When I first came across Catrin Williams’s work for the first time, at the National Eisteddfod in 1992, what caught my eye was the lively palette and playful, semi-abstract forms. These paintings were confident and completely different to everything else in the exhibition. Since then I’ve watched her career develop over the years, observing with delight how her style and artistic practice have evolved while still retaining the particular characteristics which make her work immediately recognizable. There is a wonderful sense of freedom in the way she conveys her subject matter, whether a landscape or an arrangement of familiar objects, and that freedom permeates the work whatever the medium: drawing on paper, oil painting on canvas or board, or mixed media.
This exhibition illustrates the range and variety of her recent work. What strikes us immediately on looking at the landscapes is that it is towns and villages which attract the artist’s attention, places made and lived in by people, even if they are unseen. These are not views of an empty countryside in the classic ‘picturesque’ manner, far from it, they celebrate an environment made and used by people. This is reflected in the architectural detail of Town Clock or Tenby, for example, where the buildings themselves, whether they are simple cottages or more imposing town houses, all possess their own personality.
Most of these towns and villages are coastal, with small boats bobbing about on the waves, the eye being drawn over towards the houses by the curved line marking the boundary between land and water in paintings such as Western Light, Westwards, or Magic of Pembrokeshire. And if the vibrant colours give a dynamic quality to the oil paintings, even in the monochrome drawings the unconstrained movement of line creates a similar effect.
Another major subject is plants and flowers. Whether these are outside in a garden setting, as in Vicarage Garden, or indoors in a vase or jug as in Party in the Flowers, they are far removed from the sedate tradition of botanical drawings. The plants fill the canvas to its very limits in an explosion of colour bursting to escape the confines of the frame. There is nothing of the pretty chocolate-box picture here: they are full to the brim of vitality, with even the most ordinary plants taking on an exotic character.
Similarly, ‘still life’ is singularly inappropriate a term for such dynamic pictures as Collector, Luned’s Shoe or Aunty Glenys’s Dog. As their titles suggest, the objects arranged here are replete with memories: we sense that each one possesses some significance in the artist’s personal and family history, evoking memories of particular people and times in her life. Nonetheless, these works can still strike a chord with us, reminding us too of familiar old homes where every single item displayed on the dresser or mantelpiece has its own story to remind us of the past. At times they may bring a touch of sadness, but not without the warm feeling of comfort such memories can bring.
Some of these ornaments may have associations with clichéd tourist images of Wales and its people, but in paintings such as The Toys’ Party with its ‘Welsh lady’ doll, or the afternoon tea set there and in Party in the Flowers, Catrin Williams reappropriates those hackneyed images, looking at them from inside rather than outside our culture, focusing on the meaning they hold for us. A number of these works are of mixed media and include tiny scraps of fabric sewn on to the cloth backing – a subtle reference to our traditional Welsh patchwork quilts and rag rugs. Again, the owl which flies into Afternoon on Hay-on-Wye, Night-time Hunting or Guardian Owl may bring to mind the medieval tale of Blodeuwedd; like her the owl in these paintings is ambiguous in character, with its dual role as hunter and protector. Here, as in other works such as Mackerel for Supper, the artist blurs the boundary between abstract and representational art: at first sight the work may seem a purely abstract composition, but gradually recognizable objects begin to emerge.
Catrin Williams’s work resists conventional categories as she focuses on her own unique artistic vision. Central to that vision is her Welsh identity and the celebration of life in all its dimensions, and this exhibition displays the same energy, joie de vivre and singing colours that have characterised her work from the beginning.
Copyright © Catrin Williams
Design - Almon