About the Artist

Raleigh, NC oil painter

Kristen is an oil painter based in Raleigh, NC, whose work sits at the intersection of wildlife and dramatic landscape.

Her relationship with art began before she could explain it. By kindergarten, her teachers were telling her parents she had a natural talent. Her artwork hung in her elementary school principal's office, an early sign of what was to come.

She graduated from East Carolina University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts concentrating in Graphic Design, where she received the Louis Award of Excellence in Foundations from the School of Art and Design. She went on to build a career in graphic, digital and UX design, choosing a path she believed was safer and more stable. But art never left her.

During COVID she returned to painting as a personal passion, reconnecting with the medium that had always been her truest language. In 2024 she made the decision to launch her fine art career, and in 2025 had a painting showcased at the Page Walker Arts and History Center through the Fine Arts League of Cary.

She is now building her practice with intention, one painting at a time, guided by the belief that the ordinary, when truly seen, is anything but.