Birth of Aphrodite
About Catherine Pring

"A teacher at primary school told me the secret to making good art is to really look.  If you can learn how to look and pay attention and notice things - then you can make good art.  I think that’s true.

And it’s not that daunting, is it?  To look at something - see it, feel it and transcribe.  Anyone can do that.  You’ve just got to actually do it - persistently Be prepared to fail, learn, get better, be honest about what you’ve made, what worked, what didn’t and then do the next one.  That’s the work and play of it.

---------------------------

So, my artistic story…

I went to Kingston to do a foundation course and try out lots of different practises and then went to Canterbury College of Art (Kent Institute of Art and Design now) and specialised in printmaking.

I love drawing and painting but there’s something about printmaking that makes you take chances – you can’t be perfect.  The very process takes away some of your control – accidents happen very easily.  And you are guessing what your print is going to look like, often working in a reverse image.  It’s not until you ink up the plate and take a proof can you really see if it’s worked or not – there’s a magical surprise element.  Ta dah!

There is some work pre-Cyprus that I’m pleased with but my real artistic journey, my real-life journey even, started there.

I specialised in printmaking at Canterbury and we had lots of facilities at the college and it was a structured course.  Cyprus College of Art had no printmaking facilities and we were largely self-led.  It was drawing and painting for me and I couldn’t even make a stretcher.  I floundered.  Stass Paraskos, the college director (who taught painting at Canterbury as well) helped me find my path and awoke my passion for making art.  The other students helped me figure out how to make a stretcher.

Stass was passionate about art and he treated all the students as artists, with respect.  He took us seriously so we started taking ourselves seriously.  He took a child-like delight in art and the beauty of the world around him.  What I most hear him say in my memory is ‘look at this, the colours are beautiful’ - about a work of art, a piece of pottery or a flowering shrub in an old oil drum.  He was very alive, awake, inspiring.

Stass invited me to help him with a commissioned mural he was doing - Adam and Eve Before the Fall.  It was delightful, delicious paint play in the sun and an absolute honour - I got inspired, encouraged and into a creative routine.

And then I got going with my own work.

In this website, I want to communicate my experience, share my adventures and see if they resonate with anyone else."

-Catherine Pring

  • E Catalogues
  • Sold Works
  • Video

Birth of Aphrodite

£800

Aphrodite is the goddess of love and holds a special place in my heart as she was meant to have come ashore in Paphos, Cyprus where I lived and studied - and fell in love. Aphrodite was created when Cronus severed Uranus’ genitals and threw them into the sea so she had an ugly beginning but her birth has been depicted in many beautiful ways. My starting point for this painting was a sketch I made from a rather coy image from a Greek vase, where Aphrodite's head is peeking over the top of a giant seashell. I decided to bring Aphrodite to the fore, show her body in full and make the inside of the shell a backdrop. I wanted it to feel as though she was created from the shell, coming out of her shell, so I kept a shell-like texture and colour for much of her body and left it in outline. Then I started to fill her in and add some warm orange to make it feel like she was coming to life, gradually. I wanted to show the edge of the outer shell but I didn’t want to use a scalloped line, I wanted something more modern and abstracted. I took inspiration from the striped, painted shells that I saw in the Heraklion Museum in Crete and added some small, red, rectangles. The painted shells typically have red or green stripes and I went with red, because it’s a colour that symbolises love and seemed the perfect fit.

About Catherine Pring

"A teacher at primary school told me the secret to making good art is to really look.  If you can learn how to look and pay attention and notice things - then you can make good art.  I think that’s true.

And it’s not that daunting, is it?  To look at something - see it, feel it and transcribe.  Anyone can do that.  You’ve just got to actually do it - persistently Be prepared to fail, learn, get better, be honest about what you’ve made, what worked, what didn’t and then do the next one.  That’s the work and play of it.

---------------------------

So, my artistic story…

I went to Kingston to do a foundation course and try out lots of different practises and then went to Canterbury College of Art (Kent Institute of Art and Design now) and specialised in printmaking.

I love drawing and painting but there’s something about printmaking that makes you take chances – you can’t be perfect.  The very process takes away some of your control – accidents happen very easily.  And you are guessing what your print is going to look like, often working in a reverse image.  It’s not until you ink up the plate and take a proof can you really see if it’s worked or not – there’s a magical surprise element.  Ta dah!

There is some work pre-Cyprus that I’m pleased with but my real artistic journey, my real-life journey even, started there.

I specialised in printmaking at Canterbury and we had lots of facilities at the college and it was a structured course.  Cyprus College of Art had no printmaking facilities and we were largely self-led.  It was drawing and painting for me and I couldn’t even make a stretcher.  I floundered.  Stass Paraskos, the college director (who taught painting at Canterbury as well) helped me find my path and awoke my passion for making art.  The other students helped me figure out how to make a stretcher.

Stass was passionate about art and he treated all the students as artists, with respect.  He took us seriously so we started taking ourselves seriously.  He took a child-like delight in art and the beauty of the world around him.  What I most hear him say in my memory is ‘look at this, the colours are beautiful’ - about a work of art, a piece of pottery or a flowering shrub in an old oil drum.  He was very alive, awake, inspiring.

Stass invited me to help him with a commissioned mural he was doing - Adam and Eve Before the Fall.  It was delightful, delicious paint play in the sun and an absolute honour - I got inspired, encouraged and into a creative routine.

And then I got going with my own work.

In this website, I want to communicate my experience, share my adventures and see if they resonate with anyone else."

-Catherine Pring

  • E Catalogues
  • Sold Works
  • Video
  • Delivery
  • Secure Payment
PACKAGING
Panter & Hall are proud to use environmentally friendly packaging. Our artworks are wrapped with 100% recycled and recyclable paper.


UK DELIVERY

Paintings/Sculpture/Framed Prints:
• Mainland UK outside central London - £95 with a professional art courier.

• Central London - we can usually arrange same day delivery with Addison Lee or similar. Please contact the gallery for a quote.

Unframed Prints/Artworks Under £400:
• Mainland UK - £20 postal service with UPS or similar.


WORLDWIDE DELIVERY
We are able to offer worldwide shipping on all artworks. Please contact the gallery for more information.

Payment for artworks can be made securely by credit or debit card.
Why buy from us?

20 years in collecting and selling Art
Trusted by over 10,000 Art collectors
Exhibiting paintings worldwide