today.
During my school years, particularly high
school and college, I pursued my interest by taking many
painting/art classes including instruction in commercial art and
art history. I expanded my interest to ceramics and China
painting, influenced I guess by the luminous pieces on my shelves
that were produced many years earlier by mysterious Aunt Millie
who died in the early 1900’s. Many hours of “pouring molds” for a
local ceramics studio, financed my painting classes in those days!
In the mid seventies I discovered Decorative
Painting and became “hooked” immediately, going through the
“baptism of oils” and spending hours practicing the basic brush
strokes to produce leaves, daisy flowers, strawberries and all the
rest. I have been totally enraptured ever since. Like many of my
sister painters (and even some brothers!) I began to paint items
that I could sell at local boutiques. This led to early efforts to
design and paint some of my own one-of-a-kind pieces to sell which
in turn developed into opportunities for teaching classes and
producing instructional books and pattern packets.
