Cath Duncan Art

The Story of "Red Dust and Eucalyptus" - Cath Duncan Art One of the most important aspects of my work is noticing, savoring, and capturing the sensory experience of a landscape or seascape. Perhaps this stems from the loss of some of my vision and hearing, ...

If you’re interested in my research and #creativeprocess behind the making of this #mixedmedia #collage #artwork, you can see that here…
cathduncan.com/the-story-of...

I was so tickled to hear from them, “The artwork is amazing. We both love it! You’ve done a superb job with the colours and textures. You wouldn’t know you haven’t been to Dubbo. “

In situ photo of my abstract landscape artwork - a collage inspired by Dubbo in Australia.

“Red Dust and Eucalyptus”
Acrylic paint and recycled paper collage
100 x 120cm

Last week I presented this completed commission to the collectors in Australia and it was so rewarding to hear their delight with it.

Happy dance!

Happiness is… seeing their joy at their decision to buy these 3 of my #paintings from my “April in Paris Study” series to display together in their home.

This morning we hung 25 of my paintings for a solo exhibition at St Antonius Hospital in Utrecht.

It makes me very happy to think of my art bringing the enlivening joy and delight of creativity and beauty to healthcare workers and patients and their families.

Exhibition is on till 23 May!

A crop of an aerial image of the landscape in Dubbo, Austrailia, showing lovely warm oranges and terracotta colours and gritty textures of the soil.

A crop of an aerial image of the landscape in Dubbo, Austrailia, showing ploughed fields, natural pathways from animals tracks, and eucalyptus tree dots.

A crop of an aerial image of the landscape in Dubbo, Austrailia, showing geometric shapes with urban and rural separated by a road.

A crop of an aerial image of the landscape in Dubbo, Austrailia, showing ploughed fields of concentric circles and the meandering line of the Macquarie river.

And what a delight to find these geometric and combed concentric circular field patterns, the meandering line of the Macquarie River, the clustered dots of eucalyptus trees, and of course the lovely rust and terracotta shades and textures of the soil!

In my research process for the commission I’m working on (an abstract landscape inspired by Dubbo, Aus), I used a tool that we used when we were preparing to immigrate to the Netherlands and choosing a neighborhood to live in… Google maps will give you a wonderful bird’s eye view of the landscape.

For now, I’m feeding my intuition with research on the landscape, colour and shape explorations, tonal sketches, composition play, and more … and trusting the process. #creativeprocess #painting

At some point in that process of researching, reflecting, experimenting, resting, practicing, and playing, my intuition takes over and lets me know the way forward.

But intuition needs to be fed with information it can use to make up new ideas and lead you to them. And it needs rest, wandering, mulling, nurturing. And it absolutely must have space to experiment without judgement, practice just for practice sake, and play - just for the delight of it.

Working without a plan, feeling your way forward, and making it up as you go - what some people call working “intuitively” - sounds like it would be easy and have you creating your paintings really quickly.

A photo of round tubs of paint next to two photo collages of colours and textures of NSW, Australia. The colours in the tubs of paint match the colours in the photo collages.

I don’t always pre-mix colours, but I find it’s a handy thing to do when I’m working on a large canvas, and especially if I want my colours to evoke memories of a particular landscape, then I like to carefully select my colours before setting off. #painting #originalart #creativeprocess

Abstract and expressive seascape painting in blues, browns, greens, and white, framed in a white floating frame. The painting is inspired by Nanjizal beach, Cornwall in the UK and features translucent vibrant and fluid inks and thick opaque paint, creating a textured surface with a sense of movement and light.

Happy news to hear this afternoon… “Timeless Sea Breezes 1” found its new home. 🔴❤️

Grateful for the opportunity to share my work in the UK with the warm support of @foxyardstudio Gallery and @artmagnitude

#originalart #ukgallery #paintings #artexhibition

Looking at these images, can you guess what natural landscape is the inspiration for my next commission?

You know what… let’s make this fun! If you correctly guess which continent AND the region of the continent, I’ll give you 15% off an artwork.

I’ll be printing and posting collages of images and words and poetry up on my studio wall to help me as I feel my way forward with this painting.

And of course, most importantly, I’ve asked my Collectors how it feels for them! Because it’s that essence of what they love about how the landscape feels for them that’s most important.

I even asked ChatGPT what it sounds, smells, and tastes like!

So I’ve been researching the landscape and drawing on the work of other creatives… looking at photographs of the colours, shapes, patterns, and textures of the natural landscape, and reading poetry, song lyrics, and other words that have been written about this landscape.

When I paint landscapes, I really want to show people how the landscape feels - both as a sensory experience and as an emotional experience.

The new commission I’m working is to be inspired by a landscape I’ve never been to though. How do I express how a landscape feels if I’ve never been there?

A photo of a sunrise over water. There are stripes of Lavendar clouds and puffs of fluffy white clouds in the sky, reflected in the water alongside the background of the blue sky. And dark silhouettes of trees and bushes around the waterside.

Such lovely colours and patterns in the sky and water on my morning walk today. 💙 #sunrise #morningwalk #dailydelight

A big thank you to @artbyshaniuk for this lovely video of our paintings hanging together at @foxyardstudio Opening last night. (Mine are the 2 blue abstract seascapes. Hers are the abstract florals just above mine). It helped with the FOMO of not being able to be there. #paintings #art #exhibition

A photo of a soft diffused misty water landscape in blues and greys

A photo of a soft diffused misty water landscape in blues and greys

A photo of a soft diffused misty water landscape in blues and greys

A photo of a soft diffused misty water landscape in blues and greys

Between my blurry vision and the mist diffusing the light, today’s walk was magical. #visionimpairment #partiallysighted #blindartist

Hi there. Thanks for sharing my post. ❤️

I’m sharing all the steps of my Annual Creative Review process in my newsletter that I’ll be sending out tomorrow. If you’d like to have a look behind the scenes, sign up for my newsletter. cathduncan.com/newsletters/

A grid of nine abstract and expressive artworks created by Cath Duncan

These are the 9 artworks that are my favourite out of all of the art I created in 2024. I love doing this little “contest” as part of my Annual Creative Review. It’s such a great way to get clear on what art I want to make next.

Thats what I felt that day as I hiked and swam, and it’s how I felt when I created these #paintings.

Except when I’m in touch with vitality. The vitality in nature, and the vitality in me.Then the vulnerability and fear is gone! And I feel alive, strong, connected, delighted, brave, full of hope and faith, grateful for it all.

I don’t dwell on the threat of this risk of losing more of who I am and what I love to do, but it’s always there.

Despite having regained my health and strength since receiving a successful kidney transplant several years ago, I’m now immunosuppressed for life, and there’s also no way to know how much more time I
have left with my deteriorating vision and hearing.

Rilke’s poem beautifully captures
the transient nature and insignificance of our vulnerabilities in the presence of the ancient vastness and
power of the sea and winds.