Louise Cattrell

Louise Cattrell’s work uses direct experience of the natural landscape, exploring how one holds that transient memory. The artist has travelled extensively seeking out solitary landscapes in countries where the landscape shapes the understanding of each territory such as Scotland, Switzerland and the Australian outback that are free of any human intervention. This process is fundamental to her practice, enabling her to immerse herself in her surroundings, form memories, and later channel the experience back into the pieces she paints. Vantage points within the landscapes become the structural focus from where Cattrell’s paintings develop. The artist looks to capture endless expanses of sea, sky, and mountains as well as the change of light and weather that so dramatically alter the view and shroud it in mystery. Cattrell reflects these natural elements in her painting process by building up layers of oil paint thinned with turpentine to become a similar consistency to watercolour; the movement in the paint often echoing the ideas behind the land and seas she paints.