My art is deeply intertwined with my love of nature. I often start with something simple and real, like a single plant, blossom, seed-husk, or berry, and then transform it using digital art techniques into something visually engaging and often mysterious. This process explores playful creative tension, between the natural and the digital worlds.

Born in Wales the daughter of an artist and a writer, O’Hara worked in education for three decades. Serious illnesses in 2019 created a fork in the road, coinciding with the onset of the global pandemic. Teaching herself digital art, forging a new way of seeing the world, and becoming aware of the healing potential of art were three important strands to regaining balance in her life.

During the 2020-21 lockdowns O’Hara undertook a daily journalling practice by making rapid sketches of one plant growing. These talismans of a dark time have since been used by O’Hara to create two major ongoing digital art series: Plant 1 and Plant 2. Daily walks in the same local woods were also a source of imagery for what would become experimental micro-short films each with an element of magic realism or themes of the resilience of nature.

A new departure in 2024 was the incorporation of fractal images into O’Hara’s artworks with the fractal transformations often beginning from input of a single blossom or leaf. Her still vector pieces, photography, and moving fractal images come together in several experimental micro-short films. One of these, ‘Stability Instability’, based on the Plant 1 and Plant 2 sketches, was shortlisted for the MetaMorph digital art award in 2024.

Processes aside, Catrin creates artworks that are visually highly engaging with an element of drama, enigma, and mystery:

“I hope people can experience something healing and satisfying in the art. Each piece comes from a place of growth, change, and renewal, in one way or another.”