Catrin Webster

Name: Catrin Webster

Artistic medium: Watercolour

You work in many artistic mediums, why did you choose watercolour for the Leri Cancer unit?

The paintings were made outside, and I used watercolour because it is portable; comprising small solid blocks of colour in a metal box, which can fit in a pocket and then the paints are made fluid and usable, by adding water. Water is an essential element to this painting technique and connects to the flow of the landscape, and especially to the location where the paintings are made; on Borth Bog, which the redirected Leri river runs across to join the Dovey at Ynys Las. The binder in watercolour, which sticks the colour to the paper is gum arabic, which again is from the natural world, as is a resin from a tree. The materials and the place, for me are therefore connected: The portable watercolour paints which allow you to work outside, Borth Bog, the rivers, the rain and the trees. Also there is a long history of people using watercolour to record and explore landscape, and I am very interested in the relationship between traditional ways of doing things and contemporary ideas.

Where did you get your inspiration from for the artwork for the unit?

The inspiration is being in nature and trying to share this connection through the paintings. For me the most important part of this is the colour and aliveness of the place. The paintings are small in size, hand held (like the paints), and made from being in and looking at a particular place, experiencing its changes depending on season, weather and time of day. The place where I have made these paintings is somewhere that I have visited throughout my life, on Borth Bog, overlooking the Dovey Valley, near and out crop of Oaks and planted Pine trees. This place, although familiar, is different every time I visit, and beautiful in many ways. I chose this place as I feel a deep connection to it and the access it enables; to see the open spaces of Ynys Las, the sky and the mountains beyond and the close spaces of the woods, fields and grasses. I wanted the paintings to momentarily hold and share the life force, the colours and vitality of this place and a connectedness to nature.

Can you describe the process you go through when creating a new piece?

For me the paintings are a way to make a connection to nature and although they are abstract, everything in the paintings is a response from being in and looking at this particular place. The ever-changing colours are the key focus. On some days it was cold and frosty, with bright sun, on others it was overcast or even raining and therefore the colours are, and light is, very different in each image. All of these aspects of being in nature, are for me life affirming and I wanted to make paintings outside and with a direct response to the vibrance of experiencing a particular place. My process involves travelling to this location and setting up a small picnic table with my paints, paper, brushes and water and working directly on the paper from what I am experiencing. I do not have a fixed way of working and as a result every painting is a little different from each other; the paintings bridge experience and image, which is shifting and changing all the time. I have made many returns to this place and over fifty paintings and drawings as part of this project, from which these six were selected by the project panel for the Leri ward.

How do you hope your artwork will impact the patients, staff, and visitors at the unit?

I hope that each time someone looks at the paintings they might see something different, as you do when in nature. I hope that, although abstract, they also create a connection for the person who is looking at them to the life, light and colour of being in nature. The paintings are small gestures, and are not meant to be descriptions, but rather responses, which I hope hold some resonation of nature with patients, staff and visitors as it did for me when I was making the paintings. They are celebrations of life and connection to nature, and most of all bring small glimpses of colour from outside in the local landscape, inside into the ward.