Catriona is a watercolour and ink artist based in Toowoomba, Australia. She cares deeply for Australian nature, which has been a consistent subject in her painting practice from the start. Whether it is the misty mountains of Toowoomba, fascinating colours of the Mt Isa landscape, or beauty of the southern Queensland bush where she grew up, Catriona loves to explore her surrounding nature with paint, line and wash.
Her work is expressive and colourful, filled with florals, birds, landscapes, clouds and skies. Recently she has also started to explore the urban landscape, man-made objects and vehicles. Her style is defined by large and loose brush strokes with multi-coloured elements, though she also likes to challenge herself by working with limited or monochrome palettes.
Catriona sees art as a journey, instead of a destination. To her, there is no failing in art - only
creativity.
A medical scientist by day, Catriona uses art as a tool to be creative and to balance out her serious, structured and scientific full time job. Though mainly self-taught, Catriona has taken art classes with artists such as Rowena Paine-Murphy, Roslyn Hartwig, Bruce Griffiths and John Lovett.
In early 2020, Catriona was part of her first group exhibition, ‘Celebration of Local Talent’ at Mt Isa, where she exhibited with eight other local artists. Later that year, she won best landscape for her work ‘Isa Street Showers’ at the 2020 Cloncurry Show, where she also received additional placings and was highly commended for her still life and animal artworks.
In April 2021, eight of her paintings were exhibited at the Toowoomba Royal Show. Winning the Kenneth McQueen Memorial watercolour prize and place third in the landscape category.
Catriona aims to keep improving and building her skills in different topics, mediums and applications.
She is eager to travel again and experience the world through the eyes of an artist.