Kathleen Lightman, BFA BCATR

Painting and Silk Fusion

After painting for many years Kathleen was introduced to silk fusion as a craft. She has spent the past fourteen years developing the technique for use in her own fine art process. She continues to paint in a variety of media, but is most at home with watercolour. The common elements in silk and in watercolour are fluidity and unpredictability which provide an opportunity for surprise and discovery. These qualities engender an awareness of the myriad causes and circumstances that, like many the many silken filaments that create her works, interact to bring every moment into being.

In an increasingly virtual world, she feels a strong need to produce and to experience art whose origins are unmistakably in the phenomenal world—tangible, textural, dimensional objects bearing the direct touch of their maker. These qualities evoke an intimacy and immediacy of communication between artist and viewer in a specific time and place.

Kathleen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia and pursued additional coursework at Temple University’s Tyler School of Fine Arts, The Instituto Allende in Mexico and Victoria College of Art.

Over the years Kathleen has participated in numerous exhibitions including the Sidney Fine Art Show and The BC Festival of the Arts. Her work can be found in Canada, the US and England and can be viewed daily at the Red Tree Gallery.

What is Silk Fusion

In silk fusion, unspun silk fibre is used in a process that has some similarity to papermaking and felting. As a painter uses a palette of colours, Kathleen uses the dyed fibre to build up representational and abstract images by layering and manipulating the fine strands of silk. With the fibres sandwiched between screens, soapy water is applied to compress the fluffy layers and to allow them to accept a diluted acrylic medium that will fuse them after they are hung to dry. When dry, the work is peeled from between the screens and the process is begun again to further refine the image until a final product is achieved.

Contact Kathleen at

kathleenlightman@shaw.ca