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Catherine Chambers

@cchambersart

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🥇 RBA Huaicun Zhang Award ‘25
🏆 HSF @nationalportraitgallery Award ‘24
🌟 @royalsocietybritishartists Rising Star Award ‘24
📍 @bowarts Camden Studio

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What a whirlwind! And an honour to be a prize winner for the National Portrait Gallery’s Herbert Smith Freehills award 😁

I’ve had the best time already and today is only day one of the exhibition actually open!

Some photos of highlights so far…having the painting shared so that more people can see it…my favourite being the “sleepy gunners fan” headline from the @evening.standard

The Private View and Press Day were both great events full of very happy artists that I’ve loved having the opportunity to meet! It has also been great to have the opportunity to talk my painting and issues it highlights (that I’ll share further in a following post)

Congratulations to @antonywilliams1410 for winning first prize! And to @isabellawatling for coming second! And to @beeorcutt for receiving the young artist award 👏 👏 👏

Thank you to the @nationalportraitgallery team, so friendly and supportive. Thanks to @hsfglobal , the head sponsors of the prize 🙏

Particularly honoured to have my work selected by @barbarawalkerstudio , @russelltovey of @talkart , and Sir Tom Shakespeare , @tanyabentleywachsmann and @nicholascullinan 🙌
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@guardian @worldoffad #herbertsmithfreehillsportraitaward #nationalportraitgallery #herbertsmithfreehills #prizewinner #npg #paintingpeople #portraitprize #portraitpainting #oilpaint #catherinechambers #art #painting #contemporaryart #artnow #talkart #londonexhibition #arsenal #football @arsenal @arsenalwfc @officialarsenalacademy by @cchambersart

Annie - a Sotheby’s graduate, on her return to India

A work in progress that began with studies of my friend in the pub, but evoked by a goodbye dinner party…now turning into a painting

Exploring the irony that exists between a person’s creative devotion and the unyielding nature of institutional boundaries.

It continues with the themes in much of my work: uneven playing fields and foreign restrictions but this time in the direction of the art world

With a bit of @hellsgibson “Three Wise Women” on my studio wall for company!
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#workinprogress #sothebysinstitute #portrait #contemporaryart #figurative @bowarts @sothebysinstitute by @cchambersart

Selam’s Liturgy
91x61cm
2026
Oil on canvas

Currently being exhibited at Wells Cathedral as part of @wellsartcontemporary , selected by @dreph_ @abdollah.nafisi and @annemagillartist
The exhibition is on until 7 November and at such a stunning location, I recommend a trip down there, especially for a change of pace after @friezeofficial week!

Previously Selam Le Ethiopia, 2025, a painting selected by Tabish Khan @londonartcritic for Beyond The Prize exhibition, celebrating contemporary figurative art at @mallgalleries
Having it back in the studio since, I wanted to make some changes to the work and as I continued it became “Selam’s Liturgy”

I am curious about how we curate our own identities. What shapes us, to shape us? How we perform, and how that may alter depending on audience, or what parts of us we carry always?

The work is a painting of my good friend @selam_lethiopia ; a Swedish born Ethiopian living in London. A comedian, who chose to be baptised as an adult into the Orthodox Christian religion. Selam made a great subject to explore themes of personal curation.

Whilst painting, I was thinking about what choices we make to belong, and the balance (of harmony and disharmony) of being unique vs being part of something
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@women_in_art__ @sissaylemn @azmaribet
#contemporarypainting #154artfair #friezeweek #artbasel #habesha by @cchambersart

A wonderful opening to the @wellsartcontemporary exhibition at Wells Cathedral

Thanks to @dreph_ @abdollah.nafisi and @annemagillartist for selecting my painting “Selam’s Liturgy” as a finalist

And congratulations to my old university tutor @richardkentonwebb for winning a prize! I still find it exciting when we end up in the same shows 😁

The exhibition is open at Wells Cathedral in Somerset from 10 October to 7 November 2026 - such a beautiful setting, I recommend a visit!
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@parkerharrisco
#wac #friezeweek #portrait #ethiopia #contemporaryart by @cchambersart

Dead Soldiers
2026
Oil on canvas
152 x 122cm

So pleased to have this work recieve an honourable mention by @wolfsoncollegeoxford for “whose work prompted particularly thoughtful discussion during the judging process”
Big thanks to artist @eileen_cooper_ra and art collector @christian_levett for considering the work for the Wolfson Collection.

The painting was also considered for the @womeninartprize__ this year

Dead Soldiers came from watching children play ‘Sleeping Lions’ on a lawn. My initial thought as I glanced at them was “they look dead”. That reflex bothered me because images of children in conflict are now so constant in the news and on social media.

I later discovered the game was once called ‘Dead Soldiers’. This led to further ways childhood can be taken too soon. I used the title to prompt viewers to notice the link I had, and to question how quickly distance collapses between a quiet field and a wider world.

The painting leans into this unsettling duality. The saturated greens of the grass and the clear, idyllic daylight aim to evoke a pure childhood afternoon. Yet, beneath the protective canopy of the tree, the sprawling, unmoving postures of the children take on an eerie permanence.

The work challenges the emotional distance we keep from distant grief.
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@women_in_art__
#figurativepainter #contemporaryart #artnow #frieze #children by @cchambersart

Honoured to be a finalist with my painting “He Didn’t Think About His Future” for this years Sidney Nolan Prize @sidneynolantrust
The painting was also longlisted for @jmpaintingprize 2025

He Didn’t Think About His Future
2025
A painting that evolved from an earlier version, but is likely to grow further in the future - swipe to learn more about the painting..

The exhibition continues to the 4th October
Open Weds-Sat 11am-4pm

50 artists were selected from over 1600 international entries and had their works installed throughout the galleries, historic buildings, and gardens of the Sidney Nolan Trust

I’ve not been able to make it down to the exhibition myself, so thanks to @sarah_jane_moon @carolinepoolart and @soulbaraitser for the in situ pics
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@parkerharrisco #contemporaryart #triptych #figurativepaintings #storytelling #paintingpeople

This triptych considers a tale told by a younger man about an older companion, but who seemed at risk of following the same path.
As we staged the composition of the two (in the centre panel) at a local bar one evening, others in our company watched on. I thought about how the comment “He didn’t think about his future” applies to others and the painting grew organically.
Often when we focus on one subject, the peripheral slips away; the ‘storyteller’ perhaps wasn’t aware of his own destiny despite being so acutely aware of others, and myself as the artist, focusing on the painting, for a while lost sight of my own involvement of future plans. With hindsight, I introduced the others in our company onto the outer panels. In the triptych ‘uncertainty’ is suggested by the intrusion of the central characters into the outer panels. Paths cross, the unexpected happens and time moves on.
The painting demonstrates continued patterns in human behaviour. by @cchambersart

IX International Chateau Kalpak Art Symposium 2026

Such a fantastic experience working alongside so many wonderful creatives in the stunning Turkish vineyards this summer. I’m very grateful to have been selected as Englands artist this year and to have made so many new artist friends - it can be easy to stay in your bubble, with like minded creatives, working in the same field as you…but working in a new space with artists that have completely different styles and working methods really stretched me and it’s felt like great exercise for my own practice!

A huge thanks to Bulent, who has acquired two new works of my mine for his Kulpak Collection. The most generous host 🥂

And to the wonderful @artist_orhan_cebrailoglu whose energy is totally infectious, it’s impossible not to smile in his presence, a great inspiration 💫
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#artsymposium #internationalartist #painting #artcurator #contemporaryart by @cchambersart

I loved where curator @artist_orhan_cebrailoglu positioned my work within the @chkalpak collection. The themes of the surrounding artists complimented my “Workers paintings” : the bundles representing the harvest, the hung painters jeans pausing between creations, the bold shapes and lines of colour from the barrels complimenting my compositions. It was the right home for them in the best company ✨

My work is always in response to the environment that I am in, so for this opportunity I began with a walk, and discovered a quiet place with farming machinery.
The machines felt like sculptures in their own right. They reminded me of Orhans own sculptures “Ch Kalpak karıncaları” that live among the vineyard grounds.

I wanted to respond to this, I drew directly onto the canvases among the machines on the land, and later the drawings evolved into their own beings, as I painted between the barrels.

I see the works as figures; workers, with the stones they carry representing the weight of personal responsibility and duty. To me, they aren’t so different from my usual themes, it was limited time and materials… a compromised way of working that led me to divert further visually.
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#painting #contemporaryart #artcurator #artistresidency #figurativepainter @women_in_art__ by @cchambersart

This summer I was selected to join an international artist residency in Turkey as Englands artist

It was so interesting to meet and work alongside artists from all over the world and get an insight into eachothers practices
It also made me realise how differently I work, and the absolute importance of work being connected to where I am, but at the same time making connections to me

Where other artists were able to dive in straight away, I needed the first day to walk, explore and observe…it was an interesting pressure to see people finishing works when I hadn’t began yet!

The land is stunning and I was really drawn to our curator @artist_orhan_cebrailoglu sculptures living among the vineyards. Whilst exploring the final corner, i came across machinery resting in the long grass, it reminded me of the children i was painting back at my studio in “dead soldiers” and “sleeping lions” (see previous post). The machines were sculpturally strong and had similar traits to insects, just as Orhan had created…thats how i found my subjects

Working in the strong sun, using acrylic rather than oils, were new challenges to me. That along with most artists leaning towards abstract work, had an influence on my style.

It was a fantastic experience and I felt absolutely spoilt by @chkalpak who took such great care of their artists. Huge thanks to the team out there and I hope we meet again 🧡

#artistresidency #painting #sculture #drawing #contemporaryartist by @cchambersart

#TBT - Throwing it back to our Outrageous Art Consultancy project for UK TV, created to celebrate the six-part drama exploring the extraordinary lives of the infamous Mitford sisters.

Six artists. Six actresses. Six unforgettable portraits: each capturing a different side of these controversial, unconventional women: Audacious. Dangerous. Rebellious. Boisterous. Notorious. Adventurous.

From Nancy to Pamela, Diana to Unity, the commissioned portraits brought the world of Outrageous to life through the eyes of contemporary portrait artists. This project is a brilliant reminder of how portraiture can transcend time, reimagining historical figures through a contemporary lens. by @cchambersart

Cropped Details of a new painting, currently longlisted for the @womeninartprize__

Inspired by watching children playing sleeping lions at a forest school and being surprised when my first thought was “they look dead”

I’d asked my friends daughter and her friends to later model for the figures but as always I then became connected to the new group of children and painted them too

Sleeping lions was formerly known as “dead soldiers” which became this painting…

The grass begins to grow a little around the figures and there’s a quiet that doesn’t feel like rest. It is a painting about children, vulnerability, and the distance that collapses faster than we expect
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@women_in_art__ #figurativepaintings #oilpaint #contemporaryart #paintingpeople #artprize by @cchambersart

Been busy painting grass…nearly there and then back to the leaves…

…And miraculously green remains one of my fave colours

The work comes from watching children playing sleeping lions, and thinking they looked as though they could be dead, and then thinking how awful it is that such images aren’t unusual in current times

My friends mum told me in her time “sleeping lions” used to be called “dead soldiers” which (sadly) felt appropriate for the title and gives the painting more prompts for thought

#children #npg #contemporaryart #painting #figurativeart by @cchambersart