Earth Magic Series ©Paintings by Catherine Molland

All of my art originates from my love of wilderness areas where I feel a sense of peace, wholeness and oneness.  I create paintings of women in nature with magic, mystery and metaphor. My intention in my art is to share this feeling of connection to help heal the illusion of separation from nature in our modern times and to create beauty, pleasure and joy.

In my art, I combine several elements: classical  figures, contemporary  backgrounds and nature’s flora and fauna. I use oil painting for the figures. More and more, I am experimenting with mixed media for the backgrounds using pencil, acrylics, silk-screened Japanese papers and natural objects like dried corn silk, rocks, seeds, flowers. I usually paint women, as subject not object.  Sometimes they are the shakti energy of the earth; sometimes they are stories of my encounters with wild animals; sometimes they represent mythological powers.

The narrative of these women in nature is a reminder of the mystical part of our human experience. In the trance of painting, ancient symbols and images surface to the canvas. In surrendering to the images my Muse brings to my imagination, I work to create a sense of nature’s incredible splendor. I feel that beauty is a primal force, an antidote for the angst of the world and it is the source for my art.