About

CATHERINE ECKERSALL

I am a Scottish artist, brought up in rural Stirlingshire. I studied Painting at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, graduating with a BA(Hons) in 2020. Currently, I am based in Glasgow, developing my painting practice alongside my interest in the therapeutic benefits of art.

My current practice takes heavy inspiration from folklore, particularly myths and stories from Scotland and Ireland. I am fascinated by how imagery and superstition continues to influence how people see their surroundings, even as the landscape changes and develops with the modern world. Through painting, I seek to depict the unseen landscape: human interpretations of natural surroundings composed of folklore, superstition and history. I use folktales to find the intimate connections between people and their environments, seeing their thoughts, feelings and circumstances reflected in the natural surroundings.

Within my practice, I mainly work with oil paints as a medium, as I find it can capture the subtlety and textures of the natural world. However, I also utilise drawing, photography and collage within the research and development processes of my work. I tend to follow a process of distillation, selecting imagery from my research and narrowing these down to a series of symbols which create a narrative. The landscapes I create are exaggerated in form and colour, but ultimately carry a sense of familiarity.