Cathy Pearce is a landscape painter who specialises in soft pastel, known particularly for her colourful depiction of the Wiltshire countryside.

“Soft pastel offers me great versatility in technique whether I need to gently caress pastel dust into stunning skies, employee crisp sgraffito marks for fine organic details or dissolve my pastels in alcohol for a loose and drippy under painting.”

Both art history and painting and drawing from observation were encouraged from childhood and alongside her degree in textile design from Central St. Martins, Cathy has much art and design knowledge, evident in both her artwork and structured approach to her painting practice.

Painted on the morning of 29th April in West Woods. The bluebells had been flowering much earlier this year so I felt quite lucky there was still plenty of colour. Observing the light bouncing off the fresh new green foliage and the carpet of bluebells was such a delight. The dramatic lighting added to the giddy excitement whilst the combination of violet blues and acid greens were both re-energising and soothing simultaneously.