About Cathy Read:
Former occupational therapist, Cathy Read turned artist in 2008. Self taught, she developed her distinctive style creating abstracts before moving to architecture. An interest fuelled by a lifelong fascination with buildings. Cultivated in a childhood dominated by the Cotton industry's giant mills in Manchester. Based in Tingewick, she finds inspiration from building anywhere.
Dubbed the Master of Masking and the Sultan of Splash, Cathy's paintings depict geometric shapes and inherent patterns of architecture using her trademark white lines and ink trails.
Cathy has exhibited with the Society of Women Artists since 2013, becoming a member in 2015. when she was awarded the Barbara Tate Memorial Award for her Body of Work She's exhibited with the Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.
Cathy was a contestant in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year Competition, in 2016 and 2017. Shortlisted for Artist and Illustrators Artist of the Year 2017 she received the Wild and Tame Award
Artist Statement.
My paintings are snapshots, I look for contrasts where they occur: such as new buildings, with clean shapes and lines, alongside old decaying ones, or geometric architecture softened by nature over time
Buildings reflect the dreams of the people who create them. By using an abstract technique I capture that dreamlike quality. The masking fluid creates a linear structure which holds together the fluid and energetic paint and ink shapes. The ink, especially, allows mini explosions of colour which evolve during the drying process.
With these paintings I am looking for perspectives that convey the scale of the buildings. That sense of Awe at their sheer size. By experimenting with angles, foreshortening and shapes, I seek the essence of the vision behind their creation and that childhood sense of looming where the building feels like it will topple on you.
