Catherine Morrisey

Catherine Morrisey comes from a family of visual artists and was handed a loaded paint brush at the age of 3. She came to London from Toronto in the early 1980's. After receiving an Honours Degree in Fine Arts from York University, and continuing education at Arts' Sake, Inc., Toronto, she earned Library Science, M.L.S. at University of Western Ontario. Her first large works were abstract. Later she chose landscape imagery, specifically trees and river reflections of London, Ontario. She works in oil with a loose brushwork inspired by Chinese landscape paintings. She is also influenced by Expressionist painters such as Soutine and Bonnard. Her work is in private collections in Canada, USA, and France. "I love painting scenes of our local woods, gardens, willows along the river, paddlers, and people on the bike path. I adapt some traditions of Chinese landscape painting, especially the brushwork and the sense of distance. I am drawn to Pierre Bonnard’s colour, Chaim Soutine’s distortions, and David Milne’s thin paint sketches. An image might appear while I am painting quite by magic. A person, a house, a tree, a perfect reflection in the river. Painting intuitively, I add layers of oil colour over time, often months, finding the power of the image. My challenge is to bring it to life. Painting is my way to tell you a story. Kayaking along the river, time stands still. The sky is reflected in the water, a heron flies by. He croaks and circles back. We are both floating in space. Then there is sudden symmetry. This is where my painting wants to take you." -Catherine