While Kay Cassill received a B.A. from University of Iowa with Honors in English, her focus quickly changed to the visual arts when she found herself in Greenwich Village among the avant-garde painters of the era. From there she moved to Paris taking postgraduate work at the Academe de la Grande Chaumiere. She continued traveling and moved on to Bandol on the Riviera. Eventually she traveled to Carrara, Florence and Rome – for the art – and marriage to artist and writer R.V. Cassill. Returning to New York, Cassill continued postgraduate work at the New School with artist Julian Levi.
Included among her professional affiliations are her signature memberships in the Michigan Watercolor Society, Northwest Watercolor Society and Illinois Watercolor Society. She has published several books and numerous articles
Cassill’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Waterloo Municipal Art Museum, IA; Springfield Museum of Art, MO, University of Iowa Art Museum, Iowa City, IA and other museums, corporate and private collections around the country.
As for her approach to painting, Cassill feels closest to the Figurative Expressionists. Her favorite subjects include figures interpreting her story-telling ideas but she sometimes takes a side-step when taken by a particular land or seascape. As she’s fond of saying, “I’m not interested in a photographic rendering of anything. There are cameras for that. Rather I hope to involve the viewer emotionally, even if the reaction is a subconscious one.”