Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Like several other women artists in Newfoundland, Kathleen Knowling waited until later in life before becoming a full-time professional. Knowling, who was born in St. John's in 1927, studied both art and art history in her early years. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, in New York City, in 1950, with a B.A. in History. Afterwards she went on to Paris, France, where she studied fine art in the museums for two years.
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The Boat from Bacon Cove 1990 Mixed Media on Paper 76 x 110.8 cm 
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In 1959, she decided to put her artistic ambition on hold, when she married and began to raise three children. It was not until 1975 that she began exhibiting her work professionally, in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Ontario and British Columbia.
Knowling went on with her artistic studies, spending a term at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), as well as studying at the Newfoundland Academy of Art, Mount Allison University, and Memorial University's Extension Service.
Although she started by working in watercolours, it was when she began to work with oilsticks and coloured pencils that she truly found her medium.
Knowling's best-known works are from the Hooked Mats series. These pieces were done in oilstick and coloured pencil on watercolour paper that was coated in black acrylic. The works were inspired by the hooked mats designed and crafted by Newfoundland outport women, a tradition that carries on to this day. Knowling's versions incorporate a strong element of design. They also exhibit a strong sense of history about Newfoundland, as well as about art and women.
Knowling does take some liberties, however, when translating the hooked mats into another art form. Christine Koch, guest curator for the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (AGNL) said, "the hooked mat tradition serves as a conceptual and formal springboard only." She also described Knowling's work as having "... exuberant, highly-saturated colour, intentionally-simplified and stylized drawing... [with] ... formal balance and pattern characterizing these pieces."
Knowling has been active in the community through the St. John's chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Newfoundland Grenfell Association, Canadian Artists Representation Newfoundland and Labrador and the Eastern Edge Gallery.
In addition to her activities as a visual artist, she has taught art history with Memorial University's Extension Service and led bookmaking workshops in Labrador and at the Eastern Edge Gallery. She has also written art reviews, curated exhibitions on a freelance basis and published poetry.
Kathleen Knowling continues to live and work in St. John's.
