Catarina Diaz is a London-based manual collage and mixed media artist. Her artworks infused with Portuguese soul transcend mediums mixed media artist.
Diaz combines realism with surrealism and spirituality. Her style is characterized by a vibrant colour palette that captures London’s cosmopolitan life juxtaposed with nature motifs. The contrast alludes to the possibility of nature restoring tranquillity to the chaos of the world. Furthermore, through her work, Diaz creates a return to blissful memories. Creating art is a therapeutic process for Diaz, one where she hopes to convey a message of beauty, hope, life, and rebirth.
Notably, Diaz has been part of international solo and collective exhibitions and art fairs. Furthermore, her artworks have appeared in British publications such as House & Garden, The World of Interiors, Vogue and The FLUX Review.
Self-taught or art school?
I consider myself a self-taught exploratory artist, not restrained by conventions or formal ways to interpret the world. According to my inspiration, I relish exploring various mediums, techniques, and methods.
I drew and painted from a very early age, inspired by my very artistic family. I spent my early infancy in Africa. When I moved to Portugal at the age of five, my mother, a painter and my first art mentor coloured my first memories with a vibrant African colour palette, inspiring me to explore different artistic expressions. The deep orange African sunsets, the vibrant pink flamingos, and the magenta of the bougainvillaea were burnt into my imagination and are still an essential reference in my work today.
Alongside a career in Teaching, Public Relations and International Relations in Portugal, I never stop creating. Later in life, I embraced London’s cosmopolitan life, which became another daily inspiration for my Art. A seminal masterclass with Royal Academician David Mach opened analogue collage and mixed media to me in a completely unexpected way, inspiring me and giving me essential tools to explore new techniques.
More recently, as I felt the need to reinvent myself as a person and rediscover my artistic identity, I decided to explore my professional career as an artist and was delighted with the art world’s and my peers’ recognition.
If you could own one work of art, what would it be?
Matisse, “Cat with red fish” (Chat Aux Poissons Rouges), 1914
How would you describe your style?
B.B.C. art critic and curator Maeve Doyle described my work as “very, very transcendent pieces that mix realism with spirituality and surrealism”. And it is indeed difficult to explain what moves me to create or how it happens in my mind. I prefer to think that I am blessed with a creative and curious mind that enjoys experimenting and letting the artistic process flow freely and intuitively. I love creating thematic series, all meaningfully brought together by my admiration for the feminine figure and the wild nature motifs. Composing on paper and canvas, I particularly enjoy using oil sticks and acrylics in an abstract style, combining them with my compositions of analogue collage.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
My work consists of originals on paper and canvas and hand-embellished or digitally signed limited series of Giclée prints. I am now starting my next adventure in the N.F.T.S. world, creating animated pieces of my works in collaboration with other artists.
The whole creative process is quite long, starting from researching fashion, photography and wildlife magazines and books, taking inspiration from old films, documentaries, art and literature, and anything that may catch my attention in a particular theme in my daily life and travelling.
I gather images mostly from magazines, photographs and database images and print them as needed. Then, I manually cut all the images and organize them by theme, composing them spontaneously on paper, according to my inspiration. Then, depending on the artwork, I also paint the background with acrylics and enhance the motifs with oil sticks after glueing all the clippings of the images to obtain the final composition.
I have the original composition printed in Giclée paper in bigger dimensions for some of my works. Then I work on the composition again in layers as analogue collage and mixed media on canvas.
Is narrative important within your work?
Actually, my work is a construction of short visual narratives about the feminine universe and its dialogue with the empowering and nurturing wild nature. A kind of frame that zooms in on issues related to the rescue of feminine power and identity, particularly, and of humanity, in general.
These short stories are equally inspired by my childhood memories and the “tales of the jungle” narrated by my grandparents, always with a surrealist and colourful twist.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
New York Golden age/early Pop Art artists like Andy Warhol, the Young Artists Movement and British Pop Art like Peter Blake, photographers like Cecil Beaton (fashion) and Frans Lanting (National Geographic), are essential references for my work.
But my major reference is definitely Peter Blake, a leading figure in the pop art movement. I find his work most joyful and inventive, bringing a message of optimism and cheerfulness to overcome hard times. In addition, he has been creating paintings, collages, and prints that blend modernity and nostalgia throughout his long artistic career, which clearly inspires my work.
I deeply admire his late period and the fact that he continues creating, no longer interested in the art world’s opinion of his work, instead of creating by inspiration, being utterly genuine, regardless of its relation to his previous paintings and formed identity.
His freedom of choice and creativity in his late compositions inspire me to be authentic, to break the rules and follow my inspiration, sharing a message of blissfulness with the world.
What or who inspires your art?
Undoubtedly, the feminine universe. I tend to explore issues of female identity in contemporary times. The search for our true identity and the reconnection to nature and essence juxtaposed with urban life.
My childhood memories of the African colours, smells and narratives also inspire my self-healing creative journey of return to more serene times, where nature can offer us the ability to restore tranquillity in a chaotic world.
Where’s your studio, and what’s it like?
I’m currently working in my small home studio in London. The walls are “lined” with books, magazines, prints, original works and also photographic records of emotional moments in my career, such as the installation for the “Make it Blue Project”, curated by W1CURATES, in Oxford Street, London or with my Portuguese curator in a popular T.V. show in Portugal, with my works in the permanent set.
My studio floor is covered with cushions and blankets so that my cat Violeta and I can feel comfortable amongst the magazines that I sometimes spread on the floor for inspiration of a particular work. The curtains, cushions and blankets are mostly mustard, velvet for warmth, and my plants bring a little bit of the nature I need to inspire me.
My drawers are real archives with cut-outs of animals, butterflies, birds, flowers, and many other motifs. Ready to be used at any time are all my tools for cutting, paints of all colours and folders with clippings with ideas for the following works. And boxes and boxes of acrylics, oils, pastels, glues, varnishes and fixatives or different uses next to my huge printer/scanner.
I also have a long light wooden table by the window, overlooking my little front garden, with tall trees, birds and squirrels and a street where black taxis and red double-decker buses remind me of where I am. In this space, I follow my inspiration for my compositions, with my trusty MacBook Air to help me connect to the world.
Do you have any studio rituals?
I do! I’m a morning person, and I start my day meditating. I love looking out the window and enjoying nature if I can’t have my morning visit to my back garden or a park. Then I start leafing through magazines, checking my diary for daily tasks and meetings, replying to my emails and doing my social media. Next, depending on the stage of the work in progress, I do some clippings, compose or paint. After that, I like to have my mid-morning coffee before carrying on with my day.
What are you working on currently?
I recently launched a limited-edition luxury cushion in collaboration with the Portuguese designer Joana Sá Cabanelas and the brand J.U.U.X. It is currently represented in several designer shops, at Sao Rafael Galleries and the store of the University of Porto. Soon it will also be represented by more galleries across the world and at the store of the Maat Museum in Lisbon.
I am currently creating a new cushion and a velvet bag to add to the new collection.
Moreover, I am currently preparing for my NFTS launch, represented by a new Italian platform. This project will include a collaboration with a London based digital artist and a music composer.
I am also creating a permanent piece for the Davis Museum in Barcelona.
Additionally, I am preparing my upcoming art events across Europe, The United States, and Canada, namely a concert/exhibition in collaboration with a New York composer and the “ArtExpo New York” curated by World Wide, a Toronto International Art Fair, curated by Artio Gallery, the art fair “BOOM” at the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, curated by Focus Art Fair, and the “Brain Cake- International Art Exhibition” at Casa Milà La Pedrera in Barcelona, curated by M.A.D.S. A.R.T. Gallery, besides a few exhibitions in London, Milan, Fuerteventura, and Portugal and new representations by a Brazilian and a French Galleries.
Where can we buy your Art?
My work is represented by several galleries and art platforms in Lisbon, Milan, London, Toronto, Paris, Sweden and Brazil. My line of exclusive cushions can also be purchased in a few Portuguese designer shops, University designer stores and Museums stores.
You can find all the information on my Link tree on Instagram. You can also DM me to find out more about my current work, my prints and bespoke commissions. I will also soon launch my online shop on my website.
@catarina_diaz_
