Jeweler, painter featured

By The Montana Standard Staff - 08/28/2008

‘Buddies,' oil pastel

Kate Klingensmith, one of three new members of the Main Stope Gallery, 45 W. Park St., Uptown Butte, will be a featured artist in September and present for the Sept. 5 Art Walk.

Klingensmith is both a jeweler and painter. Her paintings are Western in theme and contemporary in style. She paints in oil pastel, gouache and soft pastel. In her jewelry, she works with cloisonné wires in enamels and gems with gold or silver.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in enameling from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She has done graduate studies in metal at the University of Arizona in Tucson and Montana State University in Bozeman.

She has exhibited in numerous juried shows, including "Good as Gold: Alternatives to Gold in American Jewelry," a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition that was shown in the U.S. and South America.

Of her work in painting and jewelry, she said, "The light, space and mountains of the West have permanently settled in my soul and it is the spirit of the place that finds its way into my work, whether the medium is jewelry, enamel, oil pastel on gouache or soft pastel." Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.