Cathy Henderson

Cathy Henderson (4 February 1963 – 27 September 2014) was an Irish artist known for her portraiture and printing.

Early life and family Cathy Henderson was born on 4 February 1963 in London. Her parents were Peter, a lecturer in occupational psychology and Mary Henderson (née Topham), an artist. She had 3 brothers. The family lived in Barton-Under-Needwood, Staffordshire until they moved to Belfast in 1971. They initially lived on the Malone Road before moving to Drumbeg, County Down. Henderson was schooled at the Charley Memorial in Drumbeg and the Methodist College Belfast. In the late 1970s, the Henderson family moved to Bangor. As a teen, Henderson developed personal artistic style with her painting, drawing and printing. Her early influences included Andrew Wyeth, Lucien Freud, and David Hockney. After secondary school, she lived in Paris for a year working as an au pair, and was then offered a place at École des Beaux-Arts. Instead, she returned to Ireland and studied graphic design at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, from 1983. During this time, she worked in the studio of Milton Glaser in New York over a summer.

She married David Gregg, a sound recordist and video editor, in Bangor on 8 September 1984. She undertook a postgraduate degree in NCAD in the late 1980s, graduating with an MA in fine art in 1993. From the early 1990s, they lived in Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow.

Death and legacy Henderson died at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin on 27 September 2014, and was cremated at Mount Jerome cemetery on 3 October. Her final work was a commissioned portrait of oncologist Donal Hollywood for St James's Hospital. Examples of work are held in public and private collections such as National Bank of Canada, Queen's University Belfast, Bank of Ireland, BBC and the Electricity Supply Board. The Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Belfast commissioned a portrait of Henderson by Paul Mac Cormaic in October 2018.