Meet the 10-year-old schoolgirl stunning art lovers with her paintings

Lots of children like to paint. But there aren’t many that, at only ten-years-old, have an exhibition under their belt and are already catching the eye of curators at some of the country’s most popular arts venues.

Katherine, a primary six pupil at Pittencrieff Primary School, moved to Dunfermline with her family in 2022. Her Spanish father, Joan, is a violin maker and restorer based at the city’s historic Abbot House.

An artist himself in his younger years, the 46-year-old spotted Katherine’s talent at an early age and has encouraged her to develop her art between homework, scouts and cello lessons.

Katherine discovered acrylic pouring - a fluid painting technique - two years ago and quickly realised it was the perfect medium to express her sense of wonder and awe at the natural world.

As well as pouring acrylics, she uses shells, feathers, sand and glitter to bring her creations to life.

“I’m really inspired by nature and the universe around me, I’m really interested in that,” said Katherine.

“I love the beach. I go and collect shells. When we went to Mull I collected coral and lots of types of shells. I like the texture.”

“The message in my art is about nature and how beautiful nature can be,” she added.

Katherine is also drawn to the universe that lies beyond planet Earth, with several of her paintings inspired by Mars.

“There’s a lot in space that no one knows about and I just think it’s really interesting to learn about,” she said.

The ten-year-old held her first exhibition in December at Abbot House, where she sold one of her large paintings.

“It was really enjoyable,” said Katherine. “People told me that they loved my paintings and I was really talented.

“They were shocked that I was really young and already doing stuff like that.”

The young artist said she is constantly experimenting with different techniques, for example dropping ink on the paint before it dries to create “fractals” on the canvas.

She has recently been inspired by Swedish artist and YouTuber Jonna Jinton, who works with pigments gathered directly from nature - including flowers, crushed stones, chalk, and sand.

In the future, Katherine would love to be an artist, or an author or book illustrator.

In December, she got access to her own studio space in the centre of Dunfermline, where she’s hoping to spend more time painting despite her busy schedule.

“Painting is very magical. I feel really happy when I paint and it’s exciting because you never know what’s going to happen,” she said.

“When you start you never know what it’s going to be, and then it turns into something really cool.”