Cathryn’s images create an arresting and often emotional response from the viewer. We are witnessing and connecting with an intimate moment in time as in photographic imagery, but because the images are translated into paintings and drawings they have a “hyperreality” about them. There is a sense of humour in some, and a mystery in others. The “personalities” emerge through clever cropping, atmosphere and distortion.

“I have always been interested in extending photographic imagery into a painted or drawn image and translated through a variety of media. Over the past 3 decades I have been exploring body language and movement in order to invite the viewer to relate to figures, animals and other subjects in a unique way. Close-ups combined with distorted perspective and tight cropping, allow for an intriguing deeper emotional connection with the subject.”

Cathryn graduated in Fine Arts at Queen's University in 1977, where she then went on to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts until 1979. Prior to immigrating to Australia in 1984, she exhibited widely across Canada, receiving a Canada Council Grant and an award from the Print & Drawing Council of Canada in 1980. She received her MEd in Visual Arts in 1999 from UTS, Sydney.

Cathryn has also worked in Australia as a Senior Art Director, Illustrator, and Teacher since 1984.  More recently she was a Full Time Lecturer in Visual Communication at Insearch which is affiliated with the University of Technology, Sydney.

In 2009 she saw most of Morocco. 2010 included a trip across Europe after a stint in Berlin and Canada. For June and July ,Cathryn was invited to the MIRA artist residency in the south of Italy where she and the other residents held a final exhibition at the Palazzo Palmieri in Martignano. She continues from there to the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Great Britain with a month in London before returning to Sydney.

Cathryn had a successful exhibition entitled "DOGMA" upon returning to Sydney in Feb 2011. She is currently attending Ondarte International Residency in Akumal Mexico as one of their first group of artists until the end of August 2011.

"My current work deals with figures in water and is a continuation of my interest in body language, emotion and narrative. My intention is to extend the concept of a portrayal of a figure using the water to express something more about them through reflection or the surface qualities; an alter ego, a deeper emotion, a secret desire, or a darker side of the person involved"