Hi! I’m Courtney.
As an artist, I love engaging with any creative activity, but my core work is as an abstract painter. Music is the main influence for my art. I’ve always loved listening to music and surrendering to the various moods it generates. I love how music can be an escape, how it provides a space for us to experience a multitude of feelings, and how it can enhance just about any moment. I seek to create rhythms and beats within my art that, hopefully, generate similar sensations for those who experience my work.
Working in the abstract allows me to create imprints of emotions, sensations, and feelings—like an energetic fingerprint. It’s the feelings of comfort, joy, elation and connectedness we have with music that I seek to transmit through my abstract works.
Each piece tends to have a certain rhythm and beat to it, like a fingerprint representing my own state of mind and emotion at the time I create it. I find that when others encounter my work, they are able to encode their own meaning into it. This is why I really enjoy working in the abstract: it holds space not only for me to connect to the art, but for others to connect and find meaning in it as well.
Be sure to follow and say hello on Instagram @iamcourtneykyle or reach out via email at hello@courtneykyle.com.
My Back story.
I live in the UK, but grew up in America. In terms of art inspiration, Bob Ross featured heavily in my youth. I was always fascinated with the ease at which he could create landscapes that looked so realistic. I remember flicking through art books at the library and initially being obsessed with the works of classic artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. But over time, I discovered the works of abstract artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Kandinsky’s music-inspired works resonated with me the most.
As a teenager, I used to sit with a sketchbook, close my eyes while listening to music, and just let my pen flow around the page with only the music guiding me. It was my first attempt at Kandinsky-ing my creative flow! Later on, in my university years, I took some fine art classes and picked up some techniques that enabled me to start producing art with more confidence.
After university, I pursued a career in product design, and my art remained a hobby for a long time. I filled sketchbook after sketchbook with doodles and collages, and eventually started picking up some canvases again to paint on. I did that until my house was filled with art that I really loved.
Once my house was full, I started working on a project called “the 500",” where I decided to create and give away 500 original works of art. This project started as a random act of kindness on my 33rd birthday in 2019, where I decided to paint and give away 33 painting in an ‘art drop’ to celebrate. I did this by creating the paintings on small, A4-sized canvases; then placed each painting in a clear cellophane envelope with a little note inside that let people know this was a gift. I dropped each piece around Sheffield, UK (where I reside), hiding them in plain sight in places for people to find in parks, shop windows, benches, etc. The responses I got from that first art drop were so positive, it encouraged me to keep going.
I did this during a time when I was focused on my career and couldn’t actually sell my art because I was on a work visa! When you’re on a work visa as an immigrant, the government prefers that you not start a side business. So that played into my decision to turn the project into a prolific act of giving. I set a goal to do 500 and so the project began! It’s a project that I have loved and learned 500+ lessons from, and it gave me an outlet to practice my art and put some good things out into the world.
As of 2024, I’ve completed 350 art drops. My art drops have made it across the globe, from Tokyo, Japan to locations all over Europe, across America, all the way to Hawaii. Friends, family and colleagues have helped me drop paintings in places far and wide. My goal is to complete the 500 project by the end of this year.
As a fully settled UK resident (as of 2024), I now enjoy the freedom to start trading as a business. So, as I wrap up the 500 project, my focus is shifting to exhibiting, selling and generating commissions.
