About Kate
I was born in Australia in 1947, grew up in the country, then the outer suburbs of Sydney, attended the National Art School in the inner city there from 1963-1967 majoring in Commercial Illustration & Graphic Design.
On graduating I worked as an illustrator and art director for a national magazine publishing company and then traveled overseas for 4 years, crossing Asia to the U.K. and Europe.
I have been a professional artist and illustrator in Britain and Australasia for all of my adult life.
My work has been published in children's books, on posters, greeting cards, place mats, packaging, as well as in national advertising campaigns. I have also had various exhibitions over the years, and am represented in collections in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., U.S.A. and Europe.
In 1986, while living in the Blue Mountains of Australia, west of Sydney, my husband Bob Anderson and I started Blue Moon Cards Pty Ltd. We published high quality artist illustrated greeting cards, postcards and prints, unique in the country at that time. From small beginnings the company grew dramatically, and by 1994 we were publishing 27 artists on a royalty basis, and servicing over 1500 retail outlets!
In November 1996, after a personal tragedy, we sold Blue Moon, and moved to the South Island of N.Z.
New Zealand has become my home, and I have come to love its unique landscape, its diversity and accessibility.
Having moved from my small organic property, Golightly Farm, in the Motueka Valley, I now live as simply and sustainably as I can in Takaka in the beautiful Golden Bay at the top of the NZ's South Island.
Bob died in March 2012. He was the Love of my life, and I was in deep grief for a long time. I am ready to come back into the world now, and make my work available to a new audience and generation, as I feel it is timeless and universal. Today's technology allows me to do that.
I continue to paint in my simple studio here in Takaka, and draw my inspiration from the natural world, and my own imagination.
Radio NZ interviews Kate Burness and talks about her commissioned art work for the Rolling Stones.
Listen to the interview on Radio New Zealand
Sunday Star Times article by music writer Grant Smithies, titled “Memo to Mick” about Kate’s quest to inform the elusive Rolling Stones she is now selling prints of the original concert poster she did in 1973.
An article by Alistair Paulin of how Kate Burness is ready to “come back into the world” and share her art once again.