We are delighted to launch a new exhibition by Carrick-on-Shannon artist Catherine Gray on Saturday March 21st at 12pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.
This exhibition titled ‘From the ground up’, reflects an ongoing exploration of her local surroundings, capturing a series of fleeting moments and quiet observations drawn from the everyday Leitrim landscape.
Catherine’s practice is grounded in the landscape and stories of her local environment. Using recycled materials, she weaves together fine art and textile techniques, including painting, print and stitch. Each process holds its own rhythm and character and when brought together they form a distinctive, intuitive language.
Each piece in this exhibition represents a fleeting moment or memory drawn from her local surroundings. The artist is interested in “the quiet shift of light, texture and atmosphere that often goes unnoticed, fragments of landscape held briefly before they disappear.”
The work combines fine art and textile techniques on both fabric and paper. Catherine builds surfaces using acrylic paint and inks layered using a Gelli plate (mono-style printing). Each piece evolves slowly through repeated layers of paint and medium. As the pigment settles and moves, forms begin to surface creating subtle suggestions of land horizon and changing landscape.
The artist goes on to describe her process as follows: “Into the painted fabrics I stitch. Free motion stitching responds directly to the marks created by the Gelli plate printing process, drawing with thread into the surface. The stitching adds line, rhythm and structure while hand-stitched details introduce a quieter more intimate touch. The process is time consuming and meditative allowing the work to unfold gradually. I use hand dyed Irish threads alongside recycled fabrics, paper and threads. Colour, texture and layered surface create depth and tactility, holding memory within cloth and paper. A meeting place between paint, stitch and landscape.”
Catherine’s early professional experience includes working in New York in the 1990 as a freelance designer creating Knitwear for the American market giving her a deep understanding of fabric and surface design. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Alongside exhibitions and commissions, Catherine facilitates workshops and collaborative projects that invite others into the creative process. She works with adults and children creating spaces where making becomes a shared reflective experience. Her slow stitching gatherings, held regularly in the Dock Arts Centre offer time away from busy lives. A place to connect, experiment and rediscover the tactile pleasure of handwork. Through her collaborations she offers more than technical skills, they create a time for conversation, connection and quiet reflection.
For Catherine art is not separate from daily life. It is relational. Whether through exhibitions or workshops, her practice fosters belonging, creative confidence and the power of making together positioning community not as an audience but as an active part of the work itself.
Support this popular local artist at the opening launch of this vibrant new textile collection on Saturday March 21st. Share this exhibition with friends and family until May 9th.
We happily take deposits on all our Irish artwork, which may be paid off over several weeks.
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