‘The Wish Cat’ – Cathy Larsen – the bid is at $320

One might picture this pursuit filled with well-meaning, possibly uncanny valley attempts, politely smiled at by somewhat put-upon mall-goers, however Cathy was already a surprisingly developed realistic portrait artist.

‘As soon as I learned how to draw, I couldn’t stop. Christmas and birthday presents were always books or coloured pencils,’ Cathy said.

In an interview on LANCE TV Cathy speaks of her mother teaching her at about two, how to do stick figures (which Cathy says was the limit of her artistic ability) ‘She gave up when she saw me draw a bucket with an ellipse.’

This little vignette speaks to the potent entrepreneurial spirit that has carried Cathy through a rich life of artistic endeavour.

Cathy has done everything from creating a home-made magazine at eight, titled ‘The Weekly Flower’, to co-running an LGBTI sci-fi club known as ‘Spaced Out’, to organising a Melbourne folk music club.

Of her childhood, she says, ‘My dad worked for the Commonwealth bank, so we were transferred about every few years. So I was always ‘the new kid’.

‘You learned lots about how different people lived and got to see new places, but it could be quite lonely. I had nine different schools in three different states.

At one point she lived in Longreach remote central western Queensland.

‘It was the late 1960s there was no TV,’ she remembers.  ‘I was very much a loner and I read everything I could get my hands on. I read all the biographies, and even the encyclopedia! Then the council opened a new library and I discovered C S Lewis!’ Cathy said.

Asked about her flower magazine, she explained that shecreated a nursery with about 80 plants under the tankstand at home, and would create a weekly gardening magazine with gardening tips and illustrations.

‘We had a wonderful vege garden and were totally self-sufficient.’
That self sufficiency might be why, at 15 years old  in the mall in Armidale NSW, she started doing portraits commercially.

‘I gained permission from the council to do this and would roam the mall asking if people would like their portrait done, then sketching on the spot.’ The money earned went to buying books – like ‘Lord of the Rings’, and ‘Steppenwolf’. My dad and my brother were into Sci Fi and fantasy books, so I read lots of those.
I would write stories and illustrate them for English.

‘I was a library monitor and I would handletter the award inscriptions in books. I also studied classical singing,’ Cathy said. She also is her own canvas being an accomplished make up artist and cos player. Below you see her as Dr Strange.

It was in Mildura Victoria, that I first studed graphics, which opened a whole new world up to me! I was hooked on design! And of course she has since undertaken complex cover design for huge names like Tim Winton, Graham Base and Li Cunxin.

‘In 1978, I came to Melbourne to study Graphics at Prahran. That didn’t work out so I worked in design for silkscreen printing, ran a folk music club, drew portraits in markets and shopping centres and did signwriting until I returned tostudy and graduated from Swinburne Graphics in 1985. My aim was to get into publishing,’ Cathy said.

‘The first publisher I approached was McPhee Gribble. I did freelance design and illustratioin for them. Noteable titles were Peter Cundall’s ‘Practical Australian Gardener’ and Tim Winton’s ‘In the Winter Dark’.
Penguin Books bought out McPhee Gribble and I was later hired by Penguin to be a book designer. I was part of the Penguin books family for 22 years. Notable books are Graeme Base’s ‘Dicovery of Dragons’, Li Cunxin’s ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ Geoffrey Blainey’s ‘Short History of the World’, and of course especially Isobelle Carmody’s “Obernewtyn Chronicles’’

Cathy is particularly proud of her cover design for the most recent Obernewtyn Chronicles covers. ‘I was briefed to design this series, and I did what I was asked, which I thought was dull, so I presented my own left-field solution after hours … I loved isobelle’s books and wanted to give them the best covers possible,’ Cathy said.

‘I created a customised visual brand for Isobelle’s name by combining two fonts together and adding flourishes. The illustrations are a dream-like combination of photographs and illustration, expressing the character’s journey, layered in Photoshop and each having a distinct colour cast and mood.’

The covers of the seven book series are softly wrought, the placement of animals and characters, as well as the individual colour palettes selected for each book evoke the grand and fantastical journeys taking place within their pages.

Every aspect of Cathy’s book design is negotiated by her: ‘You are solving a visual problem posed by the brief.’

Whether the brief requires a painting, drawing, photo or some combination of forms and techniques, Cathy is able to produce or source these herself.

She remains a fine artist alongside her more technical graphic design skills, and she works hard. She can be focussing on as many as eight books at once, so there is not always time to read the whole book. She explains that over the years she has learned that reading the entire book can, in some ways, make the cover design more difficult. ‘There can be a drive to fit everything on to one surface,’ she said.

She has learned that it is best to maintain simplicity, creating a general atmosphere as well as leaving some hints and impressions of the greater story and world, to be discovered later by the reader. In Cathy’s hands a book cover becomes an invitation.

‘I live in Ballarat now, with my three Siamese cats, lots of plants, and everything Japanese. I still love art, books cinema, cabaret, gardening, Asian cooking, silver jewellery and eyeliner ;-),’ Cathy laughed.

Cathy’s kite merges her talent for drawing animals, font design and multimedia. The kite pictures an ethereal winged white cat, with real feathers, on a stunning cobalt background.

The words ‘Love’, ‘Healing’ and ‘Hope’ float around the edges, while the back is a startling red, for those inclined to look behind the scenes.

by Adelaide Stolba