Collection: Kate Stone

Stone studied architecture before switching to fine art midway through her degree, and the discipline of that training — plans, elevations, the logic of load and balance — still shapes how she builds a composition. Her paintings are constructed with the same deliberateness as a floor plan: measured, considered, every shape earning its place on the canvas. She works with masking and hard edges to get precise geometric forms, then spends as much time deciding what to leave out as what to include, treating negative space as an active part of the design rather than empty background. Originally from Chicago, she cites the city's skyline and grid layout as an early, lasting influence. "Good architecture," she says, "is mostly about what you have the discipline not to build. I think about painting the same way."