Coventry University   2009/2010

Louise Cattrell

Landscape as an Ideal, representing a place of imagination and fantasy is what I aim to combine with my direct experience of the natural landscape. The dichotomy between experience and imagination has been important in the development of my work By direct connection and knowledge of the landscape the work reacts to the spectacular changes within the timescale of day, season and year .This contact is significant as it gives me a physical, sensory and visual record to translate into two dimensions as painting, drawing or print.

A sense of place is a highly personal and subjective issue, informed by our own and collective histories be they visual, spoken or physical. It is also a place of imagination where the mind is free to interpret and create from the known and the unfathomable.

A recent reaserch fellowship at Fowlers Gap {ILIRI} New South Wales,Australia were I spent time alone in an isolated studio/living space/Ochre Housein near to desert conditions has given me a new territory of colour,land and experience.

Printmaking is a significant part of my practise. Etching has always given me control over dr the clarity of line in making an image. The direct, incisive quality of drawing into the wax on the plate combined with its portability has made it a process I find immediate and distinct.

In contrast to the monochrome nature and intimate scale of the etchings working with monoprints allows a use of scale and colour in printmaking..

As I have always found, the dialogue between printmaking and painting results in new ways to develop ideas and work, each process complimenting and opening up possibilities in the other.

Louise's AA2A story was selected for our digital publication 'Time and Space - Celebrating 10 years of AA2A schemes'. Click to open Time and Space