Catherine Stringer
Location
Hobart, Australia
Preferred artistic medium
Painting, Paper Art, Sculpture
Art level career
Mid career
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Artist statement
I have always felt an affinity with water and the sea, which nurtures and stimulates my creativity. Water has an almost unlimited potential for narrative and metaphor, and hence unlimited potential as a source of inspiration. I am particularly interested in exploring sea related narratives and mythology, with themes of separation, transition and transformation.
I paint underwater-scapes and underwater figures using oil or acrylic paints. In addition I make handmade paper artworks from seaweed and other plant materials. These works can also be viewed as paintings, with pulp as the paint medium. Recently I have extended my seaweed paper art to include sculptures. One of these sculptures has been selected as a finalist in the 2021 Deakin Contemprary Small Sculpture Prize.
Islands have always appealed to me, surrounded as they are by so much water. A residency on King Island in 2011 has had a profound and lasting influence on my work, and during a residency in Iceland in 2017 I was able to pursue new ideas and directions in my work.
During the Covid lockdown I set myself the challenge of creating 3D sculptural seaweed paper artworks, and I am continuing to extend these techniques, as well as exploring other new ways to work with seaweed paper.