Japan January 2008 Kirsty has recently returned from a trip to Japan. She was invited to Japan by the Hibell, a publishing company who print and sell Kirsty Wither limited edition Giclee prints exclusively for the Japanese market. Hibell have 12 galleries across Japan, each featuring a Kirsty Wither print exhibition during January and February 2008.

"It was an absolutely fascinating trip and I found meeting so many people who collect my work on the other side of the world very humbling. In terms of my work, the landscapes, colours and patterns of Japan will, I'm sure, have an impact on my future work - I can’t wait!"

Kirsty's 2006 solo show in the Open Eye Gallery was a great success. The art critc for the Edinburgh Evening News, Martin Lenon gave it a four star review and wrote:

Kirsty Wither's paintings - whether flowers, landscapes or figures - are anything but anonymous. Not content with giving her paintings depth and vibrancy with impasto strokes, she has such a fabulous grasp of colour that whatever she chooses to paint either leaps out at you or draws you in. Being bored isn't an option.........it works beautifully.

Kirsty's work was also the subject of three magazine feature articles:
The Artist Magazine December 2004
Executive Lifestyle Spring 2005
Leisure Painter July 2005

The Art Group publishers of Kirsty’s work in card and print form. They are also about to launch a range of limited editions Giclee prints.

The Ikea card and poster range published in association with the Art Group is selling extremely well, and has quickly been reprinted after the initial run sold out. Kirsty’s mother and father are regularly to be found in their local Ikea making sure her cards are at the front of the stands!

"As a gallery owner, it is a particular joy to come across young, emerging talent; to find someone whose work is technically good, whose style is original and whose paintings are exciting: someone whose work has that intangible quality that strikes a chord and makes one want to see more.

Seeing Kirsty Wither's work for the first time struck a chord with me. Here was someone painting with a vibrancy and vigour that one sees all too rarely; here was representational work that was refreshingly individual and well crafted, which celebrate the joy of what paint can be made to create; here was an artist with a commitment and passion about her painting which leaps straight off the canvas.

Subsequently meeting the creator of these works was to appreciate all too clearly how the character of the artist is so often reflected in the paintings. Kirsty Wither positively bubbles with energy and enthusiasm while at the same time being meticulously organised and focused. Her studio is a riot of colour, of canvases on every wall, of brushes and palette knives an every surface. Yet appearances can be deceptive for the paintings which Kirsty creates are well thought out, expertly made, while at the same time maintaining that all important ability to excite.

Twelve years ago, Kirsty Wither graduated from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen; she has had numerous successful exhibitions since then and her work now hangs in many private collections in addition to prominent corporate and public ones. Portland Gallery is delighted to exclusively represent Kirsty Wither and to be showing her work".

Tom Hewlett, Portland Gallery, 2002.