September 2015 – Cloud Lover – Danielle Kathleen Day

“Solitude”

The horizon is the sweetest of invitations, begging you to search out all possibilities if you just let yourself head off into it. There is a strong drive in each of us, I think, to look at the horizon and feel stirred by it. This is certainly how the paintings of local artist, Kate Carruthers, speak to me.

On her oversized canvases, Kate Carruthers has captured the quiet, jewelled colours of a vast, New South Wales countryside. Set beneath the skies between Canberra and the South Coast, Carruthers’ works are at once vastly evocative of freedom and intimately familiar to this local girl. In her current exhibition, Cloud Lover, at Altenburg and Co. of Braidwood, NSW, Carruthers has shown us a collection of skyscapes and hillsides lit by a glow of vanilla light that emanates from her masterful touch of impressionistic paint. The clouds that scud across her skies are simple splashes of vague form, seeming to be manifestations of dream light more than anything else. They lift the imagination and spirits of the viewer, with a contemplation of the sky’s relationship of towering space above the reduced, simply rendered earth. There is a spiritual element to Carruthers’ work, where the viewer feels at once small and boundless, and this resonance is reflected in the strong sales of her pieces in the exhibition.

After studying in both Australia and Scotland, Curruthers has been practising since 1995, when her focus was on ceramics. Returning home in 2009, she has since been working on developing her signature style in her landscape paintings, with a thrilling arc of skill and progress leading to her current works. Carruthers’ work is best viewed in person, but unfortunately Cloud Lover has run its course (September 1 – 28, 2015). Keep an eye out for her next exhibition by following her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Kate-Carruthers-landscape-painter-850228248376922/

To see more art and fantastic home and decorative wares, make a stop at Altenburg and Co. a priority this long weekend. You can follow this gallery and shop via their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AltenburgandCo