Kate Hepburn

IT was in a holiday cottage in Wales where Kate Hepburn first picked up a brush in the 1960s and began painting the scenic landscape in oils.

During a diverse artistic career, Ms Hepburn, who has died aged 77, embarked on many revolutionary projects, working for cutting-edge magazines Spare Rib and Vole and as an animation assistant to Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam.

Her sister Alison Telfer said: “Kate always had tons of blonde hair. She was quiet and gentle and a bit airy fairy. I often didn’t know what she was talking about but actually it was clever if you really listened to it. She would write beautifully about things.”

Ms Hepburn was born in 1947 in Hampstead and then moved to Parliament Hill when her mother remarried.

Her stepfather was in the air force, so the family moved around a lot in their childhood, before settling back in London in the early 1960s.

Her sister said moving around in their childhood was a challenge, having to make new friends in new places, but that they had a close bond and a shared love for outdoor activities.

She attended Camden School for Girls from the age of 13 where she benefited greatly from the art department.

Ms Telfer said: “At school she was probably dyslexic but nobody called it that back then but she loved drawing. She won a competition for a clown she drew for a magazine, when she was young. She came second in a Britain-wide competition which we’ve still got.”

Going on to study at Central School, now part of Central St Martins, it was there that Ms Hepburn flourished, taking trips to Paris in 1968.

It was at Central she became established with the radical feminist magazine Spare Rib.

She produced the design for the covers and mastheads. Later came her work with Mr Gilliam, known for his surreal comedy,

Her sister Alison said: “For some reason we had the chance to stay in my mother’s flat in Parliament Hill early on in the Python days and Terry Gilliam came round to visit us. He lived in Tufnell Park then. Terry needed help and that’s why she got involved. She loved it. She was really involved in the second and third series and that’s how she also got involved with designing the Python books.”

Ms Hepburn also had a rock and roll era with the band Pink Floyd, painting the Hokusai wave on Nick Mason’s drums which were displayed in an exhibition at the V&A in 2017.

The musician attended the funeral last month.

Ms Hepburn’s daughter Usha was born in 1978 and lives in Lima, Peru, with her husband and her two children.

Ms Hepburn would create amazing personalised birthday cards for her grandchildren, regularly whizzing down to KallKwik Print shop in Kentish Town Road to get something printed.

Her love of the outdoors as a child never faded, and she would regularly go on holidays to the family’s Welsh cottage or to Hampstead Heath for a dip in the Ladies’ Pond, a short trip from her home on Brecknock Road in Kentish Town which she lived in for over 40 years.

In her later life she worked with Age UK Camden, of which her mother was a founder.

Ms Telfer said: “Katy became an incredible supporter of Age UK Camden because it was on her doorstep. They have a photograph of Katy giving these prizes in our mum’s name. She would sit and give up lots of her time to talk to the volunteers.”