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Catherine Gutsche is an Ottawa mixed media artist and graphic designer with paintings in private collections in Canada, the United States and Europe. She studied Fine Art at York University in Toronto, Canada, earning an Honours Bachelor of Fine Art degree with a major in graphic design. She then worked for several years as a graphic designer in the vibrant downtown Toronto arts market.
Since moving to Ottawa Catherine has made time to return to her beloved roots in painting, enjoying again an intimate relationship with colour and pattern. Catherine’s current favourite subject – the Tie – is so totally interwoven in her work that you will find the tie IN her work. As a mixed media artist she combines the textile of her subject physically into every Tie painting.
Travel has always played an important role in Catherine’s life, starting at the age of 16 with a trip to China during the period of Mao Tse-tung. China showed Catherine the importance of pattern. She was inspired by the Chinese ability to manipulate designs and colors to form intricate repetitions that are flipped or rotated to create masterpieces often seen on walls, floors, ceilings and household objects. Exposure to the capitals of Europe gave her an appreciation for the masters in all their glory – size, colour and textures – none of which translate in flat books that fit on coffee tables. But it was in Australia that she gained a feel for the impact of colour where Uluru (Ayers Rock) changed from earthy reds to silvery-greys, with streaks of charcoal black algae. Nowhere else in the world are there colours that extend as far as the eye can see.
