Born in Wales and the daughter of an artist and a writer, O’Hara worked in education for three decades. Serious illnesses in 2019 created a fork in the road, combined with the onset of the global pandemic. Teaching herself digital art, forging a new way of seeing the world, and becoming aware of the healing potential of art were three important strands to Catrin regaining some balance in her life.
During the 2020-21 lockdowns O’Hara undertook a daily journalling practice by making rapid sketches of one plant growing. These talismans of a dark time have since been used by O’Hara to create two major ongoing digital art series: Plant 1 and Plant 2. Daily walks in the same woods were also a source of imagery for what would become experimental micro-short films with an element of magic realism or themes of the resilience of nature.
A new departure in 2024 was the incorporation of fractal images into O’Hara’s artworks with the fractal transformations often beginning from input of a single blossom or leaf. Her still vector pieces, photography, and moving fractal images come together in several experimental micro-short films. One of these, ‘Stability Instability’ based on the Plant 1 and Plant 2 sketches, was shortlisted for the MetaMorph award in 2024.
Processes aside, Catrin creates artworks that are visually highly engaging with an element of drama, enigma, and mystery:
“I hope people can experience something healing and satisfying in the art. Each piece comes from a place of growth, change, and renewal, in one way or another.”
Recognition:
• 2024: ‘Stability Instability’ - Micro-short video animation shortlisted for the 2024 MetaMorph awards.
• 2024: ‘Viola on Tangerine Paper’ – shown at the Oxmarket Contemporary Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 12-23 December 2024 group show, ‘Here and Now’.
• 2025: Triceratops Dream 1, 2, 3 and 4 (limited edition fine art prints of original vector artwork) exhibited digitally at Fox Yard Studio, 10-21 January, group show ‘The New Dawn’.
• 2025: Petunia 3 and Petunia 6 (limited edition fine art prints of original vector artwork) – exhibited at Fox Yard Studio, 24 January – 4 February, group show ‘Encountering Nature’.
• 2025: Petunia 3 and Petunia on Midnight Blue, (Limited edition series fine art prints of original vector artwork)
o exhibited in online group show curated by Cista Arts, ‘Fragments of Reality: Art in the Digital Age’, 1 – 28 February.
• 2025: Petunia 3, (Limited edition fine art print of original vector artwork)
o Exhibited at Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK, 7 – 18 February in the group show ‘Kindred Spirits’.
• 2025: Triceratops in Blue Ice, (Limited edition fine art print of original vector artwork)
o Finalist in online group show curated by Crosscurrents Gallery, ‘Timeless’, 31 January – Ongoing.
• 2025: Apuldram Magnolia with Clouds, (Limited edition fine art print of original vector artwork)
o Long-listed for Blue Koi Gallery ‘Back to Nature’ online group show, February.
• 2025: Red Berry Morphing, (micro-short fractal animation)
o Shown in EIDOS/Indra Gallery, London, ‘The Shape of Those with no Shape’ exhibition, 10-14 March.