During a visit to the West of Ireland, Katharine experienced a spiritual awakening, a quasi-mystical experience which gave her an acute awareness of the presence of the divine in nature, a belief that Celtic Christianity inherited from the Druids. Her identification with the lunar landscape of the Burren in County Clare, the ancestral territory of the Ó Lochlainn clan, led her to search, and find, her personal identity in her Irish roots.
The karst limestone of the Burren reveals human history back to the last Ice Age through its geological formations, pre-historic caves, dolmens, portal tombs, ring forts, castles, churches and high crosses. In this extraordinary landscape, which has witnessed invasion, persecution, and famine, Katharine experienced serenity and eternal stillness.
Katharine’s art is driven by the desire to convey the mystical component in the natural landscapes with which she identifies. In her life and art, she tries to articulate the feeling of transcendence, of moving beyond the confines of reason, of trusting in intuition, of feeling part of something much greater than ourselves, and believing that we are being shown the way forward.
The journey the viewer is invited to undertake when encountering Katharine’s work is to engage in a relation between the self and the world. As the relationship deepens, a vision of infinity emerges and a space opens up that invites the viewer into unity with all Creation.
Katharine’s landscapes can be perceived as devotional images that articulate and share a feeling of unity and belonging, a communion with a timeless whole.
