Kate Dorrough: RESTORATIVE LANDSCAPE

For many years now, Kate’s work has explored the abstracted form. In searching for a refined simplicity, using both space and form to create a sculptural quality, Kate’s works, although not monumental in scale, are monumental in character. For Kate, there is a physicality and sensuality in the use of paint, building up layers of paint over time in order to find its essence. It is this essence of evolution and reduction I wish to capture in my paintings.

For urban-based Kate, the opportunity to immerse herself within the environs of a landscape such as Mildura, with its enumerable vistas, from the grand river gums of the Murray River to the ancient sculptural landscape of the Willandra Lakes World heritage area, is a restorative one: “the landscape can become a place that permeates the soul, staying in one’s memory, informing the heart.” This fertile landscape offers up a rendition of the cycle of life, and more especially, given the recent floods and unseasonable weather, an example of the forces of nature.

The latter aspect is particularly close to Kate: on a more personal note she has been subjected to the challenges of becoming a mother. Kate has remained philosophical, and yet has also observed this strong desire manifesting itself in her work: the rotund, almost fecund-like ceramic vessels she has been producing over the past few years, are clearly redolent of a pregnant woman.