Kate Winskill rediscovered herself as an artist and designer ten years ago, when as a mature student she returned to university in Kingston to study Fine Art & Fashion & Textiles.

The spur to this move was a brush with cancer. Prior to her diagnosis, Kate had worked in the medical & pharmaceutical communications industry, running her own successful specialist PR agency.

Kate had studied art until A level as a youngster, and throughout her early life had channelled artistic impulses into house renovations, buying clothes and amassing an art collection of other people”s work.

“A cancer diagnosis can have the positive benefit of making you reassess your life. In my case, it was clear the stress of my previous career had contributed to my illness. A rediscovery of art not only helped healing but lead to a complete change in career path.

“I always wanted to study art, but my father was completely against it. So the fact I was able to spend my 50th birthday in the Student Union Bar at Kingston University, with a bunch of fellow Fine Art undergraduates, was an unexpected bonus. Even if I did have to buy most of the drinks!!”

Kate set up 1of1design in Hampton Wick and opened a gallery on Teddington High Street in 2013. This provided a vehicle for promoting her own hand printed fashion lines and jewellery, as well as art.

Since selling the gallery in 2019, Kate has concentrated completely on fine art, working in print, digital collage and most recently, mixed media painting.