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By Kerry Lee
As her mother is also an artist, it was only a matter of time before Clevedon’s Cathy Cowin began dabbling also.
Cowin has been painting for the past 10 years or so, and while she doesn’t have any formal training, her work has met with success. However, she is still learning.
“I’m more self-taught and I have learned from my peers around me,” she says. “We learn from each other and learn different techniques.”
While she has begun working with acrylics, Cowin specialises in watercolours, the first medium she explored.
She says she finds it hard to describe her work and she never paints any one thing in particular. While some artists have a focal point for their art or a central theme, Cowin tends to look at the page in front of her and ask herself what she is most inspired by or simply what she feels like painting.
“I particularly love flowers because I’m a gardener. I love roses – they’ve been a challenge for me to paint in the past, so I’m trying to develop a style I’m happy with. I’m developing more of a vintage rose style,” Cowin explains.
“I like watercolours because of their translucency, their lightness and their fluidity. Watercolours seem to have a mind of their own.”
Cowin’s mother, Mary Maxwell, has been an artist for approximately 30 years and still enjoys painting aged 91. Unlike her daughter, Maxwell studied art as a teenager and she has worked with several mediums, including oil and acrylics, dry pastels and, in the last 10 years, watercolours.
Despite both preferring watercolours, Cowin says their styles are very different, each shaped by the training they’ve received and to the point that neither can replicate the other’s work entirely.
“I try to paint like her, but I can’t, and she can’t paint as I do.”
Subjectivity of art and unrealistic expectations can cause some to set down their brushes, but it shouldn’t.
“I don’t believe it’s anyone’s right to question someone else’s art or creativity, and I come across a lot of people who have come through schooling put off because of the expectation to replicate someone else’s work and do it perfectly the first time. I think that’s where a lot of teaching is wrong,” Cowin adds.
“To me, it’s about learning your medium, learning how to use it, and it’s about expressing your own passion.”
