WIP of the secret forest. The intriguing thing about the distant light is that’s a wall of falling water that feeds the creek. Where bears roam. 18 x 24” oil on linen panel.
Oil, 18 X 24”, the forest below the dam. Where bears roam.
Point Reyes Estuary Plein Air, 16 X 20” matted, Catherine Twomey
Plein Air Point Reyes Watercolor, Now Available
This professionally matted, high quality giclee print is now available at the following link:
https://www.artfinder.com/manage/catherinetwomey/product/point-reyes-estuary-limited-edition/
“Point Reyes Estuary
I sat above the ocean for about three hours, after having hiked from the last road towards the tip of Tomales Trail. While sitting here painting, a coyote slid by, his eye on me the entire time. I could hear the waves lapping against the shore as the tide came in. The pattern of the cliffs was of particular interest and beauty”
"Solvent-Free Oil Painting Basics" - A Workshop! 1/13/24
Oil painting is hard enough!
Learn safe, archival methods on 1/13/24 in a half day workshop: “Solvent-Free Oil Painting Basics”. I'm the guest artist of Cynthia Llanes FineArt Studios, the Workshop is Saturday, 1/13/24, 1 - 5pm in the River Arts District, Riverview Station at 191 Lyman Street, Studio 324.
For additional information & Registration, visit www.catherinetwomey.com
Legends of the Moon and the Lunar Codex
Era Contemporary, Philadelphia, presents Legends of the Moon exhibition of artworks. The works selected for inclusion in Legends of the Moon will be included in the Lunar Codex: Polaris mission.
The selected works will be catalogued and included in the Lunar Codex, as well as exhibited in person at Era Contemporary. The U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a plan, the Artemis Program, to land humans back on the Moon in 2025, for the first time in over 50 years.
In preparation, NASA will send scientific instruments to the Moon, over 2022 to 2024, via Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) partners, such as Astrobotic Technologies and Intuitive Machines. Their lunar landers will launch as payloads of commercial rocket platforms by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) or SpaceX.
Along with NASA instruments, these missions will carry commercial payloads, including the three time capsules that make up The Lunar Codex.
This will be the first significant placement of contemporary arts on the Moon in 50 years. While focused on visual art, the Lunar Codex also includes a substantial collection of contemporary books, stories, poetry, films, music, essays, and more.
“The Polaris Collection” is our payload associated with an Astrobotic Griffin/NASA VIPER mission, landing in the vicinity of the Lunar South Pole. Legends of the Moon will be on this mission.
As an arts and culture project, The Lunar Codex has been called the most expansive, international, and diverse collection of contemporary culture launched to the Moon. Significantly, it is the first project to launch the works of women artists to the lunar surface. It is also the first project, to our knowledge, to place film and music on the Moon.
The Lunar Codex represents creative work from Canada, the U.S., China, India, the E.U., Australia, the U.K., and indeed from 89 countries and territories from Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Oceania and Asia — firsts on the Moon for many of these countries.
“Our hope is that future travelers who find these time capsules will discover some of the richness of our world today… It speaks to the idea that, despite wars and pandemics and climate upheaval, humankind found time to dream, time to create art.”
- Samuel Peralta, director of the Lunar Codex
Upcoming Workshop: "Solvent-Free Oil Painting Basics"
Additional information to come!
Studio Sale on etsy.com (catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com) Now!
Lots of "Thank you's (or youse)" lately to the wonderful people who support my artistic efforts and purchase my prints and/or original artwork. You're inspirational, motivational and downright kind! Grateful - more so than you can imagine. Etsy: catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com
Studio Sale! Catherine Twomey Art - Until 12/1/23
Just a few of the pieces now on sale in my store on Etsy:
25% off, original pieces.
Studio Sale: Catherine Twomey Art Until 12/1/23
Award winning “Maple Ridge Blue Ridge Mountains” oil with copper and gold. Until December 1, 2023, 25% off selected original oils here: catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com
Original Oils Sale Until 12/1/23: Catherine Twomey, Award Winning Artist
Five sold in the last month - now is the moment. These are larger original oils and and framed, ready to hang: catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com
Just A Second Ago....
Just a second ago, this was how the lake looked. Early morning light, nature and design combined. Then up came the wind, the rain is coming, and it's stick season.
Oil, 8” X 16”, unframed
"Pumpkin Diaries: The Shadow Knows"
As fall descends, so too do the pumpkins. I teach horseback riding to autistic children on Saturdays. The farm grows a big patch of pumpkins that they sell at local markets, so I nabbed this extraordinarily lyrical one to paint. There was something so lovely about the interaction between the blues and oranges. This piece is unframed, 8 X 16" on archival Ray Mar panel, in oils. It marks the rapidly changing seasons on a Friday the 13th. So appropriate.
Orbis: Improving Eyesight In South Africa
The people who may be interested in this post understand why I’m posting it.
For about a decade, when I was working full-time as a medical illustrator, I had a client that believed in working for good causes that coincided with my beliefs. As an independent contractor part of their team, I worked at a significantly reduced rate for a charity in New York, https://www.orbis.org/en. To better understand their mission:
“Imagine losing your sight in one of the poorest regions in the world. Where would you turn for help? With few quality eye doctors, hospitals or clinics, your chances of getting the right kind of care are small. As your sight gets worse, your chances of getting an education or earning a steady income begin to fade away…With your help and the support of our amazing volunteers, we can not only give people their sight back today, but help change the quality of ophthalmologists and build a lasting legacy of quality eye care that will ensure no one goes needlessly blind tomorrow.”
As a part of this effort, I created a large number of medical illustrations showing eye pathologies, including the ones shown here, which were distributed throughout clinics in South Africa. On my own dime, I few to South Africa to visit clinics to understand whether or not the work I was doing was being effective. The poverty and need I saw was overwhelming.
This is called giving back. It is most definitely not racism. I haven’t written about this until now, but now it needs to be heard. Thank you for your interest, and if you have the means, this is a very worthwhile charity.
"Blue Ridge Clouds Sheep No. 2" SOLD!
"Blue Ridge Clouds Sheep" has been SOLD to a buyer from New Jersey! Thank you so much. This original 22" X 28" oil painting on a stretched canvas frame is shipping out today. For additional originals and prints, visit my Etsy site here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1462408022/studio-sale-original-oil-painting?click_key=a1770be114ec0bc46f2e6c4906799988f8f406c7%3A1462408022&click_sum=8ea4385e&ref=shop_home_active_15&pro=1
“Blue Ridge Clouds Sheep No. 2” Sold, by Catherine Twomey
Catherine Twomey Contributes to a PAPA PBS Documentary
As a member of Preserving A Picturesque America (https://preservationthroughart.org/) yesterday I joined three other plein air painters at the Biltmore Estate on the Wisteria Terrace. As we painted we were filmed and then interviewed about our work and PAPA for an upcoming PBS Documentary. It was a most spectacular day, fortunately, and although I have almost no memory of what I said in the interview, I hope I did PAPA proud - I know they make me proud.
Painting, getting filmed and interviewed for a PBS documentary this morning at Biltmore. Four plein air painters for Preserving a Picturesque America hard at work.
Jeff the cameraman from LA, preparing to shoot with his 30# camera.
The wisteria that captured my heart and eye; along with Mt. Pisgah.
Almost finished, always one more thing to do....9 X 12" oil on Artefex canvas over aluminum panel with Michael Harding oils.
“French Broad Lean”, 9 X 12” oil on panel
Saluda Studios Opening! 5/19 6 - 9 pm! Come One Come All!
“The Island” 12 X 12”, oil, framed
Gallery Opening! This Friday evening 5/19 from 6 -9 pm:
Saluda Studios
144 Hwy. 176
Saluda, NC 28773
Hope you'll join the Preserving A Picturesque America people to celebrate the Grand Opening of Saluda Studios! I'll have four paintings available, including "French Broad Lean" and "The Island", framed oils. It will be swell!
“The Darkening” 12 X 12” Mixed media, Catherine Twomey
Featured Artist in Australia: Catherine Twomey
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Institute of Ecological Agriculture is featuring my work in their online newsletter (link below). Thanks Tony!
https://www.ecoag.org.au/campaigns/view-campaign/aEV-f0GvD8QIOWo6FIMyXfQNW_O4vad4soaOMlbEB0roJBsfrfhjpHM6iqOOGQwBW39EiIUwKTWTX14oqMGawiooADXXljRE
Public Service Announcement: "Mercury: Dangerously Fishy"
"The following is a personal Public Service Announcement - my first, and I hope the last:
Mercury: Dangerously Fishy by Catherine Twomey, FAMI, Emeritus
Thinking about ordering that lovely swordfish or sea bass, steaming and covered in capers? Or, how about that sushi? About to pop open a can of “sustainable, thoughtfully harvested” Albacore tuna to eat on a salad or for a delicious tuna fish sandwich? Think again; hard.
I’ve just been diagnosed with mercury toxicity. For the last two months, I’ve worked with an integrative, functional medicine doctor while she supervised and interpreted over 10 tests, ranging from blood to hair and lots in between.
What kind of harm is done by an excess of mercury? Without getting overly scientific, the overall scope is that it’s prevented my body from functioning properly for a long time. Mercury toxicity can be a root cause of a host of maladies that are otherwise attributed to things like aging or chronic disease.
I have stepped out of traditional medicine because it failed me once again. My general practitioner refused to do annual blood tests for me since 2020 - even though I asked him to repeatedly, telling me: “You’re doing just fine, you don’t need them.” Funny, he had no problem doing them for my husband. I found a traditionally trained physician whose specialty, functional integrative medicine, isn’t recognized by Medicare, yet who is one of the most intelligent, thorough and life-changing people I’ve met.
The mercury toxicity diagnosis has been pretty exhausting and frightening. Sure, I’d heard about fish and mercury - but it really can’t be that bad, otherwise I would have heard more about it, right? Wrong. I can no longer eat any fish or shellfish except a limited amount of salmon. As a small species fish with lower mercury, salmon is loaded with antioxidants; a good thing. At this point in the earth’s environmental destruction, every species of fish or shellfish has mercury in it. It’s just a question of which species does the most harm.
What’s being dumped into the oceans is much worse than it was just a couple of decades ago. I had been experiencing subtle, weird symptoms of various things and at least now have an explanation for them. My body is slowly healing and balancing, and I’m going to have what’s called chelation therapy to “liquify” what mercury is in my body with hopes of a full recovery. It’s going to take thousands of dollars and up to seven months.
Our medical system is broken; this story is just one tiny example. When I tell doctors about my mercury toxicity, their typical first response is: “that’s rare.” I suspect the opposite is true. How can you know if something is rare if it’s not even tested for routinely? Unfortunately, most physicians have had little nutritional education and we’re paying a steep price for that deficiency.
The amount of mercury and other industrial waste being freely released into the oceans has increased by about 30% just in the last 20 years - ah, those pesky environmental regulations - and is increasing exponentially. Yet there are no standard tests done to measure changing nutritional needs or toxic exposure. The tests are affordable, do-able remotely and could significantly alter the grossly mismanaged, unregulated supplement industry profoundly - and please, don’t even get me started on the pharmaceutical industry. Illnesses could be re-diagnosed, correctly; lives saved, improved and millions of dollars redirected towards better health outcomes rather than chronic diseases.
I loved to eat fish. I’d read, been told and thought I was doing the “right” thing and following a great diet full of everything you’re supposed to eat with very little of the bad stuff. Not anymore. At least for the foreseeable future, I’m all plant based. I’m actually learning to cook because at least I know what’s going into and can control each meal. I want to keep outdoor mountain painting, thinking clearly, horseback riding and being disease free as long as possible.
Lately I’ve mused on how ironic it is that, as an emeritus medical illustrator and fine art painter, I’ve focused on the complexity and beauty of nature and fragility of the earth’s environment. My brain calling out for help? Maybe. Or maybe the earth’s problems are now hitting home and I can no longer be in denial. It’s not fun being the canary in a coal mine."
“Accelerating” by Catherine Twomey; 30” X 30” acrylics, pigments
Article: "The Universe" Interview by the Center for Humans and Nature
The Center for Humans and Nature (https://humansandnature.org/) interviewed me for this feature: https://humansandnature.org/the-universe/...
I am very grateful for their work and interest.
The Universe | Center for Humans and Nature
"Lemon Levitation" by Catherine Twomey
Painted plein air in the garden, Palm Springs, CA. I've never spent this much time in the desert and it's really starting to grow on me. Daily I gaze at a lovely, full lemon tree. The looming mountains still have snow at the top, yet down below it's 70 degrees and sunny. Coyotes roam the neighborhood and follow my dog and me on walks. I've been so influenced by this lemon tree, I'm now dreaming about the lemons and this inspired this piece. And p
eace.
"Old Grey Jug" Sold! by Catherine Twomey
SOLD thank you to the collector of "Old Grey Jug"! #stilllifepainting #stilllifeoil #blendgallerync #catherinetwomey1 #oilonpanel #moonshinejug