Sing Brother Sing!
” Does a painter see the world in two dimensions and a sculptor in three? Working on this exhibition with renowned artist Katherine Boucher Beug, who is also a very good friend, has taken me on a trip into colour, shape and space. From her studio at her adopted West Cork home, we go for walks, talking about life, the universe and everything. Returning later, I see her drawings of the landscape, which open my eyes to new lines, new vistas, new ways of seeing the world. In fact, it is difficult to go for a walk with Katherine without watching the landscape resolve into stripes. Patterns are everywhere.
And those patterns, seen in the drawings (now a set of delicious prints) are an entry point into her abstractions. Larger canvases show the underlying shapes of nature becoming something more elemental, perhaps more spiritual, definitely eternal and profound. A huge joy for me was seeing them jump off the canvas, first with collaged elements, and then, fully realised in sculptural constructions. Katherine describes the move into three dimensions as a break-through and a liberation, as the elements of a lifetime’s work came together in a new form. These pieces should be difficult – pure abstract art often is, but a glance back to those beguiling drawings, taken with immediacy and freshness from country walks, anchors them in a reality that gives a whole new perspective.
The different elements in this exhibition explore the forms that lie beyond what we think we know in the everyday. The resulting work, in deceptively simple but gorgeous drawings, watercolour sketches, sculptures and paintings, is a challenging, no-holds-barred, quite marvellous ride into what, for this artist, lies at the heart of making the world work. Through her eyes we can see it all afresh, on different levels, and in different ways. And that’s what makes it start to sing.”
Gemma Tipton