Cathie Waller
As a young girl growing up in rural Victoria, Australia, I loved to draw. During my school years and in my 20’s I worked with oil paints completing a number of landscapes. As a child I would often take off on my own, walking for miles through the hillsides that surrounded our house, gaining inspiration from the trees and various shades of grasslands in the ever-changing seasons.
I had a long break of more than 30 years from any art and dedicated my time to work and my children. After a lengthy battle with leukaemia in 2013/14 including a stroke during treatment I was left with lifelong health issues forcing me into early retirement. In 2018 I tried my hand at drawing again and discovered I still had the passion for art. This was when I discovered pastels, remembering a day years earlier when viewing a very large pastel painting in Beechworth near to where I live now and how I was drawn to the vibrancy and smooth texture but which looked just like an oil painting.
I decided to try out soft pastels but due to issues with my immune system the dust created was not good for my lungs. I ventured into Pan Pastels and I immediately fell in love with the multitude of colour variations, I adapted to working with sponges and brushes, no messy fingers and very little dust falling off the paper, working in a tradition much like oil paints. Pan Pastels have minimal binder and fillers, resulting in rich, ultra soft and super-blendable colours loaded with the finest quality artists’ pigments which have excellent lightfastness and are fully erasable. I also use the very best pastel pencils and occasionally soft pastels on Pastelmat my pastel paper of choice.
Upon joining an online group “Paint My Photo” I won several challenges and in 2021 was judged PMP Pastel Artist of the Year, a huge honour. Also, in 2021 I won my first art award with the Pastel Society of Victoria Australia, the Margaret Lourey Award an exciting and unexpected win this early in my art journey.
I have no favourite subject and am happy working on anything that inspires me such as Still Life including flowers/botanical, Portraits, Fantasy art, Landscapes and Seascapes. I am self taught and work in realism which is recognisable in my work taking something ordinary transforming into something unique improving with detailed precision, energy and colour. I work in my home studio from licence free photos and recently completed a landscape from my own reference photo which I hope to do more often. Working en Plein Air is next on my list.
I am a current member of Pastel Society of Victoria, Pastel Society of Australia and joined the Albury Wodonga Art Society in 2023.
Contact 0422 192 650
Insta @cathiewallerart
Facebook cathiewallerfineart