About the Artist

 

 

My painting journey started in 1988. Between 1988 and 1992 I received private instructions from a professional artist. Under his guidance I studied the techniques of XVII Dutch Masters. I was also experimenting with my own ideas and  styles. My source of income was in business management and art was a hobby with occasional sales or freelance assignments.  I was born in Warsaw, Poland. I moved to United States in 2000. Since 2005 I live in Chula Vista, in San Diego County.

In January 2010 I started my art business.  My initial art project was creating a series of twenty paintings in honor of the centennial year of my city, Chula Vista, CA.  My collection was displayed at Chula Vista City Hall, San Diego Superior Court South Division, Chula Vista South Branch Public Library and a local church. In 2012 I published a book "Katarzyna Lappin - Paintings of Chula Vista"  with my painting collection and a documentary video produced by my husband David Lappin. The documentary presents my journey through the project, with interviews, local sceneries and centennial events of Chula Vista. 

The main painting from my centennial series, "Lemon City - Chula Vista" is gracing the opening page of the book "Chula Vista Centennial - A Century of People and Progress", written by historian Steven Shoenherr and published by the City of Chula Vista in 2011. My other "centennial" artwork, "Fenton Pond" was also published in this book. I was featured  in "My Hometown" Magazine, SouthBay Compass, published in Still Point Arts Quarterly Magazine, Issue no. 24, Winter 2016. In January 2020 my painting with Coronado Library won the cover of the 2020 Coronado Directory and Guide.

In 2017 I started my signature series of hyperrealistic paintings of the fruits called Sunlit. My first painting depicted a tangerine full of the sunlight illuminating the wedges of the fruit. Soon after the Sunlit Tangerine was finished came the Sunlit Pummelo, Lime, Raspberries and many, many more fruits which made the whole collection consisted of twenty seven paintings of the sunlit fruits. You can see them all on this website. In 2023 my painting Sunlit Coconut which was part of this series was selected into the Exhibition of the International Guild of Realism which was displayed at the Sugarman-Peterson Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My fruit series is the most significant for me because it reveals my passion for the light and the way it works through the translucent objects.  And when the fruits are filled with the light the beauty of our nature is breathtaking in its intricacy and the genius which comes from the mind of our Creator. I am a Christian and when I paint I contemplate the wonderfulness of Gods design and the joy of His Spirit fills my soul.

 

 

   I am a  member of several art organizations. I am actively involved in local art events and shows.  Since 2011 till the end of 2012 I was serving on board of the  Chula Vista Cultural Arts Commission. I display my art through local and national shows, art walks like Coronado Art in the Park, Balboa Art in the Park and  Spanish Village Art Center.

In 2015 I accepted the nomination for a President of the Chula Vista Art Guild and served as a CVAG President for one year. Since May 2016 to early 2019 I held a position of the CVAG  Publicity and Public Relations Director. Currently I am a Membership Director of the San Diego County Art Mart Association. 

 

 

 

I accept commissions including landscapes, seascapes, still life and pets. 

 

Every Second and Fourth weekend of the month my art booth is open to the public at Balboa Park near International cottages , San Diego, CA, from 9am to 5pm. 

Every First and Third Saturday my booth is open at Spanish Village Art Center, San Diego, CA 9am - 4pm

Every First and Third Sunday my booth is open at Spreckels Park, Coronado, CA 9am - 4pm.