Fi Katzler was born in Malta and grew up by the coast in Hampshire. She has always had a love of the beautiful landscape around her and for as long as she can remember she has had a passion to be creative. Fi paints quickly with bold, painterly strokes, attempting to capture the suggestion of forms rather than stating the obvious. Being inspired by the Masters such as Monet and Van Gogh, she likes to think of each painting as a trip into the unknown – a journey – remaining constantly open to the changing nature of the evolving painting and fast-moving wind and light, building a sense of mystery and involvement between artist and viewer.
Fi Katzler was born in Malta and grew up by the coast in Hampshire. She has always had a love of the beautiful landscape around her and for as long as she can remember she has had a passion to be creative.
Fi went to Oxford Brookes University (1976 – 1980) where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management. She wed in 1982 and has four children, aged 31, 29, 25 and 20, two of whom live in London and the other two live and work in Singapore.
In 2008 Fi and her family moved to Aix-en-Provence where she was inspired by the wealth and variety of the stunning landscape surrounding her. Fi soon became more and more engaged in developing her painting skills.
She attended the Art School in Gardanne for two years, after which she went on to study and paint with professional artist Jill Steenhuis, an American artist who has lived and painted in Provence for over thirty years. Following Gardanne, Fi went on to study painting, drawing and sculpture full time at the Leo Marchutz School of Art in Aix-en-Provence: “The teaching at the Marchutz was a revelation – they say that they do not teach you to paint, but to see.”
In her latest work, Fi has captured the essence of what it is that inspires her to paint in the natural surroundings of Provence and beyond. Once within a landscape, she will set up her easel and sketch the scenes, while soaking up everything around her. ‘The first of all principles is the need to make sacrifices.’ Fi always has Delacroix’s statement in mind when she stands before a blank canvas and starts on her creative adventure: “I try to distill what I see in front of me, squinting to reduce the scene to shapes and color and then I start with the first strokes all over the canvas, capturing what I see and feel before me, allowing it to explode onto the canvas.”
Fi paints quickly with bold, painterly strokes, attempting to capture the suggestion of forms rather than stating the obvious. Being inspired by the Masters such as Monet and Van Gogh, she likes to think of each painting as a trip into the unknown – a journey – remaining constantly open to the changing nature of the evolving painting and fast-moving wind and light, building a sense of mystery and involvement between artist and viewer.
Fi’s work is in private collections worldwide including Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Canada and the United States.
