Cate Maddy

Cate is revisiting the still life tradition and looking at contemporary ways of negotiating the relationships between stillness and movement and interactions between objects and people. She is particularity interested in using colour to heighten emotion in a piece and suggest sumptuous luxury to refer to the gluttony and excesses of modern times which references the Vanitas tradition.

After a big change in Cate’s life a few years ago she moved house to a bushland area and planted a native garden. She has become more and more inspired to paint from nature. Her process has changed over the years although colour and movement have remained her primary interest and she aims to create an energy and flow in the composition and brushwork.

Cate starts the work with washes of acrylic and then builds up the layers in oil paint to allow the under colour to show through the brushstrokes. Sometimes a painting comes together quite quickly but it might take her months and many attempts to finally resolve certain paintings.

Read more about Cate in our Meet the Artist series!