Statement

Welshness - or rather the experience of living in Wales - is an obvious theme in Catrin Williams's work. Elements from her background and upbringing in Meirionnydd insist on inclusion in her work - the home and the farm; the celebrations and the clothing; the music and the Welsh culture; the family traditions and the familiar faces.

Since moving to the seaside at Pwllheli, Catrin's work has played with the cliched images of Wales printed onto tourist tea-towels - but she has also been responding to the local maritime industries. The boats and their sails, the harbours and the landscape which seems foreign to the hill-farm daughter are all important elements in her recent work.

Catrin's work has been exhibited widely throughout Wales, in galleries in Scotland, England and Ireland - her series of Ffrogiau Cerdd Dant - Cerdd Dant Dresses has lately been shown at the Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, U.S.A. as part of the highly successful Prints of Wales exhibition. Over the past year her work has been in demand from many private collectors and their response to the newer works has been very rewarding. Pieces of Catrin's art are in private collections all over the British Isles, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Canada and America - and in the public collections of MOMA Wales Machynlleth, Cyngor Sir Gwynedd County Council, Oriel Ceredigion Aberystwyth and the Newport Gwent Gallery and Museum.

A special Christmas 2007 edition of the television programme Byd o Liw featured Catrin as she created a specific Christmas in Wales piece of work. This was her second contribution to the series - on her first appearance she reponded to the poster art of Harry Riley by using inks, stitchwork and paint to build her own vision of a sunny Aberystwyth. In 2002 a Portrait of Catrin Williams programme, produced by Ffilmiau'r Bont, gave her the chance to look anew at her upbringing and her earliest influences. During the past decade a number of television items have been broadcast about Catrin's life and work over many television channels - S4C, BBC1 Wales and ITV Wales throughout Wales; BBC2 throughout Britain; and TG4 in Ireland.

Over twenty years after graduating from the Art College in Cardiff, Catrin still gives her energy to paint and draw her world. She constantly produces original series of works, exhibits consistently and strongly believes in encouraging and supporting other artists - from receiption age school classes and from every corner of the society. Catrin meets art college students who are studying her work regularly - students who are eager to discuss her art and craft and also eager to her spark her enthusiasm.