Catherine Keating

Telling a story about man and his native landscape- particularly the bog- with specific attention to mark making, black ground surface, and paint, has always interested me.

At the beginning of my art practice, time is spent 'en plein air' – walking and sounding the environment. Once I am totally immersed in my surrounding, several sketches are made. Each mark on the paper is quick and done instinctively. I find mark making to be quite primitive and I use it as a liberating force to put on paper what is felt inside.

Back home, the interaction of material and process is paramount. I always start from a black surface. Out of this black ground comes light and colour. Exploring the properties of paint as a material on different black surfaces is an ongoing feature of my art practice.