“In Surface to Surface Catherine Kernan continues to explore the poetry of water. Initially inspired by observations of ocean waves crashing against rocks on the west coast of Ireland, the artist now focuses on a more subtle drama taking place within the streams and rivers of New England. Using non-traditional techniques, she creates monumental prints philosophically more akin to eastern traditions in art. Shapes and colors shift as swift currents push water weeds in one direction and then another. Strong light shimmers and reflects off surfaces that are constantly moving and everchanging. Here, past and present are in dynamic conversation, revealing hidden depths that are both physical and emotional, a cultivated landscape that describes both the passage of time, as well as the inevitable change that passage will bring.”

~Katherine French, Independent curator

“I began this series of paintings in a more reckless and free way than usual—slipping around in paint ahead of hesitation, led by the simplicity of urge, snatching a bit of courage for the ride.”

“It struck me…how free art is, how unlimited the freedom of expression, how boundless.”

“Each painting is a new relationship…It’s an unpredictable, unsteady process. There is a place where the seen touches the unseen and unravels a bit, moving in and out of something sensible.”

“I have had the privilege of watching Catherine Kernan work in printmaking for more than four decades, and what continues to astonish me is not simply the technical mastery she has accumulated over that time—it is how she uses that mastery as a springboard for constant reinvention. Catherine works at the interface between printmaking and painting, employing large scale woodblocks in deeply unorthodox ways, never inking the same way twice, and rarely printing directly from block to paper. The result is something that feels a like a living conversation — a call and response between the artist and the emerging work. She lays down a mark, reads what's there, and responds intuitively to it, building image upon image in a painterly process she herself has described as “controlled accident.” Watching this unfold is like watching a dancer improvise: each move informed by the one before it, positive and negative space held in a perpetual, intriguing dialogue. They are alive, unpredictable, and deeply felt. Her visual vocabulary of fragmentation, interruption, reflection, and variation carries an emotional resonance that goes far beyond technique. Catherine Kernan is a rare kind of artist: one who has spent a lifetime learning the rules with absolute rigor and then spent an equal amount of time finding extraordinary new ways to break them beautifully.”

~IIlana Manolson, “A Master Who Never Stops Innovating”

Mitchell•Giddings Fine Arts offers contemporary art in a variety of media, featuring emerging and established artists.

Visit us on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.