'I still take childlike pleasure in the exploratory process of creating art. Ever since I can remember, painting has been a door into my own world.'
Anholt works in studios above the sea in Devon, South West England. She was born in 1958, one of eight siblings in an Irish Catholic family. 'My mother was a nurse and my father a potter. We lived in a tiny village, surrounded by fields and hills so life was pretty simple.' It was in this rural setting that Anholt's creativity took root - from a very early age, she began to work freely in highly colourful sketchbooks, a habit which has continued unbroken to the present day.
Anholt gained a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, Cornwall. She then moved to London and took a Master's Degree at the Royal College of Art, where she was offered the Rome Scholarship.
In 1984 she married her husband, Laurence, also an artist with an MA from The Royal Academy in London. Her first daughter was born in 1984, followed by twins three years later. 'Our focus then was on providing for the children, so Laurence and I moved into the world of children's publishing and began to create picture books.' Anholt's son, Tom is a leading artist working in Germany and Denmark.
Over the last 25 years, the Anholts have written and illustrated more than 200 highly successful children's books, which are published in 30 languages around the world and have won numerous awards. Throughout, Catherine has continued to work in her studio on hundreds of large, fluid drawings and paintings, which, until very recently, she has shared only with family and friends. Her themes are pregnancy, childbirth and love of family and nature.
EXHIBITIONS
London Art Fair, TIN MAN ART, London (2024)
'Love, Life, Loss', curated by Tom Anholt, Choi&Choi Seoul (2023)
London Art Fair, TIN MAN ART, London (2023)
'A Rainbow's Edge', TIN MAN ART, London (2022)
Art Busan, South Korea (2022)
Flower, Choi&Choi Gallery, Seoul (2022)
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall galleries, London (2021)
Whelm, Leicester Contemporary, Leicester (2021)
Arundel Contemporary, Arundel, West Sussex (2021)
'Invincible Summer', Galerie Mikael Andersen, Copenhagen (2018)
EDUCATION
1982-1985 MA Royal College of Art, London
1979-1982 BA Hons Fine Art, Falmouth Cornwall (First Class Honours)
1978 Foundation, Oxford