REDOT FINE ART GALLERY in collaboration with Victoria Cattoni presents
Pinturas A Solo Show by Victoria Cattoni
21 st October - 21 st November 2015
For a high resolution, downloadable, PDF version of the this catalogue, with pricing, please send us an email to info@redotgallery.com Thank you.
c o n t e m p o r a r y
f i n e
i n d i g e n o u s
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one of my many morning walks at Obras, with castle of Evoramonte in the background, June 2015 Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Pinturas
Victoria Cattoni is an Australian artist who originates from Ingham, in the tropics of north Queensland. She had her first solo show at Salamanca Gallery/Dick Bett Gallery (now Bett Gallery) in Hobart in 1988, the year after graduating from her arts degree. That was an exhibition of paintings, which came as a surprise to her audience after four years of working and exhibiting in a variety of other media. She continued to paint but switched back to installation several years prior to her leaving Australia for Indonesia in 1998. During her six years in Indonesia, she was extremely productive, holding several solo shows in Bali, Jakarta, Bandung and Jogjakarta. In addition to this, she coordinated a major international art event in Bali and collaborated with contemporary artists and arts communities in various centres in Indonesia and completed a Masters Research project focussing on the ‘kebaya’. During this time her installation work expanded to include video and performance art. An Asialink grant took her to Malaysia in 2005, where she continued to immerse herself in the local arts community, including exhibiting at the Museum of the Universiti Sains Malaysia and later at the State Museum of Penang. An Australia Council grant then afforded her the chance to initiate what became a four-year project in Malaysia, Australia and Singapore. This video performance project titled ‘What if I wan to water-ski? And other questions’, focussed on trying to open up dialogue on perceptions and common misperceptions concerning the ‘hijab’. Details of this project can be found on her website. Since relocating to Singapore in 2008, she has been invited to exhibit her video performance and mixed media work in Singapore, Jakarta, Bandung, Penang and Brunei. Cattoni says she never stopped painting, but her painting certainly took a background role to her other practice and she rarely exhibited these works. Then, in 2011, something changed. She says, “The return to painting was a sudden urge – I literally woke one morning and wondered where my oil paints were (which country!) and wanted very much to put paint on canvas. This may seem a rather wide leap from my art practice of the past twenty years – installation, video, performance art - but whose creative path is linear? The urge to paint again, I feel, came from a desire to touch and fashion something with my hands and body; it was perhaps an antidote, and a salve to the digital screen.” This initiated her first trip to Portugal, where she spent six weeks at Obras, an arts residency set in the landscape of the Alentejo region, east of Lisbon. She has returned twice to the residency since and will return again in 2016.
She describes her attachment to the place and residency of Obras: “The space and light here is not unlike parts of Australia that I have lived in, but the Alentejo has its own idiosyncracies; it is, perhaps, a more gentle landscape. What the residency at Obras provides, is a creatively supportive environment and a place of quiet beauty in which one can be totally immersed. You have the benefit of interaction with others yet all the privacy you desire. Add to this a constantly changing landscape and sky, lit by a very special light.” Victoria further talks about her process: “Painting for me is solace, play and journeying. I would hesitate to call the work either abstract or figurative – the tendency for viewers to construe something literal from the non-representational is always there but I hope the marks, the shapes, have enough ambiguity and possibility so that they remain porous and in motion. I also create small works on paper from observation: from the landscape, and from bits and pieces of found organic things – dried grasses, flowers, garlic bulbs, old cheese, fruit peelings. There’s no direct process from these small ‘still-lifes’ to the non-representational works; but the marks, movements and shapes must lodge somewhere in my memory providing a sensory vocabulary. I also walk a lot and photograph details of the landscape I’m in, as another way to focus. Colour choice is intuitive. I generally spend 2-3 weeks on a painting and work on several at a time, putting paint down, wiping bits off, over and over, much of it done with the painting on the horizontal, on the ground. Later layers and marks tend to be worked on the vertical, but the paintings move from the wall to floor and back. The final orientation of the canvas – top and bottom is only decided quite near the end, once a sense of gravity is achieved. There is no plan and I have no idea of what the painting will be; I try to set up conditions so that I can enter a space in which I can move between playful abandon and intense consideration. There is a need to touch and work and move about with colour and tools and music and not think, and create surprising paintings that make me want to look and get lost in and wander over and around and wonder at and feel. So the results could be perceived as captured frames of fuzzy stories in which certain impulses are sensuously ‘netted’ and rendered onto a surface with paint. The painting should always surprise me. It is a ‘scape’ of love, loss, colour, beauty, problem solving, wandering, and a lull – leaving the mind behind – even, for just seconds at a time.” Victoria Cattoni September 2015 www.victoriacattoni.net
Victoria CATTONI
BFA, GRAD DIP FINE ART, MVA Victoria Cattoni is an Australian-born visual artist and independent researcher currently residing in Singapore.
Education 2002-4 Master of Visual Arts (Research Thesis ‘Through the Kebaya: A Cross-cultural Project – Indonesia and Australia’) - Charles Darwin University (CDU), Darwin, NT, Australia. 1992-3 Graduate Diploma of Fine Art - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 1984-7 Bachelor of Fine Art - Centre for the Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
Awards, Grants & Residencies 2015 2013 2012 2007 2005
Art Residency - Foundation Obras, Evoramente, Portugal. Art Residency - Foundation Obras, Evoramente, Portugal. Art Residency - Foundation Obras, Evoramente, Portugal. New Work Grant - Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Asialink Visual Arts Residency - Rimbun Dahan, Rawang & Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. NAARP Director’s Award - Charles Darwin University (CDU), Darwin, NT, Australia. 2003 Pat Corrigan Artists’ Award - National Association of the Visual Arts (NAVA), Sydney, NSW, Australia. 2002-4 Australian Post-Graduate Award - Charles Darwin University (CDU), Darwin, NT, Australia. 1993 City of Richmond Award - Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 1992 Victorian College of the Arts Foundation Award - Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
1989 1988
Professional Development Grant – Visual Arts Residency - VACB of Australia Council, Italy. Art residency with Till Fischer - Rokeby Primary School, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2015 2012 2010 2009
2008 2006 2005 2004 2003
2002 1999 1992 1990 1988
Pinturas – A Solo Show by Victoria Cattoni - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore. Salsa on 9 - Ruang Depan s.14, Bandung, Indonesia. What if I Want to Water Ski? And Other Questions - Penang State Museum & Art Gallery, Penang, Malaysia. What if I Want to Water Ski? And Other Questions -The Substation, Singapore; Sheraton Utama Hotel & Dar Takaful IBB Utama, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. What if I Want to Water Ski? And Other Questions - Elsie Gallery, Malmsbury, VIC, Australia. Kebaya and her Cousins - Museum & Gallery, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Kedai Kebaya - Art Space Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reading the Kebaya - Kedai Kebun Forum & Ruangmes56, Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Membaca Kebaya - Galeri Lontar, Jakarta; Rumah Proses, Bandung; Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia. Whose Kebaya, Anyway? (Video Installation Performance) - Paros Gallery, Bali, Indonesia. Tamasya Kebaya (Video Installation Performance) - Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia. Interlace (Installation) - Seniwati Women’s Gallery, Bali, Indonesia. Untitled Works 1992 (Installation) - Linden Gallery, St Kilda Arts Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Pictures, Paintings, Objects (Installation) - Performance Space, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Travelling Without a Compass - Salamanca Place Gallery (Dick Bett Gallery), TAS, Australia.
Selected Group Exhibitions/Festivals 2010 2009 2007
2006
2005
2004 2003
2001
1996
1995
“Nyonya’s Kebaya, Baba’s Desire” - George Town Festival 2010, Penang, Malaysia. Arena Jakarta Biennale 2009 - Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia. Objects & Desire - National University of Singapore Museum, NX Gallery, Singapore. OK Video Festival - Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia. Notthatbalai Art Festival 2007 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Bandung Timeline 01-06 Videolab - Bandung, Indonesia. Labuan Mini Art Fest 2006 (Screening of Video Works) - Kolej Matrikulasi Labuan, Sabah, Malaysia. Blind Dates & Foreign Affairs - Asialink Arts Annual Forum, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Bali Biennale 2005 Edifice - Bali Sika Contemporary Art Gallery & Gaya Gallery, Bali, Indonesia. The Power of Dreaming: Taman Sari, Gardens of Delight & Identity - Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia. Conversations – Cross Cultural Video Project, 24HRArt Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, NT, Australia. Inspirasi - Indonesia Arts Festival 2005, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia. Beyond Panoptican - Art & Global Media Project 2004, Bandung, Indonesia. Worms Festival 5: House Video Festival - Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore. OK Video: The Jakarta Video Art Festival 2003 - Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jarkarta, Indonesia. bavf~NAF#1 - Bandung Video, Film & New Media Art Forum, Bandung, Indonesia. Transit 8 Views of Indonesia (New Media Arts) - Umbrella Contemporary Art Space, Townsville, QLD & 24HRArt Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, NT, Australia Sharing Art & Religiosity - International Forum, Bali, Indonesia. Shul – International Art Collaboration - Sika Contemporary Art Gallery & Galeri Sembilan, Bali, Indonesia. See Spot Run - Temple Studio, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Love at the Carlisle Lodge Motel - Carlisle Lodge Motel, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 26th Alice Prize - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, NT, Australia. Shifting Ground: The National Women’s Art Exhibition – Linden Gallery,
1995
1993 1992 1988 1987
1986
Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Paintings - West Space, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. The Keith & Elizabeth Murdock Travelling Scholarship - Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Simpatica - Gallery 101, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Director’s Choice - Gallery 101, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Artworkz Four - Gallery 101, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Landfall - Chameleon Gallery, Hobart, TAS, Australia. 3 x 15 - Chameleon Gallery, Hobart; TSIT Gallery, Launceston, TAS, Australia. Fabrications: Recent Contemporary Art from Tasmania - Chameleon Gallery, Hobart, TAS; George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC; Praxis Gallery, Perth, NSW, Australia. Installation - Chameleon Gallery, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
WORKS ON CANVAS
Left page: work area in the studio for the watercolours, writing & drawing, Obras June 2015 Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #1, 2015 Oil on Linen 109 x 113cm VC_1-1_2015
Painted in Portugal
my work up in my studio at Obras on their open day of Summer Solstice 2015 Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #2, 2015 Oil on Linen 109 x 113cm VC_1-2_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #1, 2012 Oil on Linen 98 x 95cm VC_2-1_2012
“This was the first painting completed during my first residency at Obras in 2012. When I had this epiphany that I needed to start painting again I had a notion that I wanted to paint yellow paintings… I had this thing with yellow - it had never figured much in my work but I just wanted to use it in a way that the paintings were mostly covered in yellow – I had images in my mind already. When I got to Obras, however, all that changed of course. So the splurge of yellow in this painting was about as much yellow as I wanted to use. There was too much else I wanted to do with the paint and the environment worked on me in surprising ways and I wanted to allow this to happen.” - Victoria Cattoni Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #2, 2012 Oil on Linen 95 x 98cm VC_2-2_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Man Smelling the Grass Oil on Linen 98 x 95cm VC_2-3_2012
“This was the last painting completed in 2012. I was showing a Portuguese friend of a friend some pictures of my work on my phone - he is not involved in the arts at all and very spontaneously he said this painting was ’a man smelling the grass’. I liked it. I liked the fact that it was a kind of pure response - not considered or thought out and so far from anything I could see in the work. It’s an absurd title really, and a bit of a decoy but I like the simple poetry of it. The same thing happened with another one of my painting titled ’Estrelinhas’.” - Victoria Cattoni Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #1, 2013 Oil on Linen 98 x 95cm VC_2-4_2013
“As you can see, this painting has been reworked and reworked; there is a lot of paint under what is immediately visible to the eye. The struggle with this work was that the shapes, lines, colours seemed to obviously suggest a particular and well-known painter – the painting began to look too ‘familiar’. I wanted to preserve something of the early marks and so I reworked it until that ‘something familiar’ became much more ‘ambiguous’.” - Victoria Cattoni Painted in Portugal
midway stages of painting Untitled #1, 2013, Obras Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #2, 2013 Oil on Linen 95 x 98cm VC_2-5_2013
Painted in Portugal
underpainting & early stages of Untitled #2, 2013, Obras Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #3, 2013 Oil on Linen 95 x 98cm VC_2-6_2013
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #1, 2014 Oil on Linen 92 x 97.2cm VC_2-8_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #2, 2014 Oil on Linen 92 x 97.2cm VC_2-9_2014
“As you can see from early pictures of this painting, much of the early marks and areas have disappeared. The work was beginning to look to representational - or suggestive and literal - so I began the process of burying some of those aspects to reduce it to something more ephemeral albeit with shadows of what lies beneath.� - Victoria Cattoni Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #3, 2015 Oil on Linen 60 x 63cm VC_3-1_2015
Painted in Portugal
work in progress in the studio, Obras, June 2015 Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #4, 2015 Oil on Linen 60 x 63cm VC_3-2_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #5, 2015 Oil on Linen 63 x 60cm VC_3-3_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #6, 2015 Oil on Linen 60 x 63cm VC_3-4_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #3, 2014 Oil on Linen 51 x 51cm VC_4-1_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #4, 2014 Oil on Linen 51 x 51cm VC_4-2_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #5, 2013 Oil on Cotton Duck 40 x 40cm VC_5-1_2013
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #7, 2015 Oil on Cotton Duck 30 x 30cm VC_6-1_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #8, 2015 Oil on Cotton Duck 30 x 30cm VC_6-2_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled #9, 2015 Oil on Cotton Duck 30 x 30cm VC_6-3_2015
Painted in Portugal
WORKS ON PAPER
Left page: accidental twig drawing, watercolour, drawing & writing work table, June 2013, Obras Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Victoria CATTONI
12.2011/3 SING Watercolour on Paper 26 x 24cm VC_wp1-1_2011
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
12.2011/5 SING Watercolour on Paper 23.5 x 22.7cm VC_wp1-2_2011
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/4 SING Watercolour on Paper 28 x 29cm VC_wp1-3_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
Sketch 3 Watercolour on Paper 26 x 27.7cm VC_wp1-4_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/5 SING Watercolour on Paper 26 x 25cm VC_wp1-5_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/7 SING Watercolour on Paper 26 x 25.7cm VC_wp1-6_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/9 SING Watercolour on Paper 26 x 26cm VC_wp1-7_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
02.2012/1 SING Watercolour with Thread Collage on Paper 24.6 x 24.3cm VC_wp1-8_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/6 SING Watercolour on Paper 26 x 25.5cm VC_wp1-9_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
01.2012/8 SING Watercolour on Paper 24.6 x 25cm VC_wp1-10_2012
Painted in Singapore
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 5, 12.14 Oil on Oil-Primed Paper 30.5 x 30.7cm VC_wp1-11_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 6, 12.14 Oil on Oil-Primed Paper 30.5 x 30.9cm VC_wp1-12_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 4, 12.14 Oil on Oil-Primed Paper 28 x 28.5cm VC_wp1-13_2014
Painted in Tasmania
Victoria CATTONI
Dry Flowers & Leaves Watercolour on Paper 28.2 x 29.8cm VC_wp1-14_2015
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Drawing 09.12 - 1 Watercolour on Paper 24.9 x 25.5cm VC_wp2-1_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Drawing 09.12 - 2 Watercolour on Paper 24.5 x 25cm VC_wp2-2_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Drawing 09.12 - 3 Watercolour on Paper 25 x 25cm VC_wp2-3_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Drawing 09.12 - 5 Watercolour on Paper 25.1 x 24.8cm VC_wp2-4_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled Watercolour on Paper 24.6 x 25cm VC_wp2-5_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 1, 12.14 Watercolour on Paper 24.5 x 25cm VC_wp2-6_2014
Painted in Tasmania Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp2-7_2014 VC_wp2-10_2014
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 2, 12.14 Watercolour on Paper 25 x 24.5cm VC_wp2-7_2014
Painted in Tasmania Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp2-6_2014 VC_wp2-8_2014
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 3, 12.14 Watercolour on Paper 25.4 x 24.4cm VC_wp2-8_2014
Painted in Tasmania Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp2-6_2014 VC_wp2-7_2014
Painted in Portugal Individual Dimension: Garlic 1-I - 20.4 x 21cm Garlic 1-II - 20.8 x 21.3cm
Victoria CATTONI
Garlic 1-I & Garlic 1-II (Set of 2) Watercolour on Paper 20.8 x 42.3cm VC_wp2-9_2015
Painted in Portugal Individual Dimension: Garlic 2-I - 21 x 21.6cm Garlic 2-II - 21.3 x 21.5cm
Victoria CATTONI
Garlic 2-I & Garlic 2-II (Set of 2) Watercolour on Paper 21.3 x 43.1cm VC_wp2-10_2015
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 3 Watercolour on Paper 20.5 x 19.6cm VC_wp3-1_2012
Painted in Portugal
Victoria CATTONI
Scraps 1 Watercolour on Paper 18.7 x 18.7cm VC_wp3-2_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 2 with VC_wp3-3_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Scraps 2 Watercolour on Paper 18.9 x 18.9cm VC_wp3-3_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 2 with VC_wp3-2_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Sketch 1 Watercolour on Paper 18.5 x 18.3cm VC_wp3-4_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 2 with VC_wp3-5_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Sketch 2 Watercolour on Paper 17.8 x 18.7cm VC_wp3-5_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 2 with VC_wp3-4_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 6 - I Watercolour on Paper 18 x 18cm VC_wp3-6_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 3 with VC_wp3-7_2012 VC_wp3-8_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 6 - II Watercolour on Paper 18 x 17.9cm VC_wp3-7_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp3-6_2012 VC_wp3-8_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 6 - III Watercolour on Paper 17.6 x 18cm VC_wp3-8_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp3-6_2012 VC_wp3-7_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Fig Skins 1 Watercolour on Paper 17.8 x 17.8cm VC_wp3-9_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 5 with: VC_wp3-10_2012 VC_wp3-11_2012 VC_wp3-12_2012 VC_wp3-13_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Fig Skins 2 Watercolour on Paper 18.2 x 17.8cm VC_wp3-10_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 5 with: VC_wp3-9_2012 VC_wp3-11_2012 VC_wp3-12_2012 VC_wp3-13_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Fig Skins 3 Watercolour on Paper 17.8 x 18cm VC_wp3-11_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 5 with: VC_wp3-9_2012 VC_wp3-10_2012 VC_wp3-12_2012 VC_wp3-13_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Fig Skins 4 Watercolour on Paper 18.2 x 17.8cm VC_wp3-12_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 5 with: VC_wp3-9_2012 VC_wp3-10_2012 VC_wp3-11_2012 VC_wp3-13_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Fig Skins 5 Watercolour on Paper 18 x 18cm VC_wp3-13_2012
Painted in Portugal Painting comes in a series of 5 with: VC_wp3-9_2012 VC_wp3-10_2012 VC_wp3-11_2012 VC_wp3-12_2012
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 1, 02.15 Watercolour on Paper 20 x 19.8cm VC_wp3-14_2015
Painted in Singapore Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp3-15_2015 VC_wp3-16_2015
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 2, 02.15 Watercolour on Paper 19.9 x 18.7cm VC_wp3-15_2015
Painted in Singapore Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp3-14_2015 VC_wp3-16_2015
Victoria CATTONI
Untitled 3, 02.15 Watercolour on Paper 20 x 18.7cm VC_wp3-16_2015
Painted in Singapore Painting comes in a series of 3 with: VC_wp3-14_2015 VC_wp3-15_2015
Painted in Portugal Individual Dimension: Lines 1-I - 18 x 19.3cm Lines 1-II - 18 x 17.5cm
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 1-I & Lines 1-II (Set of 2) Watercolour on Paper 18 x 36.8cm VC_wp3-17_2015
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 4 Watercolour on Paper 15.6 x 15.7cm VC_wp4-1_2012
Painted in Portugal
Painted in Portugal Individual Dimension: Lines 1-I - 14 x 13.5cm Lines 1-II - 14 x 15cm
Victoria CATTONI
Lines 1-I & Lines 1-II (Set of 2) Watercolour on Paper 14 x 28.5cm VC_wp4-2_2012
How I look and what I see: A visual vocabulary I take a lot of photographs when I walk and I also do some observational drawing: in this way I’m building up a visual vocabulary. These document part of the process of looking at what’s around me, focusing in on what I see from details on the ground to panoramic outlines. They are not in any way preparatory compositions for the paintings to come. They are instead, the building up of a visual vocabulary, a way of ‘keeping’ the beauty I see around me. It’s also a way of focusing on what interests me in the visual field. This visual vocabulary is something that I no doubt draw from when I’m painting the canvases, but when doing so, I’m not thinking of a particular ‘thing’ or ‘scene’. It’s more that I am drawing from this field of visual fragments and sensations.
early morning, looking out from Casa Vicente, my home & studio, Sept 2012, Obrasseeds, Obras, September 2012 Source: © Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Top: cork trees and shadows; looking out towards the hill of Evoramonte from outside my apartment in the main house, Obras, June 2015 Bottom: rose tinted summer evening, old cork oak, Obras, June 2013 Source: Š Photos Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
How I construct a painting I always work on several canvases at once, usually 4 or more. The first thing I do is put down paint in diluted washes, creating patches, strokes and lines of paint. I use brushes, cloth, hands and sticks. The canvases are on the floor, they are horizontal and I walk and work around them, sometimes tipping them to get the washes to spread. I usually use burnt sienna and burnt umber for these first layers. This paint dries quite quickly. The next thing I usually do is to put white - either under painting white or zinc white down. I work in much the same way as with the first layers, using a variety of ways of applying the paint, sometimes overlapping the first layers. I’m not trying to paint anything in particular, in fact I’m trying very much NOT to paint something in particular: there are just areas and lines and smudges of paint. This process might continue for another layer or two, when I start to introduce other colours. Around now, I start to stand back a bit and look at what I’ve got. The canvases might become upright now as they’re easier to look at this way but I move them around so there is no fixed orientation – top or bottom. I start to pick out areas to focus on and start to use more colour: the canvas is marked now, it’s a living thing and I have a relationship with it. What’s there on the surface suggests the next mark. I try not to plan or to look at the whole composition too much, but I do consider colour very carefully. The canvases move from being upright to being on the ground and still there is no decided orientation. It is around midway through the process of a painting that I stand back and look at overall composition. This is where the problem-solving comes in, working the composition. Paint can be scraped or rubbed off at any time and areas of the canvas reworked: a painting may undergo several incarnations as areas are painted over. If a painting starts to resemble something in a too literal way, then it has to be re-worked. There’s a fine line between a suggestion and a depiction. I err in favour of the suggestion, but want to catch a shape or area of colour before it even becomes a suggestion. I love the process of concentration when everything else in the ‘outside world’ stops and it’s just you and your work and how to make it work. Deciding if a painting has been worked enough is subjective and a lot of time can be spent just looking at these later stages: formal decisions become very tricky. I hate the thought of overworking something and so I can tend to leave large areas of unpainted canvas - I’m not interested in covering up the canvas for the sake of it. There has to be a way for the eye to leave the frame of the canvas and be drawn back in again: I don’t want to enclose the ‘painting’. This is also why the format is generally just off a square. For more information about Victoria’s art residencies at Obras in Portugal, follow her blog: http://0ldearth.tumblr.com
Top left: a page from ‘a watercolour a day’ book 2013. I painted the same view looking through the window of my studio every morning of my residency, Obras Top right: another page from ‘a watercolour a day’ book 2013, Obras Bottom left: gatherings from a morning walk; composition of various dried grasses, leaves, flowers and seeds, Obras, September 2012 Bottom right: my studio, June 2015 with works in progress, Obras Source: © Photos Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Top: my journal, early days of my first residency at Obras, Septemer 2012 Bottom: watercolours - works on paper in my studio in Casa Vicente, my first residency at Obras, September 2012 Source: © Photos Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
Top: summer night with Casa Miradouro, one of the homes for artists at Obras Bottom: observational sketching, Obras, Sept 2012 Source: Š Photos Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
In collaboration with Victoria Cattoni
caught taking photos of another artist’s work, Obras June 2013 Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Victoria Cattoni
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