Catherine McWilliams is a Belfast-born artist whose distinguished career has spanned more than six decades. She studied at Belfast School of Art and has exhibited since 1961. Her work is closely bound to place, moving between the female figure, domestic life and landscape. From the streets of Belfast and the pressures of urban life during the Troubles, to the Glens of Antrim and the boglands of Ireland, her paintings draw together memory, home and the emotional resonance of landscape. Alongside her work as a painter, she had a long career in art education, including her role as Head of Foundation Studies at Rupert Stanley College until 1990. In 1986, she and her husband, the painter Joseph McWilliams, founded the Cavehill Gallery in North Belfast.

Photo: Paul Marshall