In 1985 Catherine went to live  in the South West of France.  In these idyllic surroundings she brought up her four daughters and painted the landscapes, the vines above their house, and still life for 18 years. In 1998, she started trips to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coast painting large canvases of shells, shoals of fish and crustaceans, and wanting to pursue this interest further the Forshall's moved to the coast in Catalonia from 2003-2005.  Here she studied shoals of fish swimming on the inside of the waves very close to the beach, finding endless fascination and inspiration in their forms and striving to capture what she saw in her work. 

Catherine says, 'I find fish so beautiful,  the way they seem to refract the light so that sometimes it is like looking at hundreds of prisms. There is the grace of  movement, the wonderfully elegant shapes, the sense of latent energy.' 

In 2005 the family moved once again, this time to Devon, and here Catherine has been able to continue her explorations in recording marine life.  In recent years she has increasingly crossed the mythical border into Cornwall, a veritable playground of artistic inspiration, where she continues to develop and record what she sees in her inimitable style and in different media including acrylic, pen and ink and mixed media.  

Despite being based manly in Devon, Catherine still spends some of the year at her studio in France.