Our Roots

The Idea

 Art, was love at first sight for Kathleen and Billy Gray who each heard its call in their early teens.

While living in Madrid, Spain, with her military family, Kathleen was inspired by the frescoes in an old ruined estate.  The ageless beauty and elegant decaying ruins of another time led her to pursue a career in art.  The heart of painting for Kathleen, lies in myths, legends, and dreams. 

Billy Gray is a painter and surfer originating from Los Angeles, California. The beach scene became an intricate part of his life in Southern California and later Hawaii.   As a seeker of truth, the poetry of lyrical abstractionism allows him to pose life’s musings visually.  For Billy, lyrical expressionism has a melody and appeal that serves the soul.

Our quest is to serve the divine nature within humanity by painting from a contemplative intuition.

Kathleen and Billy Gray are KGBGArt, an international artist team. “ We used our initials for our business name when we began overlaying each other’s art work, like a double image. Later this evolved into painting on each other’s art. Besides our on line work, our products can be found at Ashland’s Own Shop N’Kart.”

  In 2016, after traveling throughout the United States, they relocated to Ashland, Oregon. Kathleen and Billy enjoy the beauty of the varied nature and seasonal changes in the environment where they paint daily, updating their catalogues with refreshed zeal!

International Projects

Travel has been a major component of KGBGArt. Since 2007 we have traveled to India, Asia, Europe and coast to coast in the United States. With the travel we were inspired to bring together communities and artists who participated in various projects. Two outstanding projects were the Humanitarian Murals and the Third Hand.

In 2014 we spent two years visiting communities internationally whom we worked with to create murals to upgrade their villages. People of all ages, from children to seniors, participated in painting these murals for their villages. The subject matter was determined by their history. At the end of the two years we published a book on the murals and the process. The book, called “Humanitarian Murals” is available through Amazon.

In 2016 we drove across the United States looking for a location to settle. Because art is such an important ingredient in our lives we created a project in a mail art exchange of visual ideas inspired, recorded, and shared with a group of artists.  Mail art is considered an underground art form. The project enabled artists to be inspired by each other's work. This encouraged acceptance, trust and freedom of expression. These hand painted manuscripts went through the mail approximately 80 times between all the artists. At the end of the 18 month long project we compiled all the art into a book called “The Third Hand” which is available on Amazon.

Our Classes

Our classes are designed to encourage the creative process for those who take an interest. Our major focus is sharing technique and meaning making. We believe that an artist lives within each individual and by discovering what is meaningful to you, your art takes on a personal dimension. We offer clear instructions and examples on how you can make each project with your own individuality. We both have a background in teaching and love sharing.