Catherine Rayner

BIOGRAPHY

Catherine Rayner - Adrian

Catherine Rayner - Gabrielle & Freya

Catherine Rayner - Ruth

These images are representative of the artist's work and may no longer be available. Please contact the gallery for further information.

EDUCATION

Catherine Rayner graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2004

BA (Hons) Visual Communication - Illustration

2000 Leeds College of Art and Design

Diploma in Foundation Studies - Art and Design

Award winning author and illustrator Catherine Rayner studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of art. She fell in love with the city and still lives there with a small menagerie of creatures: Shannon the horse, Ena the grey cat, goldfish Sheila and a speckly black and tan guinea pig called Marvin. She finds huge inspiration in her pets and often uses them as models, frequently asking Ena to pose so that she can study her posture and movement. Then she translates sketches of Ena into characters such as dragons and hares, not to mention moose and bears! But it was creatures of a wilder kind that inspired her first picture book, Augustus and His Smile – Catherine spent hours and hours watching and sketching tigers (in freezing temperatures) at Edinburgh Zoo.

And it must have paid off, because in 2006 Catherine Rayner won the Best New Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards and was also shortlisted for the V&A Illustration Awards 2006. Augustus and His Smile was then selected as one of five picture books to be recommended on Channel 4's 'Richard and Judy Christmas Party' in December of that year.

Since then, Augustus and His Smile has been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the 'Read it Again' Cambridgeshire Picture Book Award, the English 4-11 Award 2007 and the Royal Mail Scottish Children’s Book awards (0-7 category) 2007.

Meanwhile, this year Catherine has been selected as one of the ten best new illustrators for Booktrust’s ‘Big Picture Campaign’, which is an initiative designed to put picture books firmly in the public eye. She is also currently shortlisted for the 2008 Dundee City of Discovery Picture Book Award, and the Norfolk Libraries Children’s Book Award.

STATEMENT

Catherine Rayner employs the use of subtle colour and tone whilst playing with scale, composition and open space to create paintings and silk-screen prints of animals.

Her creatures are brought to life using spontaneous and vivacious line that explores movement and personality. With effortless flow Catherine’s artwork conveys the natural habitat and beauty of creatures many of us take for granted. Facial expressions illustrate curiosity whilst the animals’ postures suggest that they have simply strayed into the frame and might just as easily leave it again.

The space Catherine allows her subjects to exist in provides a powerful and sometimes poignant backdrop. Primarily it offers an uninterrupted view of the subject’s carefully studied form. Perhaps more importantly however, it asks of the viewer that they use their own intuition, prompting them to contemplate what lies both within and beyond the frame. In effect, this space acts as an imaginative springboard that invites the viewer into the image to explore it for themselves.

A gallery filled with Catherine’s silk-screen prints acts like an open-ended storybook. Each image is a new page and in each we encounter a new and different character, the events of whose life we are invited to consider. Not surprisingly it is Catherine Rayners’s experience as a children’s book illustrator that has heightened not only her awareness but also her fascination with the design aspect of each artwork.

When creating a children’s book the layout of each page must be carefully considered: how one image follows on from another, where the text fits, and precisely how much visual information a child needs in order to fill in the ‘blanks’ for themselves. In this respect it is just as important to consider which parts of the page to leave empty as it is to decide which parts are to be filled. Indeed, Catherine Rayner’s use of surrounding space becomes seminal to her depiction of the animal itself, encouraging in the reader a more thorough understanding of movement, texture, and mood without unnecessary distraction.

This doesn’t mean to say that background is never apparent in Catherine’s picture book work. On the contrary, she will often employ a carefully positioned strand of meadow grass, or a suspended leaf, or subtly suggest a pair of receding footprints in order to give just the right amount of understanding of the creature and its habitat. Added to this, Catherine’s considered use of colour, weight of line and texture helps the animal to ‘live’ within each image.

BOOKS PUBLISHED

Posy Illustrated By Catherine Rayner, written By Linda Newberry. Published by Orchard Books, London (April 2008)

Harris Finds His Feet Written and Illustrated By Catherine Rayner. Published By Little Tiger Press, London (April 2008)

Augustus and His Smile Written and Illustrated By Catherine Rayner. Published By Little Tiger Press, London (April 2006)

AWARDS

Shortlisted Dundee City of Discovery Picture Book Award 2007

Shortlisted The Norfolk Libraries Children’s Book Award 2007

Shortlisted "Read It Again!" Cambridgeshire Children’s Book Award 2007

Shortlisted Royal Mail Scottish Children’s book Awards (0-7 category) 2007

Shortlisted Kate Greenaway Medal 2006. For outstanding children’s picture books.

Winner Best New Illustrator, Booktrust Early Years Awards 2006

Shortlisted V&A Illustration Awards 2006

Shortlisted Child Magazine Best Children’s Book Awards 2006

Winner Edinburgh College of Art, The Andrew Grant Degree Show Award 2004

Runner-up The Macmillan Prize 2004 for Children’s Picture Book Illustration

Winner The J Sainsbury Award 2000 for A-Level Art

EXHIBITIONS

2008 Whitehouse Gallery (Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway) ‘All Creatures Great’

The Illustration Cupboard (London) ‘The Best New Illustrators’

Affordable art Fair, Bristol (With Sarah Wiseman Gallery)

Will’s Art Warehouse (London) ‘Wild’

Atholl Gallery (Dunkeld) Spring Show

BolognaWorld Book Festival (Italy 2008)

Pennel Gallery (Peebles) ‘Spring Watch’

Line Gallery (Linlithgow) ’The way we see it…’

2007 Caledoniart @ Smithfield Gallery, London

Whitehouse Gallery (Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway) ‘Country Pursuits III’

FrankfurtBook Fair (Germany 2007)

Affordable Art Fair, London (With Sarah Wiseman Gallery)

Baxters (Dartmouth) ‘Menagerie’

Sarah Wiseman Gallery (Oxford) Summer Show

Just Scottish Gallery (Edinburgh) Solo Show

Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh) Solo Show

Affordable Art Fair, Bristol (With Sarah Wiseman Gallery)

BolognaWorld Book Festival (Italy 2007)

EdinburghPrintmakers ‘Secret Kingdoms’ Solo Show

Whitehouse Gallery (Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway) Joint exhibition with Valerie Sadler

2006 The Line (Linlithgow, West Lothian) Autmn Exhibition

Whitehouse Gallery (Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway) ‘Country Pursuits II’

Baxters (Dartmouth, Devon) Gallery inaugral show

Flat Cat Gallery (Lauder, Berwickshire) Summer show

Just Scottish Gallery (Edinburgh) Festival exhibition

Red Barn Gallery (Melkinthorpe, Penrith) ‘A Country Living’

The MaidenBridgeArts Centre (Tatham, Lancaster) Spring show

Panik Gallery (Killearn, Glasgow) Early Summer exhibition

GlasgowArt Fair (George Square, Glasgow)

BolognaWorld Book Festival (Italy 2006)

Red Barn Gallery (Melkinthorpe, Penrith) ‘Rights of Spring’

Just Scottish Gallery (Edinburgh)‘Animals, Myths and Fables’

2005 Compass Gallery (Glasgow) Christmas exhibition

EdinburghPrintmakers (Union Street) Christmas exhibition

GlasgowPrint Studio (Glasgow) Christmas exhibition

Sculpture Lounge (Holmfirth, Leeds) Christmas exhibition

Flat Cat Gallery (Lauder, Berwickshire) Summer show

Marchmont Gallery (Edinburgh) Group show

Sculpture Lounge (Holmfirth, Leeds) Summer show

BolognaWorld Book Festival (Italy 2005)

Gallery 42 (Tadcaster, York) Spring show

Sculpture Lounge (Holmfirth, Leeds) Solo show

2004 Panik gallery (Killearn, Glasgow) Group show

Red Door Gallery (Edinburgh) Art in a suitcase

D&AD Graduate Exhibition (London)

EdinburghCollege of Art Degree show

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