Cate Maddy

Cate Maddy is a Melbourne based artist living and working on Wurundjeri Country.

Her practice is grounded in deep connection to the Australian bushland - an ever-evolving source of inspiration that shapes both the emotional and conceptual core of her work.

Her mixed media paintings invite intuitive, sensory responses from viewers, while engaging with expansive themes such as identity, time, memory and perception.

Cate's process is both instinctive and deliberate. She builds her surfaces through gestural mark-making, layering pigments and materials in a way that suggests both movement and stillness—moments suspended in space.

“My process is both instinctive and deliberate. I build surfaces through gestural mark-making, layering pigments and materials in a way that suggests both movement and stillness- moments suspended in space. I create a textured surface with marble dust and other ingredients to disrupt the picture plain and allow the poured pigments to settle in unexpected ways. I then work into it with Oil paint, Oil sticks, charcoal, pencil and crayon as mark making is the focus of my technique. My approach embraces abstraction as a way of articulating what cannot be easily seen or said: a way of being in the work that is felt more than understood.

With each painting, I aim to create a space of contemplation- an encounter with nature not just as a visual subject, but as a lived and felt presence. My paintings offer portals into something larger, reflecting the quiet, complex relationships we hold with place, self and the unseen.” – Cate Maddy