SEACLOUD |Solo exhibition opening 28 September 2022

Seacloud presents a new body of work by Sydney artist, Kate Mulheron, of oil paintings that represent elements of the coastal landscape.

The artist’s intention is to reflect upon intimate and yet universal experiences of nature through a contemporary exploration of the sublime. An ongoing interest in her work has been in drawing out the extraordinary in everyday moments.

Kate Mulheron obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, majoring in Printmedia, in 2005. She completed a Bachelor of Secondary Teaching in Visual Arts at the University of Technology Sydney in 2007 and graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts in 2012. She completed part of her post-graduate degree while on exchange at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

Her Masters research investigated the ways in which we inhabit, use and move about space, and the effect that external forces have on the ways in which we experience our local surroundings.

Kate has exhibited locally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions and been shortlisted for multiple art prizes.

Artist’s Statement

I take thousands of photographs on walks and drives. My painting and printmaking always begins with photographs which I catalogue and will revisit sometimes many years later.

My photographic archives contain many of the same types of images: skies, clouds, water, buildings - particularly abandoned - highways and roadsides, photographed from the passenger side of the car. I rework these images and explore different aspects of them or represent them through subtle variations.

I’m a studio artist so all my works are created away from the original scene, in our spare room which has become my studio.

My background as a printmaker informs how I paint. I think in layers which I build up over time, with a sense of how I envision the resolved work (however, they don’t always end the way I intend them to). I paint the coastline where I live, as this is a place I know and understand. I’m focused on how light changes and the same scene can transform quite quickly. I find the ocean equally daunting and comforting and I realise my works are somewhat melancholic.

I’m drawn to dark colours of the sky, which are moody and threatening, and also pinks, purples and yellows that appear almost artificial because of the saturation. The recent underwater earthquake in Tonga produced incredible skyscapes in Sydney which I’m drawn to.

I begin all paintings by staining the canvas in Venetian red. My palette includes cobalt blue, indigo, cadmium red and titanium white.

I can’t shake the feeling of being drawn to the sea. I grew up with my mother and sister in suburban Guildford in Western Sydney, but my father lived on the south coast. As a teenager I’d visit and take photos and observe the water and rock formations. I think living between suburbia and the coast explains my attraction to urban experiences and discarded, abandoned buildings as well as the coastline - two recurring themes in my work.