Catharine Armitage

Catharine Armitage (1944–2020) is known for abstract paintings rooted in landscape, in which colour, surface and edge are used to evoke natural forms and structures. Although her work can appear non-representational, it developed consistently from close observation of place, particularly the Cornish landscape, as well as from travels in Scandinavia and the Arctic.

Armitage studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1967 to 1973, completing a degree in painting followed by postgraduate study in etching. She had first begun attending evening art classes after meeting the painter Paul Feiler, who encouraged her to pursue her interest in art. They married in 1970 and moved in 1973 to Kerris, Cornwall, where their twin sons were born the following year.

Her early work was influenced by Jean Dubuffet and by Feiler’s emphasis on the importance of edges within a composition. This became a defining element of her practice, with forms articulated through line, colour and the physical application of paint. Armitage remained particularly interested in surface and texture: while her earlier paintings are characterised by more evenly applied colour, later works became increasingly tactile, incorporating sand and, subsequently, collaged materials.

Landscape remained the underlying source of her work. The Waxholme series was inspired by a large outcrop of rocks in Sweden and developed from her own photographs, while the Dunderet series of 2009 arose from drawings made during a journey to the Arctic Circle. These works reflect her continuing interest in translating observed landscape into simplified forms, shifting planes and richly worked surfaces.

Armitage exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Britain and internationally, and also showed jointly with Paul Feiler. In 2018 The Redfern Gallery presented Catharine Armitage: The Way She Sees It, alongside its centenary retrospective of Feiler.

The Estate of Catharine Armitage is represented by The Redfern Gallery.