Catherine Moffat has great respect for the traditional work that first pulled her into a lifelong relationship with art, the seasoning of a first love into a more mature version of early infatuation;  the fact that after twenty five years of honing watercolour skills to a full vocabulary, her 2007 exhibition Chiaroscuro featured only oils; a transition comparable to moving from one musical instrument to another: demanding, frustrating, time consuming, rewarding, and like all creative endeavors, never complete.

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Captivated by the perfectly placed highlight on an egg, and the delicious depth of shadow that gives the light its importance, many of Catherine’s arrangements are as much about chiaroscuro as they are about the objects depicted. There is a formality and integrity in her approach to the work and to the paintings themselves.

Her images, far from being photographic, are simplified and edited, thoughtfully designed, and coloured with a limited palette. She makes paintings that are at once about discipline, and also about rest. These are sacred places for the eye and the heart, intellect and emotion, the cerebral and the sensual.

Painting is a mountain without a summit, but with many plateaus to beckon the climber on. Catherine simplifies her life’s path with the words: “Painting is the thing I could give myself to”.

 

EXHIBITIONS AT THE AVENUE GALLERY:

2015 November  “Timeless”

2015 October “Coastal Inspirations”

2012 April  “Artist Pairings”

2011 September “Go Big or Go Home”

2007 November  “Chiaroscuro” (Solo Exhibition)

 

PRESS:

2015 November “House Beautiful: An Artistic Transformation in Cordova Bay,” Grania Litwin, Times Colonist, READ ARTICLE HERE

2013 June  “A sense of reverence,” Aaren Madden, FOCUS Magazine  READ ARTICLE HERE

2012 April  “Catherine Moffat, Deborah Tilby, Kathryn Amisson at The Avenue Gallery” – ExhibitVic  WATCH VIDEO HERE

2007 November “Days in the office seem a lifetime away,” Vivian Moreau, Victoria News READ ARTICLE HERE