Catherine Cattanach: The Collector and the Artist
Catherine Cattanach is a an avid art lover and award-winning photographer with a considerable art collection in the family home in Brooklyn, Wellington.
Catherine and her husband Alistair have been supporting the NZ Art Show as Friends of the show since 2012 and, through the show and various other avenues, they’ve amassed a collection of more than 70 artists.
The home of Catherine and Alistair Cattanach is a treasure trove of New Zealand art.
Artworks in the image above, from left to right. top to bottom: ‘Morning Ponsonby‘, print by Stanley Palmer, an old print of Wellington harbour (artist unknown) ‘Unknown V’, sculpture by Sebastien Jaunas, photo by Australian photographer Paul Hoelen, glass sculpture by Richard Landers and print by Kyla Cresswell,
CATHERINE: The Collector
Not only does she love to surround herself with beautiful art, Catherine is proud to be supporting New Zealand artists. She and Alistair attend numerous exhibitions where they’ve acquired most of their sizeable collection. In addition, several of the artworks are photographs by people in Catherine’s photography community, either purchased or acquired through print swaps..
‘The best way to sustain the New Zealand art industry is to invest in it.
‘The NZ Art Show has been really wonderful for me, both as an artist and as an art collector. I’ve met lots of great people from the arts community – art buyers and other artists.‘
‘We always wonder where we’re going to put new art but we don’t let that stop us – we know we’ll make it work somehow. And there’s nothing like rearranging your art to keep your collection feeling fresh’
IMAGES: LEFT – Sculpture by Odelle Morshuis
RIGHT – 3 small prints by Susan Hurrell-Fieldes and wooden piece by Karolina Stus. There were some nails on this wall already and Susan’s works were hung on them temporarily, then Catherine and Alistair decided they really liked the slightly odd arrangement so they’ve stayed that way ever since.
CATHERINE: The Artist
‘Photography is like a treasure hunt – I find things that I love or which intrigue me and I ‘collect’ them. Just like going to the NZ Art Show.’
Formerly a financial journalist, Catherine rediscovered her love of photography when she returned to New Zealand from London. She established her photography business in 2008 and is now a Grand Master of Photography with the NZ Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP)
Largely self-taught, she has won four national photography titles and been a finalist for three.
She’s very focused and driven when working on a body of work and will sometimes take more than 100 photos of the same subject in order to capture the essence of her subject. For example, she took 120 photos of the Eryngium giganteum thistle (pictured below).
Catherine has exhibited her fine art photography in the NZ Art Show since 2017, where she sold 9 out the 10 artworks she submitted. The following year she sold 36 pieces.
‘The first NZ Art Show exhibition I participated in made me realise I could seriously pursue my creative photography as well as my paid portrait work.’
Eryngium giganteum, pictured, also known as Miss Wilmott’s Ghost. In 2018, Catherine came across some dried stems at a florist, and was fascinated by the form and colour of this plant. She made a large body of work, eventually publishing an entire book of photographic studies of this one plant, which she called ‘Homage’. This imagery also features in one of the famous art rooms in Gallery 4 in Wellington’s QT Hotel.
On Eryngium Giganteum: “I fell in love with their sculptural quality — I love all that spikiness and the veins and the fact that they’re not your everyday pretty flower.”
Catherine continues her fascination with botanical photography. In 2021 she created a series of photographs of plants suspended by cotton thread and spotlit. Her most recent body of work, called Flux, plays with distorting flowers by photographing them through water, creating an end result reminiscent of a painting.
More artworks in Catherine’s collection
Some of the Artists in Catherine and Alistair’s collection
| Andy Spain | Josef Kieninger | Philippa Blair |
| Anne Noble | Jule Beeby | Poppy Lekner |
| Brian Braddock | Karolina Stus | Rachel Callander |
| Camus Wyatt | Kelsi Doscher | Richard Landers |
| Christina Little | Kerry Ann Lee | Rosemary Mortimer |
| Claire Beynon | Kirsty Fyfe | Sabrina Hyde |
| Dan Wilkinson | Kris Anderson | Sarika Rama |
| Daniel Bell | Kyla Cresswell | Sean Beldon |
| Daniel Unverricht | Kym Gilchrist | Sebastien Jaunas |
| David H Brown | Lara Gilks | Simone Jackson |
| David McCracken | Levi Hawken | Stanley Palmer |
| David Oliver | Lisa Call | Stephanie Crisp |
| Destiny Munro | Mary McIntyre | Susan Hurrell-Fieldes |
| Emil Orlik | Matthew Mitchell | Tetyana Khyto |
| Eve Wereta | Mia Hamilton | Tessa Williams |
| Glen Howey | Mike Hill | Thomas Busby |
| Glen Jorna | N Stewart | Tim Lomax |
| Graeme Hitchcock | Nicola Jackson | Tina McGregor |
| Greg Chaston | Noel Johnstone | Tony Carter |
| Harry Janssen | Odelle Morshuis | Trent Parke |
| Helena Sellergren | Paul Hoelen | Tui McLauchlan |
| Janette Goodey | Philip Courtois | Virginia Woods-Jack |
| Jonathan Campbell | Philip Markham | William Carroll |
2023 marks the show’s 20th anniversary. Come celebrate this milestone with us.
200 of New Zealand’s finest emerging artists will showcase new work created especially for the show.
COME TO THE SHOW
2023 marks the show’s 20th anniversary. Come celebrate with Carla.
200 of New Zealand’s finest emerging artists will showcase new work created especially for the show.
For the remainder of February we will be donating 50% of all show day tickets sales to Cyclone Gabrielle relief.Purchase tickets online – only $10 each. Door sales will be $15.
Each ticket can be used on any ONE day – Friday, Saturday or Sunday
PARTY WITH US AT THE GALA
Secure your tickets to the Gala Evening and enjoy the added bonus of attending the VIP Preview.
The Gala Evening is art’s biggest night out with delicious canapés,
fine wine, great beer, live music and all art for sale
At the VIP Preview be the first to meet the artists and buy art
