Cathy Drummond interview: From watercolour to textiles

Where Land Meets Sea by Cathy Drummond
(2019) w24xh18"

Cathy Drummond is a textile artist who lives on an island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. She’s also an accomplished watercolour/mixed-media painter who, years ago, won a national competition to paint portraits of Canadian Forces women involved in NATO war exercises. Her artwork is now in the collection of the Canadian War Museum.

More recently, after a demanding career in the federal public service, Cathy was reborn as a textile artist.

Cathy Drummond is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and the Textile Artists Cooperative. She is also a member and former president of the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild and a writer for the SAQA Atlantic blog. Cathy has exhibited in juried shows throughout Atlantic Canada and internationally.

In this feature interview, Cathy tells us about her artistic journey.

Cathy, how would you describe your work?

My work is representational, often of landscapes. It varies in style from fairly realistic to loosely impressionistic, depending on the subject matter and the mood I want to convey. Increasingly, the painting skills I developed long ago are appearing in my quilts, adding another dimension to my artwork.

Describe your journey towards becoming an artist who works with textiles. 

I had always painted. I began selling my watercolour and mixed media work in 1979, which led to a series of commissions. All that came to an end, though, when I joined the federal public service and found I had little time to paint.

Around the time of my retirement, I came across an exhibition of Laurie Swim’s textile artwork and experienced a eureka moment. I was fascinated by the richness and depth of colour possible with textiles and I had always sewn, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Laurie’s wonderful work inspired me to learn to quilt.

My Garden by the Sea
by Cathy Drummond (2020) 10" x10"

How has your life/upbringing influenced your work?

I was extremely shy as a small child and spent much time with my mother and grandmothers, who were all creative in their own ways. Though my mother and maternal grandmother both had careers, they also painted and were highly skilled at needlework. My other grandmother was a wonderful gardener. She took me on backroad journeys in the woods or on the shore. My father was the ultimate over-achiever, and all four role-models taught me not to give up on anything I start. That helps a lot when the creative process leaves me discouraged, as it sometimes does.

On Helen’s Walk, by Cathy Drummond
(2020) 12"x12" 

Tell us about your process for creating. Where do you find your inspiration and how do you get from that to a final product?

Most of my inspiration comes from nature -- the views out my window, the changing seasons and colours of the ocean and the woods. I usually work from a photograph I’ve taken, although sometimes I work from memory or invent a scene to convey a mood.

My process is continually evolving. At first, I used commercial fabrics and believed that using paint on quilts would be cheating. I worked studiously from a sketch or directly from a photo, and I built the scene from the top down. Now, I’m using much more hand-dyed, repurposed fabric and I’ve recently begun to paint my scene on plain cloth, building from there in any direction that appeals to me.

What was your experience in moving your watercolour skills to textiles?

Boys Love Mud by Cathy Drummond (2012)
w24" x h30"

Boys Love Mud was the first quilt I painted on. I turned to watercolour when I didn’t have the fabrics I needed to get the sky and faces right. Initially, I was concerned that the colour would fade or run, but I’ve since learned that after it has dried and been pressed with a hot iron, watercolour is fairly permanent on cotton fabric.

I have now experimented with various products and frequently use fabric paint, which I did, for example, to create the water in Hurricane. Fabric paint, like all acrylics, dries fast and stiffens the cloth if applied directly. What works well for me is to dilute the fabric paint and apply it to damp fabric. This way, the colours are absorbed into the cloth rather than staying on the surface.

Hurricane by Cathy Drummond (2021) w30" x h25"

More recently, I’ve also been using Inktense pencils, which are great for strengthening a line or adding a bit more shadow. When they’re wet and applied with a brush they act like watercolour but produce a more intense colour.

Once I began to use paint on my quilts, I discovered that it’s neither cheating nor unusual. Mickey Lawler’s book Skydyes: A Visual Guide to Fabric Painting is a really good book on technique.

Peggy and Helen at Book Club
by Cathy Drummond (2019) w20" x h16”

Where can readers see your work this year?

I generally have a piece or two on show in the Lunenburg Art Gallery. My piece, Displaced, is travelling with the SAQA juried exhibition, Forced to Flee, currently in Minnesota.

I also have two pieces, Hurricane and A Commotion of Coots, travelling around Atlantic Canada until 2023 in the SAQA Atlantic juried exhibition, Commotion, dates TBA.

Salt Marsh Sunset by Cathy Drummond
 (2020) 12"x12"

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You can see more of Cathy Drummond’s textile artwork online on her Artwork Archive profile page.