Artist Bio

Born in South Africa, grown in New Zealand and now calling Australia’s spectacular Sunshine Coast “home”, for Kate the call to create was intrinsic.

Coming from a richly artistic and musically inclined heritage, she had won multiple awards as a child and teen artist and was repeatedly encouraged to pursue a career in the arts.

She has since spent her life being a multidisciplinary artist, (Musician, TV presenter, Actor and now Fine Artist).

Her current artwork weaves themes of interconnectedness; with our environment and each other, the unseen magic at play, and the creative possibilities present in being alive!

As she says: “What if the real magic in this world is self-belief, self-love, empathy and honesty?”

Kate is currently building her art studio and dream in Sunshine Coast’s Hinterland, having finally chosen painting as her favourite medium to encourage humanity to embrace inner peace and self-belief.

Artist Statement

“My art is an invitation to feel good!

Deeply, profoundly, joyfully good!

It highlights the abundance all around us…

Noticing the good in everything and everyone, including ourselves!

My paintings mirror my attitude towards life; colours are vibrantly alive, subjects brimming with a sense of both peace and power.

There is a playful prompting to see the unseen, to feel the magic and possibilities alive in every moment and to dare to believe in our own greatness!”

Artist Statement
The visual arts and crafts have always been part of who I am. I owe this to generations of makers in my family, who revelled in applying their creativity to whatever resources they had to hand in order to achieve their needs and fulfill  their desires. This creative heritage included a diverse array of textile and wood crafts as well as the art of repurposing found objects in creative ways – well before it was fashionable to recycle. This imbued a joyful fascination with, not only using mundane materials to create beautiful artefacts, but with the alchemy that occurs when those artefacts communicate in ways that words cannot.

Education
Given my curiosity about everything, the knowledge I’ve gained from formal study, now represents only a small part of my lifelong accumulation of relevant skills and understandings. Regardless, formal bundles of learning are easier to qualify in support of credibility, and so here is some of what I’ve studied at a tertiary level:
 Undergraduate Certificate in Art History – Curtin University
 Diploma of Visual Arts – Painting – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
 Undergraduate Certificate – 3D Design – Queensland College of Art
 Bachelor of Built Environment – Interior Design. Queensland University of Technology
 Environmental Science – Griffith University
 Philosophy and Ethics: classical formal logic. University of Queensland

Influences – approach
The practical disciplines gained from my design education and occupations, in particular my work in Interior Design, informs not only the content planning and aesthetics of a piece but consideration of how it will work within a space it is to inhabit. A painting cannot fully reveal its story if it doesn’t lend itself to being placed where it will be seen often and then be able to repeatedly draw the viewer in to learn more. I aspire to create work that reveals more from each opportunity, giving the story time to be embedded, rather than delivering a quick and perhaps therefore, forgettable, message.

Influences – themes
Driven by my ethical and scientific interests, an important theme in my work seeks to expand awareness of the Animal Condition – a subset of which is, of course, the Human Condition – and the proposition that our common sentience entitles us to the same rights. Truly accepting this requires the upheaval of an array of cultural norms and forces an uncomfortable reckoning for most. As such – rather than confronting people with a traumatised cute cow – I approach it using human figures as relatable and expressive vehicles, with the hope that empathy for our shared potential for suffering will be revealed. Perhaps if that revelation results from an image of beautiful humans exhibiting the privileges of human life, the juxtaposition will lead to a comparative reflection upon what matters…and, if not, they have a beautiful picture to put on their wall until one day maybe it does.

Although art was one of my best subjects at school, I didn’t commence oil painting until 2021, so I am a newcomer to the art world! My Mum, who was an accomplished artist in her time, handed me some old oil paints one day. I was immediately hooked on the buttery, forgiving nature of oils.

I love to paint scenes of my surrounding environment, trying to find light and shadows in my subjects. I consider myself an impressionist artist and I love to use both brushes and palette knives in my work.

I try to enter many art competitions around Brisbane and learn as much as I can from attending galleries and educating myself on art processes and the art world.

Although I work full time as a WHS Officer across 3 Primary schools, I am passionate about dedicating my spare time to painting and improving on my artwork.

I am a largely self-taught glass artist using lampwork techniques and have been practising for over 30 years in Townsville, North Queensland.

Lampwork is a relatively obscure art that is not blown but is built up by layering glass that allows me to create tiny worlds within a glass bead.  People often ask me “how did you get those tiny animals and flowers inside the glass”.

I studied chemistry and zoology, which is reflected in the fact that I use chemical reactions to produce certain effects.  Much of my fascination with glass has been to adapt the qualities of glass to produce ever more intricate pieces.

I produce pieces that are based on my life experiences and my love of art. Many pieces have marine themes as I have a love of the sea and the beauty of the flora and fauna of North Queensland.

Catherine Anderson
Catherine has always had a deep love for animals, particularly horses, which is reflected in her artwork. After immigrating to Australia from the US in 1980, she competed in rodeos in Adelaide, where she was drawn to capture the vitality and power of animals in motion through sculpture. Her first pieces were commissioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

Since then, Catherine’s work has featured in a number of exhibitions and private collections, and her work has gained recognition through awards and commissions. Her piece “Flow” is held in the permanent collection of the Tweed Regional Art Gallery at Murwillumbah, and she has done public artworks on commission for the Scenic Rim Regional Council, Queensland Emergency Services, Queensland National Parks and Wildlife, and has created a bronze at Wyaralong Dam commemorating the RAAF history of the area.

In 2016 Catherine was chosen to create a life-sized sculpture of an Australian Navy sailor as commemoration of the Far East Strategic Reserve corps which was unveiled by the Chief of Navy at Memorial Park in Brisbane’s Southbank Parklands. In 2017 she created a dynamic portrait of a working kelpie dog for the town of Bonalbo, which now forms the focal point of the town’s centre. In 2018 she created a “Key to the Scenic Rim” in bronze to be given by Scenic Rim Shire to distinguished citizens in the future.

In 2020 Catherine completed a series of native wildlife pieces entitled “Sharing Space” depicting local fauna which was installed throughout the public spaces in Boonah. In 2024 Catherine was commissioned to create a series of endangered and indigenous wildlife bronzes which feature in the redeveloped Davidson Park in Beaudesert.

Catherine’s sculptures are cast using the traditional lost-wax method of bronze casting, chasing and patinizing each piece by hand in her studio, situated in Boonah’s Old Butter Factory. Catherine is a regular participant in the Open Studios program, when she welcomes visitors to her busy studio.

Awards:
Australia Day Cultural Award 2004
Winner, sculpture section, Just Nudes Exhibition- 2005 and 2006
Finalist, Lexus Mortimore Art Prize 2007 Finalist, Moreton Bay Regional Art Awards 2014
Finalist Stanthorpe Art Prize 2018
Finalist Moreton Bay Regional Art Awards 2019
Grand Champion Sculpture Royal Queensland Brisbane Art Show
Exhibitions:
Swell Sculpture Festival, Currumbin 2005 2006 2023-invitation only
Linden Gallery, Gold Coast-joint exhibition with Harold Lane Boonah Regional Art Gallery-“Quintessence”
Rotary International Art Show-invitation only
Old Courthouse Gallery-inaugural “Just Nudes” Exhibition 2005 and 2006 Boonah Regional Art Gallery “Factory Girls”(four artist exhibition) Queensland Sculpture Society Mt Coot-tha exhibition, 2014, 2018, 2022, 2023
Winner, 3D section, Ipswich Art Show 2021
Queensland Royal Brisbane Art Show 2015 and 2019

Paquita Fadden, a former accountant and IT professional, finally allowed her creative side loose. She happily paints in watercolours wherever she happens to be travelling the world photographing wildlife and landscapes, playing with her identical twin granddaughters and new grandson in Canada, boating and fishing around the Broadwater, or just hanging out in her art studio on the Gold Coast.

She recently won the 2024 WSQ Avant-garde Award and previously was awarded Highly Commended for her artwork in the 2021 and 2023 Watercolour Society of Queensland (WSQ) annual exhibitions.  In addition, as both author and illustrator, her first children’s book, Chicky Chases was published in 2022.