With a background in architecture, Catherine David worked as a product designer for over two decades, developing a keen sensitivity to form, material and detail. Alongside her design career, she studied the traditional art of icon painting under a Russian Orthodox teacher, learning the ancient techniques of gesso, bole, egg tempera, pigment and gold leaf.

More recently, Catherine has been drawn to the Japanese concept of komorebi—the interplay of sunlight filtering through leaves. This has inspired a new direction in her practice, exploring light, colour and the natural world through oil on canvas, drawing on the distinctive forms and textures of New Zealand native plants growing in her garden at Hot Water Beach.