Fairy Tales Do Come True
Artist Kathy Womack captures every girl's fantasy
By Elizabeth Robertson
Photography by Gregg Cestaro

“I’m so not like my paintings,” says artist Kathy Womack, laughing, as she sits beneath a vividly colored canvas full of glamorous women wearing lavish ball gowns.
True to her words, in life, her style is notably casual. Her curly dark hair is wild and tame at the same time. She wears a pair of jeans and a spunky T-shirt in a way that only the really style-savvy can pull off.
But in her art, Womack paints the kind of dramatic, well-dressed women every little girl dreams of being. “I guess the appeal comes from [me] as a child just wanting to be a princess, the high drama of it. I was a tomboy, but I always wished I could be a princess,” Womack says.
All her life, Womack knew she was destined for art. Even in high school, she understood that to do what you love requires sacrifice. So she skipped her academic classes for her art projects and took the detentions in stride: she could draw undisturbed there.  

Later, Womack turned her undeniable instinct for art into success in a relatively short amount of time. She graduated from the Art Institute of Houston, later moving to Austin to pursue a career as a fashion illustrator for the [Austin American-Statesman]. After about five years at the [Statesman] and with the encouragement of her husband, Womack took a big risk: She picked up her brushes again and rediscovered the canvas. In the end, the risk paid off. Her warm and inviting gallery opened its doors last year. “I started doing art festivals and shows—that was sort of my testing ground for [the gallery],” says Womack. “I certainly never thought that this was going to happen this soon. I thought, maybe in my mid-forties I’ll open a gallery. But things took off..” Womack worked the festivals tirelessly, displaying her work all across the state. “I kept handing my cards out, handing my cards out. People would hold onto them for years,” Womack remembers. “I spent about five years doing that, and in the big picture, I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.”
Finally, Womack painted the first work in what was to become her “Women and Wine” series. The painting instantly struck a chord. “This lady came to my studio and bought it immediately,” Womack says. “But I still had to finish it, thank God, because within that time from her buying it and me finishing it, people came by the studio, and I could have probably sold it ten times over.” She knew that she couldn’t make a replica, so the series was born and the original's success has since snowballed.
The “Women and Wine” paintings portray high-society women, “yuckin’ it up,” as Womack likes to say. The rich color palette and sense of gaiety throughout the paintings hold a subtle but universal appeal to women. “I think that they see a kind of sisterhood; they see their relationships with their friends and family.” Not only are the women in the paintings having a great time, they wear unique and dramatic clothing—something Womack lives to create. “I love high drama, I love theater, I love Cirque de Soleil—these inspire me,” she says. “So without actually painting clowns and high drama, I just combine the two ideas. I paint the women and then I put them in
really dramatic clothes, very theatrical-looking things.”
The paintings give viewers a chance to escape from the ordinary and an opportunity to imagine living the good life. The colors in Womack’s paintings exude a rich, earthy feeling—indicative of a color palette she says is in her blood. Womack details the costumes in her paintings with India Ink and adds texture, which brings even more depth to her work.
While “Women and Wine” has been a huge catalyst to Womack’s success, she says her passion lies in creating the elaborate costumes that the ladies wear in the paintings. “I wish I could design clothes, but I drew them. I love love [love] creating clothes,” Womack says.
    See the work of Kathy Womack at the Kathy Womack Gallery at 411 Brazos, or visit the website at kwomack.com.

Excerpted from September Issue 2003 Austin Monthly Magazine