Catharine Cummins

Catharine Cummins is a Barbadian born in Jamaica to a Jamaican mother and a Barbadian father. She started her artistic training locally at Queens College and then moved on to achieve a degree in Textile Design at the University of Brighton in the UK. 

Marge 2015, is the famous painted cow at Limegrove Lifestyle Centre, designed by Catharine Cummins
Marge is the famous painted cow at Limegrove Lifestyle Centre, designed by Catharine Cummins
Marge is the famous painted cow at Limegrove Lifestyle Centre, designed by Catharine Cummins
Marge at Limegrove Lifestyle Centre

For many years she was self employed as a printed textile designer for the US swimwear market. Having spent those years being constrained to a fairly strict design format, she shrugged off that title and got busy painting anything she wanted to, including numerous very-still-lifes during lockdown - a snowcone cart, a surfboard, 2 life-sized fiberglass cows, 2 mini buses and a portrait of a garden in France.

front of mini bus illustrated by catharine cummins

mini bus illustrated by catharine cummins

Recently, she became obsessed with collecting vintage ceramic shards that she finds in the very dirt of Barbados while walking all over the island. Cathy has been avidly hiking around Barbados for the past 15 years particularly in St. Joseph and the Garrison area near her home. She collects bits of 18-19th century pottery that often crop up in the earth especially if it has just recently rained. 

The new artwork she has created is already over 200 years old and you can’t get more authentic than shards dug from the very dirt in these fields and hills
of Barbados.

This year Catharine Cummins illustrated the artwork of the 2023 edtiion of the Ins & Outs of Barbados.