Catherine Bryan

Catherine Bryan began her education at Holgate Primary School, and completed her secondary education at Abraham Guest High School in 1997. She went on to study art and design at Wigan and Leigh College, and graduated with a Fine Art BA Honours from Liverpool John Moores University in 2003.

Catherine’s paintings are abstract in style and evolve through the layering of paint and collage. When Catherine begins a painting she has a colour combination in mind as a starting point. Early marks are painted very freely, gradually building up an interesting surface created with random marks and different textures.

“At this stage of my painting I don’t have a vision in my mind of how the finished piece will appear.”

She continuously edits out unwanted areas whilst keeping other areas that satisfy her, continuing to build on established marks and textures with new marks. After repeating this process a number of times compositions begin to emerge. It is at this point in her paintings that she becomes more selective in the way she paints, working in a more controlled manner, paying attention to detail and enjoying the rich colours and textures that have evolved through the layering process. The process of layering continues but decisions become harder to make as the compositions become more precious.

“At this stage I am painting less freely and have scaled down from a large brush to a smaller one, sometimes even using my fingers or a piece of thread. This is where it becomes more challenging because there is a lot in my painting that I like, yet it hasn’t reached a finished state. Sometimes I have an area in my painting that I really like but it doesn’t seem to work with the overall composition. It is then that I have to consider sacrificing this area by painting it out in the hope of creating a better painting.”

Her inspiration is drawn from a diverse range of sources, such as different light qualities, shapes and textures derived from surrounding landscapes, patterns from nature and through exploring different combinations of colour. Her paintings do not relate to a particular event or describe specific experiences. But her love of pattern and her playful development of marks through extensive layering have enabled Catherine to create a personal visual language that enjoys the risks and changes that painting requires. The process of layering, the delight in chance combinations of colour, shape and texture have evolved into uplifting images that seem to glow from within.

Catherine has been influenced in her use of colour and mark making by the work of Patrick Heron and Nicholas De Stael. The exuberance of colour and movement in Howard Hodgkin’s paintings has been an inspiration throughout her development as an artist. More recently, the process of building imagery through combinations of collaged and painted surfaces has found her connecting to the working processes of Terry Frost.