Louise Cattrell: COMPASS

20 Nov-13 Dec 2025

Overview

“My work is inspired by the natural landscape, in particular where the boundaries of sea, sky and land come together and depart.” - Louise Cattrell

Louise Cattrell’s work uses direct experience of the natural landscape, exploring how one holds that transient memory. The artist has travelled extensively seeking out solitary landscapes in countries where the landscape shapes the understanding of each territory such as Scotland, Switzerland and the Australian outback that are free of any human intervention. This process is fundamental to her practice, enabling her to immerse herself in her surroundings, form memories, and later channel the experience back into the pieces she paints. Vantage points within the landscapes become the structural focus from where Cattrell’s paintings develop. The artist looks to capture endless expanses of sea, sky, and mountains as well as the change of light and weather that so dramatically alter the view and shroud it in mystery. Cattrell reflects these natural elements in her painting process by building up layers of oil paint thinned with turpentine to become a similar consistency to watercolour; the movement in the paint often echoing the ideas behind the land and seas she paints.

Living and working in new and known places has formed the context for paintings in oil and watercolour, drawings and prints.

Scottish artist Louise Cattrell (b. 1957, Glasgow) studied for a Diploma and Post Diploma {highly commended} in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone (Dundee) in 1979, followed by an MA Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in 1983. She has had various solo and groups exhibitions worldwide, including the Whitechapel (London), Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh), Mappin Gallery (Sheffield), Beaux Arts (Bath), ECAV (Sion), and the National Gallery (Sri Lanka).

Cattrell received the John Minton Award at the Royal College of Art in 1983, the Cheltenham Drawing Award in 1993, and held the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship in 1998. Over the course of her artistic career, the artist has undertaken residencies across the world including Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Ireland, USA, Switzerland and Australia. Held in public and private collections globally, her work is also owned by the Scottish Arts Council, MOD Whitehall and the Leukaemia Unit QE2 Birmingham, UK.