Catherine Asquith Gallery is delighted to announce that Sydney-based artist, Kate Dorrough will be showcasing her latest series, entitled “Restorative Landscape”, throughout July and August this year. A collection of abstracted-landscape paintings, and sculptural hand-painted ceramic vessels, these works have been inspired by Kate’s recent artist residency at Art Vault in Mildura.
For many years now, Kate’s work has explored the abstracted form. In searching for a refined simplicity, using both space and form to create a sculptural quality, Kate’s works, although not monumental in scale, are monumental in character. For Kate, there is a physicality and sensuality in the use of paint, building up layers of paint over time in order to find its essence. It is this essence of evolution and reduction I wish to capture in my paintings.
For urban-based Kate, the opportunity to immerse herself within the environs of a landscape such as Mildura, with its enumerable vistas, from the grand river gums of the Murray River to the ancient sculptural landscape of the Willandra Lakes World heritage area, is a restorative one: “the landscape can become a place that permeates the soul, staying in one’s memory, informing the heart.” This fertile landscape offers up a rendition of the cycle of life, and more especially, given the recent floods and unseasonable weather, an example of the forces of nature.
The latter aspect is particularly close to Kate: on a more personal note she has been subjected to the challenges of becoming a mother. Kate has remained philosophical, and yet has also observed this strong desire manifesting itself in her work: the rotund, almost fecund-like ceramic vessels she has been producing over the past few years, are clearly redolent of a pregnant woman.
Kate Dorrough has been practicing as a professional artist for the past 14 years. She has participated in numerous curated exhibitions, been a finalist in a number of significant art awards, including the Plein Air Painting Prize,(2009), the Paddington Art Prize (2007), the Redlands Art Prize (2005) and the Portia Geach Memorial Art Award (2004). She has also been the recipient of a number of awarded residencies including the Hill End Artists Residency (2005), the Artist in Residence, Bundanon Trust (1999) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Denise Hickey Studio Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (1999).
Artist Statement
The exhibition of paintings and ceramics, The Enduring Landscape is influenced by a recent residency at Art Vault, Mildura in regional Victoria.
The surrounding landscape of Mildura is essentially an arid landscape supported by the major Murray River system with its irrigational dependant agricultural industries. My residency was at a unique time where the region was transformed by floods and heavy rainfall and where an outback landscape was transformed to a lush and fertile land.
It is this tension between the arid and the abundant, the layered histories echoing many past stories and unearthed mysterious relics, and the cyclic nature of the environment with all its destruction and renewal that is the focus of this exhibition.
This landscape is an enduring one, dominated by the river, a symbol of fertility and restoration. The resilience needed, as in life, to deal with hardships, is mirrored in this landscape. Adaptation and regeneration are needed such as the local Mallee tree growing a bulbous root system at its base to store water, and the Murray Red River Gums that rely not just on rainfall but flooding to recharge the sub-soil.
This fragile yet enduring inland Australian landscape reflects the tenacity and fortitude required in times of drought and floods just as the cycles and challenges of daily life challenge us as individuals.
Kate Dorrough
June 2011
All enquiries welcome: Tel: (03) 9417 2828 or email: enquiries@catherineasquithgallery.com
Please click on images to enlarge, and view details of works.
 Enduring Landscape |
 Journey & Destination |
 Elements within the landscape |
 After the Rain |
 Artefacts and relics of the land |
 Echoes in a layered landscape |
 Icarus |
 Riverbank and Sticks |
 River 1 |
 River 2 |
 River 3 |
 River 4 |
 Wetlands & Salt Plains |
 Fortitude |
 Hard Country |
 Where the rivers run |
 Walking stories of the wetlands |
 The Way Back |
 Undercurrents |
 Reflections, the Murray |
 Enduring Landscape 1 |
 Enduring Landscape 2 |
 Enduring Landscape 3 |
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 Enduring Landscape 4 |
 Enduring Landscape 5 |
 Enduring Landscape 6 |