Cathy Doocy

About the Artist:  Painting and drawing have always been a part of my life. Though other interests and “jobs” have claimed my attention through the years, there has always been a place for art, a studio - the Fuller Brush factory, the Colt Factory, the Mill in Tariffville.  My current studio is in the old railroad station in Windsor. Figurative drawing and painting were my focus as a student at the University of New Hampshire and at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven. While completing my Masters at Wesleyan, I undertook a project that would force me to work from memory - night landscapes. I have been exhibiting contemporary landscapes throughout New England for over 20 years. I was a member of Artworks Gallery for many years and volunteered as a docent at the Wadsworth Atheneum for 18 years. I have been fortunate to combine art with one of my other loves, travel - a month studying in Normandy, a residency at Weir Farm National historic site, and a 6-week residency in Bulgaria. However, my landscape imagery is all about the fields and hills of New England. I grew up in South Windsor and have lived in Windsor for 30 years with my husband Chuck Drake. 

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Statement:  The landscape around us is always changing. The transitions may be gradual as in the seasonal shifts of color, or the daily cycle from dawn to dusk to night. Others could be abrupt and dramatic - storm clouds, wind-tossed trees, thunderstorms. I have tried to evoke the dynamic nature of landscape. These landscapes may be anywhere the viewer imagines; site-specific documentation is not my goal. I attempt to summon the feeling, the atmosphere, the movement of a place. I create using visual memories, random images that materialize on paper or canvas. A few marks, brushstrokes, or stains of color can conjure up a field, a cloud, or a day. I marvel at how easily a line can transform itself into a tree, a simple stain of blue becomes sky, and wind is created with a brushstroke.