Statement
I like being outside. Living in South Edinburgh I am surrounded by parks and hills where I go walking with my Border Terrier, Stanley. These are places which let me escape into other worlds while the cities visual cues are never far away. Making pictures is what I like doing best, working directly from source sitting on the ground, feeling rooted. Sometimes I make pictures in my garden, from still lives inspired by what I see and collect from nature. I am looking for enough tension between the forms and spaces and the inevitable shifts and changing appearances with time. I use visual abbreviation and work with a vocabulary of idiosyncratic lines and coloured patchworks shapes. I also make larger works in the studio allowing a different relationship with time and space. Being confined makes me uncomfortable yet it is useful. It helps me recognise and expand the potential within a single idea, transforming perceptions to discover wondrous realities.
Biography
Catharine Davison (b. 1970 Kilkeel, Co Down, Northern Ireland) studied BA (Hons) Graphic Design (Illustration) at Liverpool John Moores University (1990–93) and an MA Illustration at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (1997–01). Selected groups exhibitions include: Scottish Art Trust Landscape Awards, City Art Centre; Edinburgh (2023), Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize; London (2022), Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts; London (2019); Calton Hill; Site of Memory, The City Art Centre, Edinburgh (2015), Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries; London (2015). Solo exhibitions include: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh (2013/ 15/ 17/ 19/ 2022). Recent prizes include: The Anne Redpath Award for Painting, (2024) Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy, Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award from The City of Edinburgh Council, in partnership with Creative Scotland, (2022) and W. Gordon Smith Award, (2018) and winner of the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, (2014). She lives and works in Edinburgh where she is the Painting Course Leader at Leith School of Art.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Flow
2019 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; The World Outside
2017 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Light Lines, Night Shapes
2016 RSA Award, a solo exhibition at The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh
2015 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Homeland
2013 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; This Land Ate my Heart
2000 Laphroaig Whisky Distillery, Islay, Argyll
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS, AWARDS & ILLUSTRATION
2024,19- 12,10,08 Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition, Then & Now: 100 Years of Visual Arts Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh
The Anne Redpath Prize for Painting
2024-16, 14, 12, 10, 08 The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolors Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries
2023 Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, Members Exhibition
Scottish Landscape Awards, The City Art Centre, Edinburgh
2022 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, London
VACMA: Edinburgh Artist/Maker Bursaries
2019 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2018 W. Gordon Smith Award; The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolors Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries
2017 Strathearn Gallery, Winter Exhibition
2017-2011,08 Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh
2016 Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay, Promised Land
2015,12,11,10 Panter and Hall, London; Scottish Show
2015 Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition; Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh The Discerning Eye exhibition; Scotland Regional Prize; Mall Galleries, Loondon Bet Lowe Trust Grant; funding towards research and development
Society of Scottish Artists; Selected Group Exhibition; Wall Projects: Montrose; ‘Empire’
Invited Artist, The Lynn Painter- Stainers Prize for Creative Representational Painting, Mall Galleries; London
The City Art Centre, Edinburgh; Calton Hill; Site of Memory
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries; London
2014 Winner of The Lynn Painter- Stainers Prize for Creative Representational Painting, Mall Galleries; London
BP Atrium Gallery, Aberdeen; Group Exhibition, Beyond Land
David Simon Contemporary, Bath; Group Exhibition, A New Light
2014,13,10,08 Aberdeen Artists Society Exhibition. (2013 awarded a ‘commendation’)
2013 Edinburgh Visual Artists Award; funding towards creation of new work at The Edinburgh Printmakers Studios
RSA Open Exhibition; Award RSA Scottish Arts Club Prize of a Solo Exhibition in 2016
Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition; Prize of a Solo Exhibition British Embassy in Slovakia
Shortlisted for The Jolomo Foundation Award for Scottish Landscape Painting
2013-2008 Royal Glasgow Institute Annual Exhibition, The Mitchell Library
2012 Short listed for RSA William Littlejohn Award for Innovation in water based media
2011 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Inside Outside 2010 William J Macaulay/ Scottish Gallery Award, Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Studio Selection 2009 Cuthbert Award; Most Distinguished Painting by a New Young Artist, Royal Glasgow Institute Annual Exhibition Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries
2008 Langside College Watercolour Award, Royal Glasgow Institute Annual Exhibition
2007 (2007 moved to Edinburgh)
Group Exhibition Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, Larnaca, Cyprus
2007,06 Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Mall Galleries, London
2002 The Federation of British Artists Scholarship to The British School, Rome
National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London Allied Domecq buy copyright for 12 paintings from MA project about Laphroaig Whisky
1995 Vogue/ Sotheby’s/ Beaton Award for Illustration
Group show at the Hanover Galleries, Liverpool
1993 Original Art Works commissioned to market productions throughout 1993/94 at The Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool
Laing Open Art Competition
Exhibition of Irish Artists, Bluecoat Chambers; Liverpool
COLLECTIONS
Edinburgh City Council; The City Art Centre
Aberdeen Asset Management Contemporary Art Collection
Allied Domecq Wines and Spirits
Liverpool Maritime Museum
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
1997- 2001 Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College of Art and Design; MA Illustration: Distinction
Sponsorship from Allied Domecq, major project at Laphroaig Distilleries, Islay
1990- 1993 Liverpool John Moores University; BA (Hons) Visual Communication (Illustration): 2:1
1989- 1990 Manchester Polytechnic; Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
MEMBERSHIPS OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Visual Arts Scotland Professional
Society of Scottish Aritsts Ordinary
Royal Society of Painters in Watercolors Elected RSW
PUBLICATIONS & REVIEWS
August 2015 Zonearts.au, ‘In Conversation’
18 January 2015 Scotland on Sunday, Spectrum pg. 70 Designer Q&A
June 2014Artists & Illustrators Magazine; pgs. 46-49 Talking Techniques
5 March 2013 The Scotsman, pgs. 32-33 ‘Nine artists shortlisted for Jolomo Prize
22 Nov 2011 The Scotsman, Art Reviews RSA Open: Duncan MacMillan
Nov 2010The Scotsman, Art Reviews RSA Open: Duncan MacMillan
July 1999 Artists & Illustrators Magazine; pgs. 42-43 Corporate Commissions, ‘Whisky Galore’