Louise Wallace looks at the work of Catherine McWilliams, whose survey exhibition is showing at the FE McWilliam Gallery
Catherine McWilliams is unique among artists in Northern Ireland. The overarching stimulus across her oeuvre may be termed ‘painting as empathy’, a practice that mines deep and complicated feelings for the city of Belfast, its people and environs. McWilliams’ Self Portrait (Fig 2) captures her own resolute gaze in a range of Van Gogh yellows. Her use of yellow across key works may be seen as a marker of hope. For McWilliams, hope is something rooted in home and hills, in city streets and back gardens, motifs she returns to throughout her career
Isabella Evangelisti visits the MAC in Belfast, where the work of selected painting graduates from Belfast School of Art is on show
