Introducing Catalina
As a part of our Winter Art Trail, we’d like to introduce you to the artists that produced the wonderful artwork for the trail. In the Artist Spotlight today, we have Catalina Carvajal, bringing vibrant colours and cheer to anyone who experiences her artwork.
Introdrucing Catalina Carvajal
Catalina Carvajal is a visual artist and illustrator. Originally from Colombia, she lived in Mexico City for ten years before arriving in the UK. Catalina enjoys navigating digital and traditional media, small and big formats, and working for commercial and private clients. She also creates for the pleasure of it. She was born to be an artist.
She loves both drawing on the computer as well as painting with acrylics. She has the feeling that digital art is often overlooked as immediate, gimmicky and easy. Catalina thinks that there's nothing further from the truth. In the end, a pencil, a brush or a computer are all just tools. What matters is that art has a soul and something to say.
Photo by by Mikaela Rackham.
For her, it's fun to have options and play with different tools. One of her favourite things is painting murals and playing with colour combinations. Her art is driven by her need to express herself. Catalina feels particularly attracted to peculiar characters and surreal scenarios. She loves telling stories and adding metaphors to her work.
Her influences come from her Latin American background, exuberant places, local history, mythology and spirituality, and movements such as Dada and Surrealism.
Photo by by Mikaela Rackham.
Catalina has found a very supportive community in Suffolk. She's told us that, whether it's artists, arts organisers or art lovers, there's always someone willing to work in collaboration and make things happen. Suffolk is a hub for creativity and opportunities. She thinks that we need more murals and public art around as it's a fun way to approach people to the Arts and make it less about an individual and more about a community that supports its members' endeavours.
Whether working from her studio in Ipswich or public spaces around Suffolk, she hopes her style shouts out her Latin American origins and speaks about her appreciation of Suffolk and her life in the UK.
Catalina’s mural for Rockafella Industries, Ipswich.
To see Catalina’s contribution to Stowmarket’s Winter Art Trail, you’ll find it in Inces’ shopfront window on the main high street! The Winter Art Trail runs until January 15th 2022 and trail maps are available from Fox Yard Studio. After that, all the artwork on the trail will be displayed at the new arts bar next door, Pallet.
To find out more about Catalina, visit her website: www.catalinacarvajal.co.uk