Over/ Under
- oil on canvas
- 36 x 60 in
- $4,000
- Catherine Doocy
"People love to know how long it takes to paint my larger paintings." While the real answer, as all artists know, is that it is the accumulation of an artist's painting experience that goes into each painting, regardless of whether a piece emerges quickly or is labored over. "Most times, I am happy to say that my pieces do not take much time to paint. Since I work with thin oil paints, I do not have to wait for layers to dry. But that was not the case for this painting. I stopped and started multiple times. Whole sections of the landscape were painted out. There were once large branches reaching upward on the left side, and the sky was an entirely different color. I left it on my easel for a long time unsure of what to do next. Was it finished, or would I have to repaint it yet again? I felt lost. Where was I, the viewer, in the painting? How would I draw attention skyward to the clouds? The addition of the branches at the top resolved all my struggles - even the title!"
Catherine Doocy is an award winning landscape painter whose ethereal, dreamlike oil paintings of the sky, trees, and branches are about illusion, rather than representation. While sweeping horizons, windswept trees and rich-hued natural landscapes compose the original inspiration for much of Doocy’s work, they provide only a starting point for her reinterpretations of the natural world. A Connecticut artist, she is careful not to give her works site-specific titles; the places could be anywhere and nowhere. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the northeast and can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the U.S.
- Subject Matter: landscape