A collaborative sharing of truths, laughter, experience and ideas. Picking up the Pieces ...a three woman show about (im)perfection. This work is concerned with a collective pressure to avoid failure, in all its guises. As women, mothers, artists and humans, we struggle to reach societal perfection. Despite our efforts we still fall short of the excellence we are expected to achieve. We have become objects of criticism, corrected, fixed and improved, in other words; failing. The media’s ongoing fixation on women’s appearances and corresponding ‘value’, holds a power over us. The unobtainable ..read more

The Bearded Iris, Acrylic on canvas, 51cm x 41cm I am pleased to announce that my work ‘The Bearded Iris’, will be exhibited as part of the group show ‘MUD, FOR YOU’ at The Fitzrovia Gallery in London, from the 28/03 - 2/04. There will be a private view on the 31/03 at 6pm. You can reserve tickets here: MUD, FOR YOU Is it just mud or gold that you see on these walls? "The pigment itself is reverse alchemy, a gold that becomes shit in our studios, and our task is to try to turn that shit back into gold" - from Amy Sillman's book ’Faux Pas’, 2020. As illustrated in this book, all painters spe ..read more

Elif Shafak Elif Shafak, the award-winning British Turkish novelist, is a force of inspiration whom I have long admired. Her powerful novels, her journalism and her media feeds, relay the tales of the atrocities happening right now, to girls and women in Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Her stories have a very physical impact on me, my breathing stops, an inadvertant sigh emerges. Reading her words, it feels like I am covered into breathing my last breath, but then my heart races. It races with indignance, empathy, despair and hope. Shafak is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of ..read more

St. Brigid’s day (Gaelic: Lá Fhéile Bríde), celebrated on February 1st has just passed. One of the three patron saints of Ireland, she never meant much to me growing up, beyond the school activity of weaving a Brigid’s Cross or reeds and straw. However, this year for the first time, the day has been allocated as a new annual public holiday in Ireland, and so on listening to a recent Blindboy podcast, ‘Saint Brigid Solvent Abuse and Irish Mythology’ (episode 182), I have been inspired me to dig a little deeper into my own cultural past. Greek mythology has long been a research interest of my p ..read more

PICKING UP THE PIECES, ‘The Imperfect Art Collaborative’ Cathy Hayes  Darina Meagher Annmarie Webb From the homicidal bitchin' That goes down in every kitchen To determine who will serve and who will eat  From the wells of disappointment Where the women kneel to pray For the grace of God in the desert here And the desert far away  Excerpt from ‘Democracy’ Leonard Cohen, 1992  The philosophical idea of Kintsugi; accepting and appreciating the beauty of repaired ceramic ware, which accepts the imperfection and appreciates the history associated with its age and accidents ..read more

DARK TALES OF PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE Recently exhibited as part of ‘In Formation’ Thames Side Studios, London …I find myself questioning myths and old stories. Those upon which our culture has been based. These inquiries prompt me to create new paintings, by re-imagining such mythological tales from an fictitious position of gender equality. Above all, my creative practice is a process - one of unlearning embedded cultural stories.  By working with black, I reimagine the emotions and energy within these stories through the movement of colour. For me, the black background acts to inten ..read more

The work ‘Phoebe’s Hand’, will be on show as part of the exhibition ‘Journey into Unknown’ at Copeland Gallery, London, opening November 10th, 2021. Journey into Unknown At Copeland gallery Nov 10-14 Phoebe’s Hand (after Rubens), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 183 cm x 183 cm The idea of changing our consciousness is an element of what I try to achieve as an artist. I use different tools to do this. Of course, the usual tools at the disposal of an artist such as drawing, painting and sometimes sculpture, however in this work it is the colour that I use as my tool. I use it to attempt to burn an ..read more

SUBJECT TO CHANGE: ART IN THE TIME OF THE PANDEMIC Pieta 3 Lewisham Art House Exhibition Dates: 15 – 25 October 2021, 12 - 6 PM ‘Subject to Change’ brings together the work of seven emerging international artists responding to our ever changing political and physical environment where identities and the politics of memory are continuously renegotiated. With social and political volatility heightened, this exhibition by a group of Postgraduate alumni from Camberwell College of Arts pertinently questions the symbolic capital attached to established cultural myths, interrogates the on-going stru ..read more

No Format Gallery, Deptford Opening to public 19th - 24th October Cathy Hayes’ work is concerned with power and gender, specifically the depiction of female strength. She seeks to reclaim women’s power, presenting female heroines who can help us unlearn our conditioned past. Both paintings in the show were made during the pandemic. The first, ‘Covid Warrior’, was inspired by a recent fashion campaign; each model on the catwalk carried another woman either draped on her shoulders or wrapped around her waist. This show of solidarity contrasts starkly with the solitary figure in the second paint ..read more

Thoughts on… THE AVENGERS, 2021 75cm x 170cm, oil on canvas, framed This triptych was made this year (2021) in response to my grief and rage at the ever-increasing stories of violence towards women, I no longer want to see women as victims.  I want to see powerful, depictions of women, ones that inspire as well as terrify.  I believe that our history of violence has created a monstrosity, one from which we find it hard to awaken from, let alone to find new directions away from. As a result, women’s voices still remain marginalized and disrespected. This seems to ..read more