CATHERINE HYDE

“She is, if you will, a visual poet weaving images, symbols and archetypes into paintings that resonate in the subconscious and linger there like half-remembered dreams or the dark fairy stories with which she has such affiliation”

Pip Palmer, Galleries Magazine

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STATEMENT

“In my paintings I use symbols that are both universal and personal: Archetypal animals, such as the hare, stag and owl are associated with many layers of myth and history.  The hare, in particular, is a highly personal symbol that I have used in my work for many years. It is a mysterious and ancient creature and I often use it as an image of stillness and contemplation.  I also love its speed and seeming ability to exist between earth and air, pure energy, sheer earthy magic.

I paint with acrylics on a fine-tooth canvas and build the surface with layers of glazes, adding thickening gels, gold and copper leaf and mica flakes for extra texture.  I like to move the picture structure around, keeping it fluid and mobile, so that the final image retains energy and atmosphere. 

My monochrome paintings are mainly for illustration work and executed on Ampersand Clayboard panels.  The surface is made using a kaolin clay which is ground to an extremely smooth, highly absorbent finish (similar to the clay gesso grounds used in the Renaissance).  I build loose watery layers and then work into the surface with steel wool and scalpel blades, adding to and shifting the image.  Both techniques are a very organic, fluid way of working which gives me both freedom and control.

Over time I have found that the boundaries between my painting and my illustration have become happily mixed, referencing books and words in my paintings and bringing as many painterly qualities to my illustrations as possible.”

ILLUSTRATION

2019: Author/Illustrator: ‘The Hare and the Moon: a book of paintings’  (Zephyr/Head of Zeus)

2016 – 2019: Commissioned illustrations: Editions 1 – 5 Elementum Journal

2017:   Cover and interior illustrations: ‘The Snow Angel’ (Zephyr) Lauren St John

2016:  Author/Illustrator: ‘The Star Tree’ (Frances Lincoln) 

Shortlisted for the 2017 Cambridgeshire Children’s Picture Book Award Nominated for The Kate Greenaway Award

2014:  Illustration: ‘Over the hills and far away’ Elizabeth Hammill

2013:  Illustrator: ‘Little Evie in the Wild Wood’ by Jackie Morris (Frances Lincoln)

Nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award

2010: Illustrator: ‘Firebird’ by Saviour Pirrotta  (Templar Publishing) 

Awarded an Aesop Accolade by the American Folklore Society

Nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award

2009: Illustrator: ‘The Princess’s Blankets’ by Carol Ann Duffy (Templar Publishing)

Winner of the English Association Best Illustrated book Key Stage 2 Nominated for UKLA and The Kate Greenaway Award.