ABOUT

Katie Hagebols is a Kakadu based artist living on Mirarr Country. Having grown up on Waddawurrung Country, Katie has always loved life in the bush and the connection to nature it brings. Katie’s connection to the Territory sparked in 2006 where she spent two years on Groote Eylandt attending high school. This ignited a lifelong love and feeling of home she would forever share for the Territory. Katie has since been inspired by her surroundings of remarkable landscapes and culture.

Exploring themes of acrylic on canvas abstract landscapes, river systems and maps along with dabbling in fine line work in the form of figurative drawings. Over the years, bright and bold colours have shone through Katie’s work, expressive of her personality, taking form in surreal portraits and motifs. In recent years, Katie has been more inclined to experimenting with new media, such as digital drawings through her new found love of Pro Create and rekindling her love of photography. Tales told by her favourite bushies and remote adventures fuel the never ending fire of portraying stories through her artworks.

Katie is currently exploring photographical works through the use of infrared filters and film, drawing on inspiration from Kate Balis and Richard Mosse. The colours that evolve naturally in the wet season of the North are deep and rich with bright greens against contrasting escarpment and skin tones, which creates incredible contrast through the use of infrared filters and film. This is an encouraging new force driving Katie’s creativity for 2023.

Piper John Kidd is my great, great grandfather, not only does he have a rockstar name, he is a big legend. Born in 1871 Scotland, he fought in India, got his leg shot whilst playing the ‘Cock O’ The North’ on bagpipes in the battle of Dargai, despite losing his leg, continued to play and was the only soldier to meet the height of Dargai, met the love of his life, Jeannie Farquharson Bremner who nursed him back to health in the UK after having amputated his leg, received a visit from Queen Victoria, had five kids, bought tickets on the Waratah from London to Australia, luckily didn’t depart on that ship as it sunk, finally quested upon the Wilcannia which got them safely to Australia in 1911 and the rest is history! Now you know a fraction of the remarkable story of my great, great grandfather, Piper John Kidd and a wee bit of my big ol’ story.

CONTACT

katie@piperkidd.com
@piperkidd_