Cathy Read Art

There are moments in time that change your life forever. Picture a small child standing before Manchester Art Gallery for the first time. Awestruck, this little girl enters craning her neck, dumbstruck and holding her mother’s hand. Then she discovers Work by Ford Maddox Brown, and realises the power of art to tell inspiring stories. That was the birth of her fascination with art. Although Cathy Read loved to draw, that moment was beginning of a desire to create Art that inspired a Wow. Of course, there was so much more art to see, but that was the start.
A lifelong interest in buildings, fuels her creation of urban landscapes. Her distinctive style was developed initially when working on abstract paintings. This eventually led to interpretations of iconic buildings and cities.
Cathy creates vibrant metropolitan abstracts and appeared as a contestant on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2016. Returning as a wildcard in 2017 was a different experience. The same year, she was shortlisted for Artist and Illustrators Artist of the Year and received the Wild and Tame award.
She has completed a commissions for Inn gear and the finished paintings are now on permanent display in Wetherspoons at Victoria Station. Cathy’s painting of St Catherine’s College, commissioned to illustrate the Oxford Almanack, is in Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Other Commissions include Tate Modern, Bahlsen and the Royal Latin School.
She has exhibit around the UK and Europe. In 2021 she was invited to exhibit at an international exhibition in Chiba, Japan. Her work is in collections in Canada, Africa and New Zealand. Since 2013, she has exhibited with the Society of Women Artists and as a member since 2015, when she received the Barbara Tate Memorial Award. Cathy’s work has also been include in exhibitions by the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in London.