In Kate Pelletier’s Nantucket studio, art begins not with a sketch or a plan but with a feeling. Her process, much like the island itself, is organic and atmospheric—guided more by intuition than intention, more by sensation than structure.

“I start with color,” she says simply, describing a practice that begins in chaos and evolves toward clarity. “It’s actually quite a chaotic mix—just following my intuition with brush strokes and color mixing. Then I quiet down the painting and weed out what’s not working.”

Her canvases are a reflection of that rhythm—abstract landscapes rooted in emotion and memory. Though her pieces are technically untethered to specific locations, the soul of Nantucket is embedded in each one. The foggy shoreline, the sea’s changing hues, the memory of golden light filtered through salt air—all of it seems to rise to the surface through her brush.

“I paint from my mind,” Pelletier explains. “I don’t go in with a particular subject in mind. It’s all part of the experience—of living here, being open to the world around me.”

Born on Nantucket, Pelletier moved to Brookline at a young age, then ventured to Brooklyn and abroad before finding her way back to the island. She returned after college, where she studied English and art history at Lafayette and spent her junior year abroad in Florence and Athens. That year proved transformational. “There’s nothing better than sitting at the Acropolis, taking in a lecture,” she recalls. “I had to pinch myself.”

But it wasn’t until she was living in Brooklyn, amidst the energy and edge of city life, that she was drawn to oil painting. “I used to do pencil drawings, mostly still lifes. I would set up something in my bedroom—a Doc Marten, a lamp—and just try to render it as precisely as I could,” she says. “But oils gave me freedom.”

Today, her medium of choice is unapologetically expressive. Layers upon layers of thick oil paint are applied and scraped away. She alternates between brush and palette knife, reveling in the materiality of the paint itself. “I love the texture of oil,” she says. “I don’t use many additives or mediums. I want the paint to feel alive.”

Color is her emotional compass. While she mixes a broad range of tones and keeps them at the ready, her final palette leans toward the serene and meditative. “I’m drawn to calmer, peaceful colors,” she says. “What feels right emotionally tends to be what ends up on the canvas.”

Despite her loose, fluid style, Pelletier follows a ritualistic process. “First, I clean the studio. I organize my paints. It’s like laying the groundwork—one foot in front of the other—until the painting begins to take shape.”

Her work resonates with collectors who often live in cities but seek a reminder of their time on the island. “I think people respond to that emotional connection,” she reflects. “They’re taking home a piece of the place, yes—but also a feeling.”

Like many artists, particularly those who carve out a living in a desirable destination like Nantucket, for Pelletier when she’s not in her studio, she’s deeply immersed in family life or working on her newest venture: a home organization business called shipshape nantucket. To Pelletier, it’s not such a departure from painting. “In my art, I start with a mess and whittle it down to something soothing. It’s the same idea—helping people clear space, quiet the noise, and find peace in their environment.”

That philosophy—of letting go, trusting instinct, and embracing the imperfect—runs through everything she does. “I hope people can feel it in my work,” she says. “We benefit by following our own process, our own intuition, as it relates to art—and life for that matter.”

And for Kate Pelletier, that truth begins and ends with the light, the air, and the ever-shifting landscapes of the place she calls home.  

To see Kate Pelletier’s extraordinary art, visit Robert Foster Fine Art at 8 India Street on Nantucket or online at robertfosterfineart.com.