The Broadway Arts Festival
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The Broadway Arts Festival was amazing and taking part in the Art Beat weekend a great experience – I have made new friends and caught up with old. I am never sure how much stock to take with me so although I sold well I have lots of prepared prints left and have placed a £15 off offer on all the prints until the end of June.
AND MY PAINTING ‘THE CROWS SONG’WAS ON THE BANNER
I am delighted to be the featured illustrator for June in Words and Pictures the online magazine for SCWBI (The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)
“This month’s Featured Illustrator is Catherine Hyde. A fine art graduate of Central School of Art, Catherine has crafted a career in painting and, latterly, award winning illustration that explores the moods and atmosphere of the natural world. See more of her work in the Featured Illustrator Gallery.
Although I grew up in a more urban than rural environment I was encouraged by my artist parents and my mother in particular (a great gardener and reader) to observe the world and wildlife around me. The combination of roaming and playing outside along with a home filled with poetry, story books and beautiful objects fueled my natural affiliation with Nature and my love of the cycle of the seasons. Home, as an image of time, the quietness of interior spaces and atmosphere is very important to me and features constantly in my work.
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| The nearly home trees |
As a child I was lucky enough to be a precocious reader: I devoured Blake, galloped through Grimm (with terror at my heels), constantly revisited the melancholy world of Hans Christian Andersen and gleefully recited the poetry of AA Milne and Spike Milligan. But my greatest love was increasingly for writers where I found not just lyricism but a suggestion of something more indefinable: the landscape shaped by layers of time, the workings of man and mythology. I was drawn to John Masefield, L.M Boston, Eleanor Farjeon, Elizabeth Goudge and C.S. Lewis who explored history and atmosphere and an indefinable sense of mystery and magic which culminated in my utter joy to discover myth made real in Alan Garner’s Owl Service.
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| ‘owls not flowers’ |
At school my major interests were Art, Literature and History and I went on to study Fine Art Painting at Central School of Art in London. I have exhibited my paintings in galleries for over thirty years with book Illustration only becoming a major part of my work over the last ten. The narrative element of my work lends itself to creating successful greetings cards and prints and these were seen by one of Templar Publishing’s designers in 2008 who then commissioned me to interpret Carol Ann Duffy’s fairy tale The Princess’ Blankets as a sequence of paintings. I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful chance to enter the world of publishing by working with a beautiful, thoughtful text leading to a sumptuous production. I was also lucky to be given completely free reign with my approach and it is perhaps the most unusual book I have worked on. The Princess’ Blankets won the 2009 English Association Key Stage 2 Award for Illustration and I am really proud that all my picture books have had the honour of being nominated for the Greenaway Award.
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| Princess Blankets: the forest’s blanket |
My first author/illustrator book The Star Tree was really an attempt to create something that encompasses lullaby, magic, imagination and journey. It is a book that I would have liked to have read when I was little, one that I wish my children had been young enough to enjoy when they were small and one that I hope their children will love.
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| Star Tree spread |
My most recent project for Zephyr (Head of Zeus) The Snow Angel novel by Lauren St John has been another learning curve: a front cover with black and white interiors. These interiors were executed on clay board – a new technique for me which I absolutely relish for its organic qualities and mark making possibilities.
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| black and white interior for Snow Angel |
Over the past few years the boundaries between my painting and illustration have become happily mixed, referencing works on canvas with words from books and poetry and bringing as many painterly qualities to my illustrations as possible.
Painter or Illustrator? I am Catherine Hyde.”
Broadway Arts Festival
I am very much looking forward to The Broadway Arts Festival next week.
I will be showing and demonstrating my work at The Art Beat weekend 8 – 10 June and giving a talk and
demonstration of Clayboard painting on Sunday 10th June at 2.30-3.30pm.
Alongside my work I will have my books, framed and unframed prints, some small originals and lots of cards.
15% off everything in The Mistletoe Tree Shop until 29th May with code
Catherine28
It is traditional in my family that I begin mentioning the fact that my birthday is at the end of May at least a month if not more in advance. This year I have been very lax about this self promotion – perhaps because I don’t want to remind myself that time is slipping through my fingers like oil. June is almost here and the longest day draws ever closer at which point the wheel turns and the days begin to shorten again. I have monster amounts of work to do but I am excited for my new book which is coming together well and the solo show for Foss in London is taking form. I am aiming to produce a set of work that launches the refurbished gallery with magic and hope in every piece.
Lightfast Framed Prints
I am very pleased to be able to offer small lightfast prints in a crisp white box frame. At £30.00 each they are affordable to collect as well as being lovely readymade and long lasting gifts for friends and family.
Over the next weeks I am going to be adding lots of images that are less well known but which work wonderfully on this small scale.
Beltane: The beginning of Summer
1st May: Beltane: my favourite month, my birthday month. The month of the Hawthorn and Flora Day.
This months featured image of a glowing May Tree is called ‘The rising moon’ is a new print in the shop and on offer for £65
To celebrate the blue skies, nest building, leafing and budding all around this month everything in The Mistletoe Tree Shop has 15% off with this code:
SPRING15
We have had some glorious weather here in Cornwall and the lengthening days mean that the sun is filling the garden from mid morning. Everything is budding and growing and I feel lighter spirited hearing the birds singing.
The year is galloping on and I have a solo show to prepare for December and a book to finish writing and illustrating for the end of the year. I barely have time to think but in June I will be having an outing to take part and demonstrate at the Broadway Arts Festival.
The end of February brought spectacular weather to Cornwall – we haven’t seen snow for years so the blizzard winds that transformed the landscape were even more special. We lit the wood burner, made warming soups and stew and played in the snow like children. Two days of magic gone overnight under the onset of warmer air bringing the driving rain back.
Today the garden is slightly beaten, the daffodils bruised but damply upright and the fish risen once more to the top of the pond. The air is different, softer, edged with suggestion and the blackbird is back, singing.
In the studio I’m playing with new ideas – letting images filter in: veils of birds, snow, shifting light against a cold sea. I’m aware of time and transience and fragility.
We are half way through February already!
The year, as so often it seems is galloping away like the seasons pursuing the hare..
After many weeks of mists and cold, rain and hail today has dawned, like yesterday, softly pink. The air is still glacial but holds a scent that is murmuring about Spring edging closer. Still and serene days like this in Cornwall are quietly suggestive and thoughtful and I am taking time to breathe in the possibilities. I feel poised at the top of the year with so many plans waiting impatiently to be hatched: a major one that I am waiting to hear about and others concerning techniques I need to learn and bend to my will. In the studio there is a comfortable jostle of prints, cards and books. On my table, 25 tiny paintings in various stages of growth are waiting for decisions. On the shelves canvases and books, poetry and thoughts nudge each other and me. I am thinking about birds and nests.
As always I need more paint.
Image: ‘A murder of crows’ new print in The Mistletoe Tree
At the end of January
January has raced away: a month of fierce winds and rain, sudden rainbows and shafts of sunlight. In the garden the eggy yellow crocus’ and fragile snow drops are growing in to the lengthening days. I am enjoying the quiet and sitting snug in my studio enjoying exploring new mediums and techniques in between working on some new paintings.
In the shop
The shop has several new prints available and the calendars are now reduced to £10.00 – grab them while you can here: The Mistletoe Tree
Keep an eye on the originals page – I am adding in lots of small paintings – ideal for gifting either yourself or loved ones…
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