Thresholds

I’m currently exploring a space between figuration and abstraction. Many of these paintings begin with direct responses to the landscape around me, plants, hedgerows, and the shifting conditions of the farm where I live and work. The work often starts from something observed or a physical sensation in response to staring into a hedge for example, but in moments of self induced pressure or overwhelm, it fragments and shifts. Forms are pushed, obscured, or lost, creating a tension between what is recognisable and what resists recognition.

Music plays a quiet but constant role in this my work, guiding rhythm, pace and gesture. Alongside this, painting becomes a way of both blocking out and absorbing the world, whether that is the weight of contemporary events, the flow of images, or personal experience. The process is cyclical: building, scraping back, reworking. Traces of these actions remain on the surface of my work, holding a sense of flux and ongoing negotiation.

Hedge, emulsion, grass, charcoal, oil pastel and wax pastel on card, 50 x 80 cm, April 2026

Catherine Heard, Abstract Weather painting depicting wind, hedge, yellow field, clouds, horizon. Catherine is a contemporary artist based in West Somerset UK

Hedge and wind, emulsion, grass, charcoal, acrylic, spray marker oil pastel on card, 50 x 80 cm, April 2026

Abstract painting by Catherine Heard, yellow, brown, black and green, landscape hedge abstract work

Hedge, charcoal, grass, emulsion, charcoal and oil pastel on card, 50 x 80cm, April 2026

Orange and Green abstract Landscape plant painting by Catherine Heard

Rhubarb in Red Earth, charcoal, emulsion, oil pastel, road marker and varnish on canvas, 30 x 40cm, March 2026

Catherine Heard, abstract painting on canvas, acrylic and household paint, movement, lines frenzy of colour

25th March, charcoal, emulsion, acrylic, oil pastels, masking tape and varnish on canvas, March 2026

Abstract landscape with worm casts, painting by UK Artist Catherine Heard, paper panels laid down on canvas. Landscape abstraction painting.

Waters of March, household emulsion, acrylic, gloss, paper and thread on canvas, March 2026

abstract painting of a group of people, feeding of the 5000 abstracted figuration painting by Catherine Heard

Feeding of the 5000, emulsion, acrylic, oil pastel, gloss, road marker and paper on canvas, 60 x 40cm, March 2026

A painting by Catherine Heard, where figuration meets abstraction, based on an etching by Dore, Titan and the Giants, Dante's Inferno

Titan and the Giants, charcoal, household emulsion, household gloss and road marker on card, 78 x 59cm March 2026

Painting by UK artist Catherine Heard, abstract with bird figures, coloured and grey forms. The painting is made with stitched paper panels laid on canvas

Closed Eye, charcoal, emulsion, spray paint, acrylic on sewn paper panels laid down on canvas, 40 x 30cm, March 2026

Painterly painting by Catherine Heard, UK Somerset based artist. Yellow, grey and black forms, lots of movement of paint.

Wormscape, charcoal, emulsion, felt tip, road marker and thread on paper laid down on canvas, 40 x 30cm, February 2026

Painting by Catherine Heard, predominantly black, reminiscent of Basquiat. The shape looks like a skeletal scull, with teeth.

Crush Point, gloss, household emulsion, charcoal and thread on sewn paper panels laid down on canvas, 40 x 30cm, March 2026