About Catherine Kauffman

I came back to my art after a long hiatus to raise my children and retiring from a career completely devoid of art and creativity. First it started with weaving which triggered memories of my love of color. That led to an impulse purchase of pastels which led to some serious investments in pastels, and paper and frames and glass and studio equipment. And a serious mess in the studio that I created from my youngest son’s former bedroom. I loved the process of painting and the look of pastels that reminded me of painting with oils. So I bought some oil paint and took a class. Then I took another class and before I knew it I was painting regularly in oils and winning prizes and selling my work.

Now I’m teaching and trying to use the current best practices for studio safety (minimal use of solvents), proper ventilation and painting practices that science is showing leads to better longevity of work. I have come to prefer rigid surfaces, which in our humid Virginia climate, reduces the shrink and expansion that canvas and linen experience and with quality paints applied in a logical fashion results in less cracking and flaking in the paint.

I have always had a deep love of the work of the impressionists in particular Edmund Degas and Mary Cassatt whose compositions often remind me of the many snapshots we take on our phones today. Slightly off kilter, perhaps clipped from the frame, leading to something (if one squints) can almost seem abstract. From them I also learned to introduce colors which the casual observer may not see but which pop up in reflected lights and sunlit vibrancy. I’ve also love to find all the darks in my composition and help them meet up to create interesting shapes, then develop them with layers of paint to create depth for the viewer.

I’m also very much a student of John Singer Sargent and the magical way he handled paint and brushes. I confess I am not, as stridently particular about perfection in that I am rarely inclined to wipe down a painting completely because I’m not happy with the progress. I will, however, paint the same subject many times until I feel I have learned everything I can learn from it.

Like Degas and Sargent I’m enamored with painting the human figure, especially someone in a costume of some sort even if that is their pajamas or tattered work clothing. Mary Cassatt inspires me to look to the children as subjects.

I have goals of improving my landscape and still life work and I occasionally answer the call to venture out for a day or two of plein air painting.

I am a rebel. I push back against the trend toward non-representational art. I appreciate the concept of pushing boundaries, but not to the point of confusing the viewer.

No, I want you, my viewer, to “get it.” Immediately. On some level. If you look my bird paintings, I want you to see and understand you are looking at a bird. Hopefully, if you know anything about birds, you can even identify what type of bird it is. Beyond that, I want you to catch a bit of the personality of the bird itself, it’s environment, a moment in its life. Finally, if you’ve hung around long enough, I want you to notice that this is not a photograph. It’s not photo realism. There are brush strokes that add variety, colors that might be a bit unexpected and yet they work to create the illusion that this is a familiar bird.

Because, despite my rejection of non-representational art, I don’t see things like “normal” people. When I look at a flower I see values, I see reflected light, I see lines and shapes. When I look at a person, I see shimmering colors, I see movement, I “feel” the warmth of the person and their personality. I’ve held babies in my arms. I have felt their little heart beats and I have felt the clutch of their tiny fingers around my finger. I want you to also feel their life. When I paint animals like dogs, cats and racoons, squirrels or sheep; I try to capture the volume of their bodies, the strength of their muscles as they wiggle away or push in for more petting.

In my still life and plein air and landscape work, I want to capture and share with you the temperature of the air, the sunlight bouncing off leaves and water. I want to find the shapes, lines and values that define what I see and somehow do that with the mundane tools of a panel, paint and brushes or pastels. I want you to know you are looking at a glass jar, or a tomato, or perhaps a field of cotton, a barn and a pine tree. I want you to have as sense of place.

Most of all, I work to capture the beauty in the normal and mundane. The bird at the feeder, the apple on the cutting board or the old car in the shed. I only hope I have done my job well enough for you to see that beauty as well.

About

Artist Statement