WORK BY KATHARINA
Four years too young for the watch, and forty years too late to the bandwagon, I perched on the edge of my bed alone watching A Clockwork Orange. A first-time watch, and a first-time adventure into the Kubrick chronicles. Blasted by retro-futurism, Nadsat, and a blinding-eyeful of outrageous costume, I had already declared it my favourite film upon the opening scene and vowed to dedicate my life and soul to the occult of Stanley Kubrick from there on out.
her mother still resides some 42 years later, there’s an element of sentimentality to both women’s art. “It’s beautiful, and a perfect setting for Christiane’s work. She loves painting gardens, so naturally, it’s really fitting”. “I’m a different person to my mother, so my paintings are different. There’s no conscious decision to my style. But she inspired me to be bold with colour and not be afraid of what I want to paint. It’s very personal,” she says.
It was the art that drew me there, and the art that now brings me to a family I’ve only ever iconised. It’s been a mere seven years since that fateful night, and now I find myself sat in the very home of Stanley Kubrick, being taught how to paint a vase by his daughter, Katharina. How did I end up here?
Outside of the painting classes, both Katharina and Christiane host bi-annual art fairs selling hand-made goods and homemade foods. Much unlike her photo-realistic paintings, Katharina now takes pride in her handicrafts; jewellery making. “I picked it back up about 11 years ago. I always liked beads and trinkets as a child”.
It always comes back to the art. Concentric circles surround both mine and Katharina Kubrick’s lives, imagining a brain map of Venn diagrams; film, art, and an undying love for her father. Stepping foot on to the Kubrick property, Childwickbury House, for the first time to take part in an art class, I could only imagine the array of Stanley fans and aspiring artists alike, intertwining together in creative chaos. But it’s something else that we each found, despite the looming prospect of Stanley Kubrick; a sanctuary, a haven.
“I loved working in the movies growing up. It was my upbringing and my dream job. It’s a pity I had to give it up, but I went back to my roots and started painting again. Then when I developed chronic RSI in my hands, I had to find something else to do. So I turned to design and started making jewellery,” says Katharina, lost in nostalgia. It was her upbringing that pushed the creative cogs, and her adult life that led her naturally to the place she always belonged. Katharina worked on some of the most highly acclaimed films of the 20th century - Midnight Express, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, to name a few. But it was always the creative side of the industry that she fell into, whether art assistant or location scouter.
“Originally, we wanted to have life drawing classes with models. That was about 15 years ago now, and it quickly shifted when people started asking for painting lessons,” says Katharina, reminiscing on the opening of the art school. With an artist mother and a filmmaker father, it was almost inevitable that Katharina would follow visionary suit.
Her father’s creative process still reverberates through her own. “He always said to follow your heart and work hard. Be thorough, and don’t be sloppy,” she recalls. “I remember going to his film sets as a child. It was always fun, and so interesting. It really made me want to work in the business”.
Acclaimed in their own right, both Katharina and her mother Christiane settle the futile debates of female empowerment in a creative industry given their overwhelming achievements. Single-handedly, and without the help of Stanley’s name, both women have established life-long careers in art.
Although it may be the filmic influence, the legacy of Stanley Kubrick that entices one, it’s much more profound than we might believe. What lies beneath the filmmaking process, more specifically Stanley’s, is art. It always comes back to the art.
“It’s nice that people keep coming back to the art school, we must be doing something right!” Katharina continues. Hosting classes over the first weekend of each month, in the home that Words by Gemma Ross
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