About the Artist
Kathryn Madill, based in Dunedin, has attracted critical acclaim for her fine printmaking and paintings drawn from fragments of literature, mythology, and fairytale. In the age-old tradition of the printmaker, her work sometimes taps into the dark side of the subconscious, but there is also an uplifting quality of faith and belief underpinning much of her work.
She draws the viewer into her imaginative, sometimes haunting storytelling through its intimacy and fine detail, and her sublime sensitivity to mood.
She has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and has works in private and public collections here and in Australia. Born in Ruatahuna in 1951, Kathryn Madill also grew up in Taupo and Dunedin. She majored in printmaking for her Fine Arts degree from the University of Canterbury, graduating in 1971, and now lives and works in Dunedin, in the south of New Zealand.
Mezzotints and etchings
The artist is one of New Zealand’s finest exponents of mezzotint – a process which allows very intense inking and depth in the work. Figures float, morph, and meditate in works of great delicacy, especially when she works in miniature. Some reference Shakespeare, others Victorian literature (such as The Life of Emily Bronte) in which she has a special interest, while certain prints draw on mythological reference or life experience, often with a contemporary edge.
The plate for The Life of Emily Bronte was made in 1998, but she delayed making this exquisite print until 2015 when she felt confidence in her skill to execute a work of such delicacy. In Art New Zealand in 2011, arts writer and critic David Eggleton described encountering her art as ‘like being given the key to a locked room of curios and talismans – the votive tokens of time and memory’, works with a hypnotic dreamy quality and exquisite moodiness.
Her works are most often peopled by female characters, sometimes contemporary, sometimes of another age, often journeying or seeking sanctuary. Metaphor and allegory abound, with signals beckoning, perhaps suggesting hope, from a far shore, or shadows lurking just beyond the light.
