‘When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I used to paint everything in black, I was obsessed with it. My mother took me to the doctor’s because she thought something was wrong with me,’ says Catalina.
It is clear however, that Catalina’s works today are far more akin to the lighter works of artists such as Sally Jacob (Issue 18, The Winter Solstice) and Clare Lindley (Issue 3, The Storytellers) than the darker works of artists like Lorna Bent (Issue 15, Intensity) and Sabrina Edwards (Issue 20, Inked) – or indeed, Kazimir Malevich, a Russian painter who in 1915 exhibited a square canvas that was filled with nothing but black paint.* So, what changed?
*Of course, you are probably wondering why someone would paint a black square or how on earth something like that could even be considered a work of art. Yet the reason Kazimir Malevich painted a plain black square was because, like most artists of his age, such as Dada and Picasso, he wanted to strip away the realism that existed in art. “Trying desperately to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world, I sought refuge in the form of the square.” He said of the piece, which he aptly titled ‘Black Square’.
‘What did the doctors say about your obsession with black and why did you then switch to using more colour in your work?’ I ask. ‘The doctors or my parents never figured out what was going on and I carried on painting in black for a few years until I finally started to use different colours,’ says Catalina. ‘Though, I don’t know why I made this change to colour,’ she adds. Indeed, growing up in the desert in southern Spain, there was little in the way of colour in Catalina’s natural surroundings. ‘It is very dry and very hot, so it is the exact opposite of what I portray in my work. Maybe it was my wish to explore other areas and escape... I was a dreamer and I loved fantasy novels and Celtic folklore, which are things that continue to influence my art today,’ Catalina enthusiastically informs me.
Eventually, Catalina’s daydreams and desires to refine her artistic skill set led her to study Fine Art at University – though this did not come without its difficulties. ‘I come from a creative family,’ Catalina says. ‘Though none of them have pursued it in the way that I have. They treat art more like a hobby, so it was difficult for me to convince them that I wanted to be an artist full-time,’ she adds.
Despite her parent’s doubts however, Catalina moved away from the deserts of Spain to the green parks of Oxford in the UK. From there she began to study Fine Art, through an online course provided by the University of Barcelona, and is now in her third year. In this regard, Catalina is still in the early stages of not only her artistic career but her life – though does such inexperience blunt the power of her artistic journey here?A great artwork contains not only tones, textures, and techniques but themes, concepts, and ideas. Yet such aspects, as we have witnessed throughout these issues, tend to emerge from experience. Behind each of Helen Duffee’s collages in our last issue, ‘Place’, for instance, were elements that were inspired by her experiences during childhood, like sitting with her dad as he flew planes across the sky. Similarly, Ian Mackenzie’s works in Issue 3, were influenced by his time spent in the police force. It is little surprise therefore, that many of the works we have featured have been created by artists who have had a great deal of not only artistic but life experience. Though, does this experience necessarily equate to the number of years we have been alive?
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