Katheryne Seep Loughran, Artist, 79

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Katheryne Seep Loughran, who possessed a passion for painting people
and promoted cultural understanding through art, died of cancer October
31, 2005, at her apartment in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the age of 79.

Mrs. Loughran, a former Washington DC resident who lived most recently
in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and Tequesta, Florida, was known for
her portraits, still lifes and landscapes. Her portrait subjects
included Pope Paul VI, commissioned for the Embassy to the Holy See in
Germany; President Jimmy Carter for the Union League in Philadelphia;
and other world leaders in embassies around the world.

Once, she was asked to capture on canvas the likeness of a deceased
naval officer, which she did so expertly from photographs and anecdotes
that his friends were amazed, she told the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post three
years ago.

"How did you know he was like that?" they asked. Mrs. Loughran told the
reporter that her faith was central to her art.

"The whole time I was painting, I was praying for the Holy Spirit to
come out of my right arm," she said. "I do that a lot. I paint from the
inside out."

Mrs. Loughran, whose work has been exhibited in galleries in Washington
and throughout the world, traveled extensively with her husband, a
former Foreign Service officer and U.S. ambassador to Somalia. While in
Africa, she organized Gambian women who did batik and tie-dye into a
cooperative and held the first Craftsman's Market in Gambia. It
continues today.

She and her husband used their collection of African art to establish
the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Understanding, which developed
exhibitions and outreach programs on African culture. Most notable was
"Somalia in Word and Image," the first exhibition and catalog on the
African country to tour the United States.

In talking about her art as a cultural bridge, she once said: "We're
all the same. We just have different ways of expressing it. Until we
begin to understand other ways of believing, we can't get rid of
hatred."

Mrs. Loughran, a native of Oil City, Pa., was a fourth-generation
graduate of Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in 1944. After
graduating from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art in 1948, she
began a career as a commercial illustrator and model.

While modeling a wedding dress in the late 1940s at John Wanamaker's
department store in Philadelphia, an agent for Christian Dior saw her
and asked her to come to Paris, her husband said. She modeled for Dior
and also did illustrations for Elle and Paris-Match magazines in Paris.

After marrying in 1950, she lived in Europe and Africa. Her work has
been shown in Washington, including at the Volta Place Gallery; at the
Musee des Beaux Arts in Paris, France; and in galleries and museums in
the Netherlands, Germany, Kenya, Gambia, Senegal and Somalia. She also
taught art classes in Tequesta.

Survivors include her husband of 55 years, John Loughran of
Shepherdstown and Tequesta, Florida; three children, Kristyne Bini of
Florence, Lisbeth Loughran of Nairobi and John Michael Loughran of
Montclair, New Jersey; four sisters; a brother; and seven
grandchildren.

Washington Post

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