USA Projects

A long time resident of Tucson, Arizona, Catherine Nash is an artist who freely mixes media in her work to express her ideas.  Specializing in Japanese and Western hand papermaking, encaustic painting and mixed media drawing, Nash is a teaching artist who balances her studio work with artist-in-resident teaching, lectures and workshops across the United States, as well as in professional studios and universities in eight European countries, Australia and Japan.  She has published 4 educational DVDs on the art of papermaking and is currently writing a book that surveys international artists entitled "Contemporary Paper and Encaustic".   Her work has been included by invitation into numerous national and international exhibitions, most recently in Japan, Bulgaria, Poland and Australia.  Her love of travel and different cultures has inspired her to live, exhibit, research and teach on four continents.

After receiving a B.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of New Hampshire in 1980, Nash spent a year and a half creating prints and drawings in Paris.  In 1987, she graduated from the University of Arizona with a Masters of Fine Arts in Mixed Media. Two independently designed research trips to Japan enabled Nash to study the techniques of Japanese woodblock printing and papermaking in depth. From 1996-2002, her extensive research in Italy and Scandinavia increased her knowledge of historical and contemporary Western papermaking and paper arts.  Nash has combined encaustic waxes and filtered earth pigments with her handmade paper works since 1994.

The landscape, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, experiences with Native American friends and her explorations into the wilderness of the southwestern deserts have deeply influenced and informed her work.