Catherine Aldred (Gleisner) studied Illustration at Camberwell School of Art (University of the Arts London) after gaining a distinction at Leeds College of Art during her Foundation year.
Catherine often works from life using watercolour and ink in a lively way, seeking to capture the speed and vibrancy of life in the urban environment. She derives inspiration from the architectural detailing on buildings, so often missed at street level.
Her pen and ink illustrations for the New Arcadian Journal over the past decade have seen her work encompass landscape as well as cities, featuring architecture, gardens, monuments, follies and sculpture in historic settings.
Catherine has exhibited widely in both group and solo shows, in spaces as diverse as The Institute of Contemporary Arts and Association of Illustrators in London; the Design Innovation Centre, the Brahm Gallery and the city Art Gallery in Leeds; Kentmere House Gallery, Mansion House, National Railway Headquarters and the city Art Gallery in York; and at the Fondation Coubertin, Yvelines, near Paris.
Catherine also works to commission. Her illustrations have featured in a wide variety of publications including Homes and Gardens, Artists and Illustrators, Cheshire Life and Yorkshire Life magazines. She was commissioned in 2000 to produce a limited edition print series of landmark London legal buildings. Work for television has included illustrating for BBC TV Jackanory and producing storyboards for Watershed Pictures Ltd.
Recently, Catherine has been commissioned to produce limited edition prints for Watermark Gallery, based in North Yorkshire.
Catherine has also produced limited edition lithographs and lino prints and future plans include an increased focus on printmaking.
A keen collector of illustrated books, she has been inspired since her teens by artists whose work is characterised by a strong fluid line and an eye for composition such as Ronald Searle, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Paul Hogarth, Leonard Rosoman, David Gentleman, John Piper, David Knight, Osbert Lancaster, Charles Keeping, John Minton and Ben Shahn, as well earlier artists including Pierre Bonnard and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
