Kay Rebber Foote (a.k.a Katharine Ann Foote)

March 3, 1923 – March 5, 2021

Prepared by John Foote III, son of artist and trustee of her estate.

Kay Rebber Foote was a California artist known for her ability to capture the mood or feeling of a scene. Her paintings combine strength and subtlety, using nuanced colors reminiscent of the Impressionists. Her goal in painting was to communicate visual poetry, to create a sense of awe and wonder for the beauty of the world. She was strongly influenced by the early English landscape painters, particularly J.M.W. Turner, the Scottish painter William Russel Flint, and the American artist Winslow Homer. She also found a kindred vision in the works of Corot and Monet. Her paintings often include water and are known for their realistic and captivating reflections. 

A third generation Californian, Kay was born Katharine Ann Rebber March 3, 1923, in Long Beach, California, to Leland Lester Rebber and Mary Alice Thomas. She was the second of two children, joining a sister who was two years older. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to San Pedro on the hill overlooking the harbor. She and her sister would go down and sit on the rocks on the jetty by the harbor and watch the big ocean liners come and go. It was here, during these early formative years, that she learned to love the ocean and first dreamed of traveling the world.

In 1930, when she was seven, her father’s work took the family to El Dorado, Arkansas, where she attended grade school. Though she had no formal artistic training, she showed a passion and talent for art. She could frequently be found with paper and pencil sketching what she saw around her. Her efforts gained several local awards at school. 

Kay skipped several grades, and at age 15, she joined her older sister at Stevens College in Columbia, Missouri for her senior year of high school. Though she was officially a high school senior, the classes and accommodations made no distinction between high school and college students. It was here she received her first formal art training. After excelling in a basic design course, she was selected to participate in a special summer program taught by a famous artist from New York, Adolf Dehn. Among other skills, he taught plein air watercolor landscape painting, which became a prominent part of her art throughout her career.

At age 16, Kay enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) as a fine arts major. She joined the Gama Phi Beta sorority and lived in the sorority house. At USC she met her future husband, John Taintor Foote Jr. Unfortunately, World War II broke out and John enlisted in the army. Before being shipped overseas, John came home on leave for the Christmas holiday, and they married on Christmas Eve, 1943.

Kay finished her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at USC in 1943. She then pursued graduate studies at ArtCenter School (since renamed ArtCenter College of Design), the Chouinard Institute and the Jepson Art Institute. She was selected to attend advanced night classes with the American illustrator and teacher, Pruett Carter. Because of her exceptional ability to capture a likeness, Pruett invited her to join a group of the top illustrators of the time to sketch portraits of wounded soldiers at the military hospital to raise their spirits. Though she was the baby of the group and the only woman, her sketches were recognized as among the best. The American illustrator William Andrew Loomis, who was also part of the group, mentored her during this period. 

When John returned home from the war in 1946, the couple moved into his father’s house in Topanga Canyon, California, while they built a home in nearby Santa Monica Canyon. Their first of three children was born in 1948, with the second arriving shortly after moving into the Santa Monica house in 1950, and the third in 1954. 

While raising her family, Kay continued to paint, doing portraits on commission. When some of the children she painted grew up, they sought her out to paint their children, though she had moved on to painting only for herself.

In 1968, the family moved to the artist-centric community of Laguna Beach. With two of her children off to college and the youngest soon to follow, she began to lay the groundwork for further developing her artistic career. She focused on painting where her passion took her. In her own words: 

“I paint a diversity of subjects because I paint what moves me. I paint in many mediums – oil, watercolor, acrylic, egg tempera—believing that each medium contributes its natural affinity for expressing certain moods. Using watercolor for atmospheric landscapes and oil paint for figure work, I interpret a mood, an emotion.

“I paint landscapes, seascapes, and people. I travel a lot and try to express my vision of the world in a realistic way that will be an emotional bridge to the viewer, to find a way to elicit a mood or vision that enriches our lives.”

— New Hampshire Institute of Art, Watercolor Art History Questionnaire)

In 1973, Kay started exhibiting and selling her art at the Laguna Art-A-Fair. Two years later, she opened Gallery Xyst in Laguna Beach, giving her year-round presence in that nationally recognized art scene. In 1976, she was juried into the main Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, where she exhibited and sold her work to national and occasionally international clientele for over two decades. 

In addition to painting California scenes, she spent one or two months in Europe nearly every year for 25 years, both to study in the European art centers and to sketch, color and photograph scenes to paint in her Laguna Beach home studio.

In 1978, Kay’s painting Summer Idle, a depiction of children playing in a stream, was accepted for the National Watercolor Society’s show, and she was juried into the society as a lifetime Signature Member.

Her watercolors were selected for several additional National Watercolor Society exhibitions over the next decades, including in 1987 when her depiction of Venice, Italy, Canale Venezia, won the NWS Past Presidents Award for Excellence. This painting was also one of only two paintings selected for the Realism exhibition at the John Wayne Airport in 1991.

In 1983, her work received a special award from the Laguna Beach Art Museum. 

In 1997, her watercolor Hangen Out won Best of Show at the inaugural Echoes and Visions Fine Art Show in Laguna Niguel. 

That same year, her watercolor Fishin’ was selected by Rockport Publishers for inclusion in their book “Best of Watercolor 2”.

Kay generally never allowed prints to be made from her paintings. She felt the colors in prints were never completely accurate, and that it would cheapen her art. She did, however, allow one of her duck paintings to be used for a Christmas card. Also, in 1977, a customer approached her about licensing her painting Mother Goose for use as the basis of a needlecraft kit. Kay agreed and Crewel by Cathy (later renamed Cathy Needlecraft) produced the kit which sold well. Cathy bought the rights to almost two dozen additional paintings for needlecraft kits during the following few years.

Kay’s work continued to gain recognition until about 2000, when her husband was diagnosed with cancer and Parkinson’s disease. At that point, she refocused all her energy and passion on caring for him until he died in 2011. His loss broke her heart, and she never painted again. 

She died in her Laguna Beach home in 2021 at the age of 98 having left a legacy of well over 500 works of art. During her Laguna Beach period alone, her records show she sold more than 350 paintings to 225 customers, including a number of collectors who bought multiple works. These sales numbers do not include the significant body of work she kept for her family’s private collection. 

Perhaps her passion for her art is best expressed in the statement she prepared for the 1998 Laguna Beach Festival of Arts book:

“I am a realist, an optimist, and a dreamer. My art is influenced by all three. Since I believe that art should enrich our lives, my intent and drive is to create paintings that reflect the beauty of our earth and that also have a positive influence and a lasting value.”

Biographical and Accomplishment Summary

Biographical

• A third generation Californian

• Daughter of Leland Lester Rebber and Mary Alice Thomas

• Married John Taintor Foote Jr

• Children: Carol Ann, John Taintor Foote III, Ellen Jackson

Education

• Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of So. California 1943

• Graduate work at Chouinard Institute, Art Center College, Jepson School of Art

• Art study in Europe – Paris, London, Florence, Munich

• Studied and painted for a month in Europe nearly every year for the 25 years

Gallery Representation

• Robert Lynch Galleries, Newport Beach, CA

• Milcer Gallery, Tiburon, CA

• Gallery Xyst, Laguna Beach, CA

Exhibitions and Awards

• Elected Signature Member in the National Watercolor Society (NWS) – 1978

• Juried into NWS shows in 1978, 1980, 1987, 1999

• Laguna Art Museum special award – 1983

• “Canale Venezia” selected for NWS Past President’s Award for Excellence – 1987

• Awarded Best of Show in Echoes and Visions Inaugural Juried Fine Art Show – 1997

• Exhibited at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts almost every year – 1976-1998

• Exhibited in Designs Recycled Gallery, Brea – 1983

• Exhibited in San Bernardino County (CA) Museum of Art – 1983

• Selected for Contempory California Realists show, John Wyne Airport – 1991

Donated Works to Charitable Organizations

• Disney artists and Friends of CalArts (DAFCA) 9th annual show, exhibited 31 paintings – 1977

• Our Lady Queen of Angeles silent auction, donated 3 paintings – 1987

• Laguna Beach Boys’ Club

• Junior League

• Children’s Home Society 

Juror

• California State Fair, Fine Arts Competition – 1979

• Laguna Hills Art Association – 1980

Publications

• Author of “Painting Along the Seine (in the Footsteps of Monet)”, Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc, 1997

• Selected for inclusion in “Best of Watercolor II, Rockport Publishing 1997

• Listed as a notable Artist by Marquis Who’s Who in America, West, and California

• Listed in International Who’s Who of Professional Women, Cambridge, England

• Listed in International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, 3rd Edition

• Listed in Prabook World Biographical Encyclopedia