Catherine uses
many sketchbooks including tiny pocket sized ones in which she constantly
draws and keeps visual notes of images of her family and friends
and details of objects in her every day life. She also collects
images from magazines and takes her own photographs . Often she
will photograph a model from several subtly changing angles, which
she then arranges as a MONTAGE. This influences the COMPOSITION
of the painting she is working on, giving it a distortion which
she finds exciting and stimulating. The preparation of the canvas
is very important. She will stretch several canvases at the same
time, often the same sizes and shape for a SERIES
of work linked by a common THEME. She prepares the surface using
RABBIT SIZE and a coating of oil PRIMER.
She is very careful that the mixture- TURPS SUBSTITUTE which she
use to wash brushes does not come in contact with the canvas . She
uses pure TURPENTINE
and LINSEED
OIL to mix with her paints. She puts WASHES
of paint using a WET
IN WET technique. By using very fluid and diluted under-painting,
which is allowed to run across the surface of the canvas, the colour
becomes unified and balanced and a sense of reflection of colour
and light occurs. Sometimes it can take two or three weeks to work
on areas of detail, like the face or hand in the focus piece, before
she is happy with the result. She does not VARNISH
the finished piece but touches up areas which may have SUNK.
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