About Naomi Katz Plotkin
" My drawings and paintings are an attempt to hold on to special moments and loved ones."
Naomi Katz Plotkin is a New York City-based creative visual artist whose work reflects a lifelong engagement with both the natural and human-made world. She has been published in books and newspapers, in addition to exhibiting her award-winning oil, watercolor, and charcoal paintings, sketches, and drawings.
Early Life and Background
Naomi Katz Plotkin was born and raised in the vibrant neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in a close-knit family deeply rooted in tradition and culture.
From a young age, Naomi’s curiosity and creativity were unmistakable, climbing the Verrazano Bridge during its construction and capturing its grandeur through a painting. Her academic journey led her to Brooklyn College, where she pursued and earned both undergraduate and master’s degrees in art education, fueled by an early and enduring passion for art and nurturing young minds.
Naomi Katz Plotkin - Circa 1990's
© Naomi Katz Plotkin
Naomi Katz Plotkin’s commitment to teaching blossomed through decades of work in New York City public schools and beyond, most notably aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, where she taught art to passengers during a transatlantic voyage. Her extensive career spans a rich tapestry of roles: educator, curriculum developer, consultant, and private instructor.
Naomi’s passion for art and lifelong dedication to expanding her creative horizons motivated her to further her studies at the School of Visual Arts, where she earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts. This advanced training deepened her artistic practice and enriched her teaching philosophy, allowing her to blend professional artistry with educational expertise in inspiring ways.
Career & Artistic Methods
Inspired early on by the great Asian masters Hiroshige and Hokusai, Naomi Katz Plotkin paints to capture time, memory, and emotional resonance.
Whether working en plein air in Central Park, Union Square, or across Italy and the South of France, or developing psychologically rich figurative work in her studio, she approaches each piece with curiosity and care.Her work is rooted in an appreciation for both the natural and the human-made world, often reflecting the rhythms, shapes, and spaces of her surroundings.
Naomi draws deeply from the ever-changing play of light, water, and foliage around he. She uses line and color to create planes, movement, space, and unity, striving to “say more with less” and to convey a sense of spontaneity, openness, and pleasure in her art.
Her methods are informed by a wide range of influences — from early Greek sculpture, Renaissance and Baroque masters, and modernists such as Rembrandt, Ingres, Velázquez, Cézanne, and Matisse, to pre-Columbian art and Chinese watercolor techniques studied at the China Institute in New York. Portraiture, one of her first loves, remains a touchstone in her practice, even as she explores abstraction and landscape.
Naomi studied painting at the School of Visual Arts, the Art Students League of New York (on the Art Students League Merit Scholarship), and the Pastel and Art Workshop, working under mentors including Vincent Malta, Knox Martin, Vaclav Vytlacil, Joseph Stapleton, Victor Candell, and Max Ginsburg.
She has also been a member of a painters’ group with David Levine and Aaron Shikler, further refining her technique through dialogue and critique with these renowned artists.
Naomi Katz Plotkin - Private Club Exhibition, NYC, April 11, 2024
© 2025 Sempiterno Entretenimiento
At the Pratt Graphics Center, she expanded her practice into printmaking.She has exhibited widely, with two solo shows at the Atlantic Gallery and participation in numerous juried exhibitions, including those at the National Arts Club, the Key Gallery, and the Lucy Lippard–curated “13 Artists: An Exhibition” at the Sara Institute.
For Naomi, art is both a personal pursuit and a shared experience, enriched by her belief that creativity thrives when people are encouraged to explore without fear.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Studio & Current Works
Naomi Katz Plotkin - Studio, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NYC, October 21, 2023
© 2025 Sempiterno Entretenimiento
Today, Naomi Katz Plotkin works from her studio in the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard — her base of operations and a creative haven where she is reclaiming her momentum as an artist. Surrounded by the industrial architecture, waterfront views, and the hum of creative energy from fellow makers, Naomi is channeling this environment into a new chapter of work.
In addition to her painting practice, she is deeply engaged in charcoal figure sketching, a discipline she finds both grounding and endlessly inspiring. For Naomi, the immediacy of charcoal — its boldness, fluidity, and responsiveness to touch — allows her to explore gesture, movement, and emotion with a kind of freedom distinct from her work in oil and watercolor.
She particularly enjoys the rhythm of working with live models in an intimate weekly Zoom group, where the exchange of ideas and the challenge of time-based poses keep her vision sharp. Equally meaningful are her sessions at the historic Century Association, where she joins a tradition of artists gathering to observe, draw, and learn from one another.
These gatherings not only sharpen her technique but also nurture a spirit of connection and dialogue that she carries back into her studio practice. Each sketch becomes more than a study — it is an exploration of presence, a dialogue between artist and subject, and a bridge between centuries-old artistic practice and her own evolving voice.
This is a moment of renewal for her: a return to full creative motion, grounded in decades of artistic experience yet propelled by fresh inspiration. For Naomi, the Brooklyn Navy Yard represents both a workspace and a launchpad — the place where her past, present, and future as an artist converge.
Naomi Katz Plotkin - Studio, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NYC, October 21, 2023
© 2025 Sempiterno Entretenimiento