About the artist

Cathy Malcolm, MA. BA. Dip. Dip. is 44 and lives in a small village called Aspley Guise on the outskirts of Milton Keynes. She also teaches Creative Writing, Face painting and Photoshop courses for Milton Keynes Adult Continuing Education (ACE). She has just finished writing her third novel and works as a freelance writer/photographer during the week and a face painter and muralist at weekends (see website at: www.cattlefish.co.uk)

An active member of the Milton Keynes Society of Artists (MKSA), Cathy has participated in many group exhibitions with the society and regularly sells her work. One of Cathy's paintings was shortlisted in the Not the Turner Prize competition and three of her phtographs were runners up in a nationwide photography competition last year. Out of thousands of entries she eventually came third, winning £1,000.

Cathy has exhibited paintings and photography in solo and group exhibitions as far apart as Manchester's Coliseum and London's prestigious The Mall Galleries. She also regularly enters the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Her last exhibition was a two month long solo show at the Milton Keynes Hospital Gallery.

From October 5th - November 8th, Cathy will be jointly exhibiting with Carolyn Flawn at the Arts In Milton Keynes (AIM) gallery at 759 Mifdsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes (opposite the theatre). The theme of the exhibition is Force of Nature and Cathy will be showing a selection of tornado paintings which will include several new ones. All work will be for sale. To date, eleven tornadoes have been sold.

Cathy's favourite medium is oil painting but she works in a variety of media including photography, graphite sketching, charcoal and pastels and I've dabbled in dry point etching, collograph printing, figurative life drawings and portraiture. She also illustrates:

About my art

Last year I was principally concerned with creating art out of fungi and interpreting nature through a variety of media. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by mycology and I am still an avid collector of fungi specimens - photographing and cataloguing them and I now want to use the beauty and diversity of fungi to inspire art and create an interest in the biosciences. I am now integrating my fascination with fungi and art through non-representational abstract paintings and prints as well as analytical sketches and digitally manipulated spore prints.  (Click on the 'Epiphany' picture on the left to see some of my spore prints and photos).

One aspect of my work is completely innovative because it is the first time art has been created out of spore prints  - these plain brown or white mushroom prints are normally taken by mycologists as a means of fungi identification then thrown away, but for the past two years I searched out fungi in the woods and produced my own spore prints which I turned into works of art using different media. I mainly enhanced the spore prints using various digital techniques to reveal the rich diversity of structure in fungi with the different methods of manipulation helping to create the mood of each piece. They should be viewed in blocks of 4, 6 or 8 mounted on the wall.

I explored the architectural and ornamental beauty of mycology through artisic form and examined the texture and beauty that lay in each of the different mycological families whilst attempting to explore the concepts and symbolic properties of mycological images and increase awareness of the biological environment.

This year I am exploring vortices. I am an armchair tornado chaser and owner of about thirty 'wild weather' videos - I even lived inTornado Alley for a year! I think the elements are one of the few things man has left to pioneer or understand. I paint, photograph and digitally manipulate prints of forces of nature. (Please click on the image on the left called Vortices to see some of my paintings of tornadoes).

I am happy to accept commission work - murals, portraits - whatever people want. Check out my portraits section which contains all sorts of personalities that members of the public have asked me to paint / draw.

(I am also an accomplished face painter/body painter. W ebsite: www.cattlefish.co.uk )

Oh, and by the way, i f you saw Glastonbury the Movie last summer (06), you might have spotted my name in the credits because I was involved in the film making process. I have also taken part in several documentaries and short films and I'm keen to get involved in any exciting, creative projects that you might suggest.

I don't create art for a specific purpose, which is why I never benefit from any grants - what usually happens is I become obsessed with a subject/art formand keep at it until the obsession dies away and something else takes its place. I wonder what will be next?

I do accept commissions and my celebrity portraits are sold through Tuppers / Boons Gallery in The Howard Centre, Welwyn Garden City. If you want me to paint a mural or portrait, you'll find my contact details on the contact page (link at bottom of page) or on the face painting website metioned above.

Cathy Malcolm 01908 282 363 or email: cathy@cattlefish.co.uk