June 2026 2-D Featured Artist Kay Foote

Kay Foote, who has been an active member of Harbour View Gallery for seven years, will be our Featured Artist for the month of June.  Kay is presenting new work in her “Sprinkles of Joy” show, displaying an array of bright, cheerful watercolor paintings using various techniques for the backgrounds. 

Her interest in art began at an early age with an influential art teacher in Davenport, Iowa, who taught an wide assortment of artistic mediums.. This teacher inspired Kay to create art throughout her public school and college years. 

As a young wife and mother, she also took private lessons, but as her family and career grew, art was just a well-loved hobby. After retirement, she and her husband moved back to their home in Fort Myers, where Kay continued her “art education” by taking classes at the Cape Coral Art League. In 2011 they moved to the Nashville area where she started teaching adult watercolor classes at the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center and initiated the “Kids Saturday Art Club” program, which she particularly enjoyed. 

Kay believes in kindness, love, faith and the golden rule.  Those principles guide her creative spirit.  You can’t look at a painting of Kay’s and not see the love in her heart – it just about bursts off the canvas.  This makes her work unique and remarkable.

“With watercolor, the outcome is somewhat unpredictable, and for me, that’s what makes it especially enjoyable,” said Kay. “I most often paint the background first and then proceed to the more detailed aspect of the painting and decide at that time what the subject of the painting will be. But other times, when I have a particular vision of the subject, I’ll paint the center of interest and then add the background. Either way, it’s always fascinating to watch the painting develop, as it’s the unexpected that makes watercolor surprising and exciting. As Bob Ross, the well-known (and loved) TV artist used to say, it’s those ‘happy little accidents’ that brings me joy as I paint.”