Six Foot Gallery is delighted to present its annual Summer Show, featuring thirty-four artists working in a diverse range of mediums and disciplines.

Catherine McClure is an emerging artist who works from her home studio in Prestwick, Ayrshire. She works across a variety of media including acrylic, oil and watercolour paintings, botanical plaster-castings and pebble mosaics. Her work is influenced and inspired by the forms and colours of the natural world and ranges from figurative to abstract.

Catherine’s work has been exhibited in a number of galleries across Scotland including The Barony Centre, West Kilbride; The Art Department, Paisley; and Souter Johnnies Cottage, Kirkoswald. One of her pieces recently passed the initial judging round for the 2024 Women in Art Emerging Artist Prize. Annually, Catherine opens her studio to the public as part of Ayrshire’s Open Studios Weekend. She is also a member of the Scottish Society of Artists.

Hi Catherine! How did your artistic journey start?
My artistic journey started quite late on in life as a mature woman in her 50’s. Although I have always maintained some kind of creative practice of making things as a knitter, crocheter, or tapestry maker, most of my creative endeavours followed a pattern.

In 2019 I started to create an art installation of my own design in my garden driveway. The installation called My Universe consists of 19 individual pebble mosaics which explore the concept and nature of the multiverse. Overall, the story of the mosaic driveway goes from the macrocosm of the possibility of multiple universes and the creation of ours, to the microcosm of the spiritual qualities I believe are fundamental to our existence. The work took almost a year to complete.

When this work finished in early 2020, I was strongly motivated to continue this artistic journey and decided to paint. I instantly fell in love with painting and have in the past 4 years continued to paint daily, developing techniques to allow me to express my own style and voice.

What advice would you give to artists who are just starting out?
At the beginning of my artistic journey, I was very nervous to even try to ‘make art’. When faced with a blank canvas I say to myself ‘it’s only paint’.  I am also a nurse so in my day job my actions can have serious consequences – it’s useful for me to keep this perspective in mind to overcome the fear of making the first marks on a blank canvas: what’s the worst that can happen?

I was also very nervous to show my artwork publicly when I was starting out, and still find this a bit nerve-racking. I have felt encouraged by people’s interaction and enthusiasm both to my pebble mosaic installation, which is public facing by nature, and to my paintings. Something that has helped me conquer this fear has been discovering how diverse people’s tastes are. Sometimes the work I am most excited about gets little interest, while a piece I was originally unsure about is very popular allowing me to see it from a new perspective. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I tend to use lots of bright bold colours in many of my paintings and primarily hope to elicit feelings of joyful energy. There is often a theme of dualism in my paintings and a desire to portray the light and dark, seen and unseen, beauty and chaos as being of equal value, importance and beauty.

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
I really love painting and find the focus required in the process a perfect antidote to the pressures and stresses of everyday life. Even when pursuing other enjoyable activities, I find myself drawn back to thinking about and missing painting.

I am keen to try everything, so if I do lose motivation to continue a particular technique, I always have lots of new things lurking in the back of my mind to have a go at. This change in medium/style etc means when I return to it I do so with fresh eyes and enthusiasm.

How do you know when a piece is complete?
I often think a painting is complete but come across it sometime later having developed a new technique or skill or style and will go back and tweak it. The only time a painting is truly safe from this process is when it is sold and hanging on someone else’s wall

Are there any upcoming events or additional information you would like the audience to know?
I currently have paintings exhibited in the Cunningham Open Art Exhibition at Barony Centre West Kilbride until the 17th of August. I am also exhibiting five large paintings in The Big Art Show, Paisley from 30th August. I am currently on the longlist for the Women In Art Prize 2024 and awaiting the announcement of the shortlist.

You can find out more about Catherine and her work on Instagram @catherine.mcclure.art or on Facebook. Our Summer Open Call Exhibition runs at Six Foot Gallery until Friday 23rd August.