Catherine Anderson – Bronze sculptures

26 & 27 May, 2012

Catherine Anderson

Studio:
Boonah Butter Factory
10 Railway Street, Boonah
Ph: 0438 712 499

What you’ll see:
Catherine Anderson is a self-taught bronze sculptor who creates incredibly realistic sculptures. Her trademark pieces include beautiful female figures, horses in full flight and fish. Catherine is Californian-born and came to Australia with her then husband, a rodeo-riding Aussie with a love of adventure. It was through his involvement in the horse industry that Catherine created her first sculpture. It was so realistic that she was commissioned to do more and her reputation as a talented artist grew from there.
During Open Studios Catherine will take visitors through the many steps involved in turning an idea into a bronze.

Catherine Anderson travelled a roundabout route to life as a professional artist. Born and raised in California, she enrolled at prestigious Berkley College to study philosophy. She transferred into a science degree and later into computer programming before making the break to get married and see the world.

Her ex-husband was an Australian rodeo rider who loved an adventure. Together he and Catherine travelled around Australia turning their hand to whatever work came their way.
They passed through NSW, Adelaide, Darwin and Melbourne. While in the Northern Territory Catherine’s husband landed a job shooting and skinning scrub cattle. When his offsider was injured Catherine was thrown into the job of assistant.
“It was brilliant, I got to see and do things I had never done,” she says. “Flocks of hawks and eagles would follow us and I got to see the country.”

COUNTRY LIFE

They finally settled on a farm at Rosewood, just outside the Scenic Rim, where Catherine began to work as a taxidermist. When Catherine and her husband parted company, she moved to Boonah and he returned to America.
Catherine secured work with a silversmith making cowboy belt buckles for rodeo riders.
“I met a man from Texas whose father was a bronze sculptor and he was describing his father’s work,” says Catherine.
“I thought, ‘I could do that, I could so do that.’
“So I got some wax and had a bash at it. I did my first piece for myself.
“Then I was invited by the Australian roughrider Association to do a bucking horse for them as a fundraising thing. It was my first piece for money.
“I did it and they sold stacks, even though rodeo cowboys don’t have any money. It sold because it was accurate.

RESEARCH

“When I do a piece I need to know everything about it – I rode the bucking machine, I talked to cowboys and made sure all the details were correct, right down to how the boys held the reins.
“I just moved on from there, I haven’t had any training. Recently I did a portrait workshop and I guess training would make me faster but I do feel that I get there eventually.”
Catherine’s customers would agree. Her pieces sell in Sydney, Montville and Boonah for thousands of dollars. They are intricate, incredibly detailed and very, very realistic.
“I have always been interested in art but it never occurred to me that I could make any money out of it,” she says.
“I started sculpting and it just took off. You make something you’re really pleased with and then you make something and it’s wrong and you can’t put it down until its right.
“I still look at some of my work and I can’t believe that I did it.”
Catherine supplements her art income with part-time work as a book-keeper. She says it’s the reality of the industry that it’s either feast or famine.

RELATIONSHIPS

The fluctuating price of bronze and the time it takes to complete a sculpture add to the uncertainty.
Catherine works with a bronze foundry in Brisbane and says this relationship is a key to her success as an artist.
“It’s a really close partnership,” she says.
“If I’m having a problem I ring him to discuss the design. I always have these ideas and he knows whether they’re going to work.”
More recently Catherine developed sculptures featuring a flock of birds and a school of fish. The pieces are fluid and full of movement.
“I like the feeling of movement,” she says.
“The birds are really realistic and detailed but the important thing for me is the movement.
“The fish sculpture is 13 bronze fish … I was worried by the stories of two-headed baby bass, I was thinking about all the stuff we do to the environment and how everything is ruined because of what we do.

QUESTIONS

“I was thinking about that and I put that in there as a question, not a statement, just a question.”
Catherine says many of her creations come from her heart. They’re things which make her happy and she hopes the public will like them too. She is constantly experimenting with new techniques and approaches to her craft.
“I think it’s funny, people have this idea that artists are like this or like that, that they are silly or late for meetings,” says Catherine.
‘But that’s not true. To do big art you have to be able to meet deadlines, stick to a budget and be responsible. It’s hard work.
“I find that people who come here for Open Studios are really interested in bronze sculpture and how you do it. Most people coming off the street just wouldn’t have a clue. If people see what goes into it they have an appreciation for it. I really enjoy talking to people; everybody gets something different out of my work.”