ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Catherine is a self-described process painter. Her work is shaped by an intuitive, layered approach that allows colour, texture, and chance to guide the painting forward. While her practice is rooted in an ongoing fascination with the natural world; its transient qualities, imperfections, and capacity for transformation; it has expanded to include the emotional residue of memory and lived experience.
She is inspired by her surroundings, once awestruck by nature’s surfaces and processes, and now equally drawn to the feelings that surface through remembered moments and events. Natural forms such as lichens, crumbling brick, or rusted metal continue to influence her work, not as subjects to be replicated, but as metaphors for change, erosion, and accumulation over time.
Working in layers, she allows the history of the painting to remain present. Through scratching back, rubbing away, or lifting paint, earlier layers are revealed, echoing the way memories resurface; partially intact and emotionally charged. This process-driven approach invites unpredictability and embraces the beauty of what is imperfect or unresolved.
She does not replicate nature; rather, she responds to its improvisation while remaining open to internal experience. She hopes viewers will encounter the work intuitively, joining her in an exploration that moves between nature, memory, and feeling; an invitation to get lost in both the painting and the process itself.
Catherine is a self-described process painter. Her work is shaped by an intuitive, layered approach that allows colour, texture, and chance to guide the painting forward. While her practice is rooted in an ongoing fascination with the natural world; its transient qualities, imperfections, and capacity for transformation; it has expanded to include the emotional residue of memory and lived experience.
She is inspired by her surroundings, once awestruck by nature’s surfaces and processes, and now equally drawn to the feelings that surface through remembered moments and events. Natural forms such as lichens, crumbling brick, or rusted metal continue to influence her work, not as subjects to be replicated, but as metaphors for change, erosion, and accumulation over time.
Working in layers, she allows the history of the painting to remain present. Through scratching back, rubbing away, or lifting paint, earlier layers are revealed, echoing the way memories resurface; partially intact and emotionally charged. This process-driven approach invites unpredictability and embraces the beauty of what is imperfect or unresolved.
She does not replicate nature; rather, she responds to its improvisation while remaining open to internal experience. She hopes viewers will encounter the work intuitively, joining her in an exploration that moves between nature, memory, and feeling; an invitation to get lost in both the painting and the process itself.
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
- Since 2018, Catherine has been accepted each year into the Self-Directed Artscape Gibraltar Point artist's residency on Toronto Island where she has spent between 1 & 2 weeks living on the island and independently working in a large private studio space.
- Pouch Cove Foundation at the James Baird Gallery, Newfoundland - January 2025.
- Château d'Orquevaux, France - April 2025