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Catherine Foster - I love to share info for artists!
Hello, My name is Catherine Foster. After being an artist for over 35 years, I find that my career has been like a roller coaster ride. Maybe many of you feel that same way too.
Born in Seattle WA, I grew up in California. My father was a carpenter and hated the rain. Actually I think I was born an artist with a brain that functions best as being creative. Drawing and doing crafts was a way to cope with the frantic life growing up in a family of 9. All of my siblings are creative in different ways. I had a mother who always gave me crayons and paper to draw with. If we did not have paper available, she gave me napkins, you know the ones with all the fancy designs to color!
When I first went to collage I was encouraged to go to become a teacher. Women in our family were encouraged to be teachers and secretaries. Who ever heard of someone making a living as an artist?
What happened was I got married before I graduated from college, but the urge to be creative was very strong. So when our first child was in kindergarten, I started to go to JR. College in the Bay area trading babysitting with a friend who also wanted to go back to school I attended every Jr. college in the area taking from the best art instructors that I could find. After many years of taking just a few classes at a time, my instructors encouraged me to move on. So my college education ended up at Calif. College of Arts and Crafts on a scholarship.
It was a strange time in my life. Our two daughters were also in college. Here I was balancing going to school 15-18 credits a semester, teaching art in the afternoons at the local community center, teaching preschool on the days I did not go to school trying to take care of a husband and house, .always having a book to study on my lap or working on homework. I really do not know how I did it. When my husband lost his job in Calif. ,there was no way that I could continue my art education at CCAC. We ended up moving back to the NW and have been in WA for 18 years now.
I always worried about being an artist without a degree. But the truth is I am a prospering artist without the degree. One of the most important things for an artist to know is that persistence in following your dreams is where it is. I know many talented artists who gave up. I do not consider myself the most creative artist I went to school with, but I have tried to maintain a belief that I had something to offer the world.
Artists are so important to our society. We tend to look at the world differently right? It is a gift we give that is so precious to this world by allowing others to see through our eyes.
Speaking of eyes, I see double. As a child I had what is called “lazy eyes” that would go off into never land when I was tired. It was not caught until I was in 2nd grade resulting in the first eye operation. We thought it was cured, but when I got out into the work force, I started getting really terrible headaches. The doctors discovered that my mind was making me think that I saw one image when I really was seeing two of everything. Through many operations the doctors stopped playing with my eye muscles when the thought my eyes were cosmetically cured. But I still see double and have finally accepted it as who I am.
I have only painted a few paintings as how I see for it is painful to do. When I start a painting as I actually see it starts out with painting the two images overlapped. As the painting progresses, the canvas appears to me as four images overlapped creating confusion as to where to place the paint brush. If you would like to see some of these paintings, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/cath4art
Life is interesting isn’t it? Accepting ourselves and our gifts is part of being an artist and part of being human.
So my career started painting in oils. I used to do a lot of portrait paintings. I love people and love the fact that a face tells a story of that persons life experiences.
Oils were smelly and since I painted in the living room at that time, I went to acrylics. For years I searched for a luminous feeling in my work and found myself going to watercolor. I won awards for my watercolors of children and other subjects and became a signature member of NWWS.
It wasn’t until we moved up here to the Seattle area that I went from realism to abstract. My plan was to continue my education at Cornish College of the Arts, but I had carpal tunnel so bad that I could not hold a paint brush or a pencil. Thus I did not continue my college art training.
When a person is creative, it runs through your blood. My husband had built me a beautiful new studio in WA. It was a dream come true. Because of my hand problem, my artwork took a different path. I took some classes from Maxine Masterfield using W/C inks and found that I could be creative and still express myself. In college I did not like abstract work. I love it now partly because my world with double vision is abstract. Abstract work is about shape, form and feelings where the viewer can be part of the creative process by interpreting what the art means to them.
I love how peoples lives weave in an out moving between doors that open and doors that close leading us to a never ending adventure of expressing ourselves.
Education for an artist does not always have to be a college education. I studied with many other artists in workshops trying to find that one technique that would give me the look that I was seeking. I also have been interested for years with art therapy and healing energies and became an Expressive Arts coach trained by Dr. Jane Goldberg.
About 8 years ago now, I was frustrated with being in 6-9 art shows a month and not feeling like I was doing what I really wanted. I was spending more time delivering, picking up artwork to shows, framing and driving around than I was being in the studio doing what I loved. A good friend of mine was doing artwork for Picture Source and suggested I get an appt. to talk with them. For 7 months I was mentored by her as to what kind of artwork this company liked then it took me another 4 months to get an appt, with the art director there. It was a real fluke that I came to using metal. One day I had had friends over for a fun day of creating together when I just happened to take a clear film of one of my paintings and laid that over a piece of copper. That started the success I now embrace as an artist.
I created 30-50 new designs each year for Picture Source. They took the designs to High Point NC, Texas, SF and Seattle shows and I would get monthly orders to recreate my designs. For awhile it was a very lucrative adventure. It also was a huge learning experience. I truly believe that I have learned more about composition and design than I ever did in college. The wholesale art industry has slowed down with the economy, but I have found when things change I need to change. My focus has been for the last 3 years to increase my gallery exposure. While I created for Picture Source, I pulled out of all the galleries and competitions.
My work now is what I had been seeking. I love painting on metal for the color of the metal shines through for a luminous look. It is an ongoing adventure. I believe in pushing myself to keep learning and growing.
Currently my kimono series are considered my signature pieces across the nation. I paint on the metal using a very loose fun technique that I have developed. I then cut it up and weave it into 3-D wall hangings. This work has fulfilled my desire to do sculptural art and use mixed media.
As an artist I will always experiment, but I have found that by focusing on one medium that I have become the successful artist that I have always desired to be. There is nothing like being able to pay the bills with what you do creatively.
Please check out my web pages and you tube site. I have my pet project for peace that I am working on developing and refining as I begin to submit to museums and high end galleries this year. I would love your feedback on my project.
My intent with this article was to show how an artist can be flexible and change with the tines to find just the right medium and venues to succeed in. I love helping other artists and am in the process of adding in coaching for artists into my life. As a Reiki master healer, I work with people over the phone to help clear old patterns and blocks to their creative success. This fulfills the part of me that likes to be with other people. I love being in the studio creating, but it sometimes is lonely. By balancing the healing work and the artwork, I am a more complete person.
It is also my desire to help other artists prosper and teach how to promote themselves. Most artists I know do not know how to promote themselves. I too just want to be in the studio, but success is all about balancing the art, business, and marketing of ourselves.
Within the next 2 weeks, I hope to have a free tele-class to teach artist how they can promote themselves on twitter. I believe that twitter is the most powerful tool we have today on the internet and it is free to use. Please email with Yes ,teach me about twiter in the subject line to catherinefoster@mac.com and I will send you the call in info and date of the call.
There is so much more to share and my heart is open to help any artist ready to be successful.
Thank you for this opportunity to share.
Sincerely Yours,
Catherine Foster
catherinefoster@mac.com
www.catherinefoster.com
www.catherine-foster.com
www.youtube.com/cath4art
http://www.twitter.com/cath4art and my site to help other artists: http://www.twitter.com/artistsearch
Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Foster-Art-Studio/797991617...
http://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinefoster
Artists2Artists: http://www.artists2artists.net/profile/CatherineFoster
http://www.twibes.com/artistwebes
Born in Seattle WA, I grew up in California. My father was a carpenter and hated the rain. Actually I think I was born an artist with a brain that functions best as being creative. Drawing and doing crafts was a way to cope with the frantic life growing up in a family of 9. All of my siblings are creative in different ways. I had a mother who always gave me crayons and paper to draw with. If we did not have paper available, she gave me napkins, you know the ones with all the fancy designs to color!
When I first went to collage I was encouraged to go to become a teacher. Women in our family were encouraged to be teachers and secretaries. Who ever heard of someone making a living as an artist?
What happened was I got married before I graduated from college, but the urge to be creative was very strong. So when our first child was in kindergarten, I started to go to JR. College in the Bay area trading babysitting with a friend who also wanted to go back to school I attended every Jr. college in the area taking from the best art instructors that I could find. After many years of taking just a few classes at a time, my instructors encouraged me to move on. So my college education ended up at Calif. College of Arts and Crafts on a scholarship.
It was a strange time in my life. Our two daughters were also in college. Here I was balancing going to school 15-18 credits a semester, teaching art in the afternoons at the local community center, teaching preschool on the days I did not go to school trying to take care of a husband and house, .always having a book to study on my lap or working on homework. I really do not know how I did it. When my husband lost his job in Calif. ,there was no way that I could continue my art education at CCAC. We ended up moving back to the NW and have been in WA for 18 years now.
I always worried about being an artist without a degree. But the truth is I am a prospering artist without the degree. One of the most important things for an artist to know is that persistence in following your dreams is where it is. I know many talented artists who gave up. I do not consider myself the most creative artist I went to school with, but I have tried to maintain a belief that I had something to offer the world.
Artists are so important to our society. We tend to look at the world differently right? It is a gift we give that is so precious to this world by allowing others to see through our eyes.
Speaking of eyes, I see double. As a child I had what is called “lazy eyes” that would go off into never land when I was tired. It was not caught until I was in 2nd grade resulting in the first eye operation. We thought it was cured, but when I got out into the work force, I started getting really terrible headaches. The doctors discovered that my mind was making me think that I saw one image when I really was seeing two of everything. Through many operations the doctors stopped playing with my eye muscles when the thought my eyes were cosmetically cured. But I still see double and have finally accepted it as who I am.
I have only painted a few paintings as how I see for it is painful to do. When I start a painting as I actually see it starts out with painting the two images overlapped. As the painting progresses, the canvas appears to me as four images overlapped creating confusion as to where to place the paint brush. If you would like to see some of these paintings, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/cath4art
Life is interesting isn’t it? Accepting ourselves and our gifts is part of being an artist and part of being human.
So my career started painting in oils. I used to do a lot of portrait paintings. I love people and love the fact that a face tells a story of that persons life experiences.
Oils were smelly and since I painted in the living room at that time, I went to acrylics. For years I searched for a luminous feeling in my work and found myself going to watercolor. I won awards for my watercolors of children and other subjects and became a signature member of NWWS.
It wasn’t until we moved up here to the Seattle area that I went from realism to abstract. My plan was to continue my education at Cornish College of the Arts, but I had carpal tunnel so bad that I could not hold a paint brush or a pencil. Thus I did not continue my college art training.
When a person is creative, it runs through your blood. My husband had built me a beautiful new studio in WA. It was a dream come true. Because of my hand problem, my artwork took a different path. I took some classes from Maxine Masterfield using W/C inks and found that I could be creative and still express myself. In college I did not like abstract work. I love it now partly because my world with double vision is abstract. Abstract work is about shape, form and feelings where the viewer can be part of the creative process by interpreting what the art means to them.
I love how peoples lives weave in an out moving between doors that open and doors that close leading us to a never ending adventure of expressing ourselves.
Education for an artist does not always have to be a college education. I studied with many other artists in workshops trying to find that one technique that would give me the look that I was seeking. I also have been interested for years with art therapy and healing energies and became an Expressive Arts coach trained by Dr. Jane Goldberg.
About 8 years ago now, I was frustrated with being in 6-9 art shows a month and not feeling like I was doing what I really wanted. I was spending more time delivering, picking up artwork to shows, framing and driving around than I was being in the studio doing what I loved. A good friend of mine was doing artwork for Picture Source and suggested I get an appt. to talk with them. For 7 months I was mentored by her as to what kind of artwork this company liked then it took me another 4 months to get an appt, with the art director there. It was a real fluke that I came to using metal. One day I had had friends over for a fun day of creating together when I just happened to take a clear film of one of my paintings and laid that over a piece of copper. That started the success I now embrace as an artist.
I created 30-50 new designs each year for Picture Source. They took the designs to High Point NC, Texas, SF and Seattle shows and I would get monthly orders to recreate my designs. For awhile it was a very lucrative adventure. It also was a huge learning experience. I truly believe that I have learned more about composition and design than I ever did in college. The wholesale art industry has slowed down with the economy, but I have found when things change I need to change. My focus has been for the last 3 years to increase my gallery exposure. While I created for Picture Source, I pulled out of all the galleries and competitions.
My work now is what I had been seeking. I love painting on metal for the color of the metal shines through for a luminous look. It is an ongoing adventure. I believe in pushing myself to keep learning and growing.
Currently my kimono series are considered my signature pieces across the nation. I paint on the metal using a very loose fun technique that I have developed. I then cut it up and weave it into 3-D wall hangings. This work has fulfilled my desire to do sculptural art and use mixed media.
As an artist I will always experiment, but I have found that by focusing on one medium that I have become the successful artist that I have always desired to be. There is nothing like being able to pay the bills with what you do creatively.
Please check out my web pages and you tube site. I have my pet project for peace that I am working on developing and refining as I begin to submit to museums and high end galleries this year. I would love your feedback on my project.
My intent with this article was to show how an artist can be flexible and change with the tines to find just the right medium and venues to succeed in. I love helping other artists and am in the process of adding in coaching for artists into my life. As a Reiki master healer, I work with people over the phone to help clear old patterns and blocks to their creative success. This fulfills the part of me that likes to be with other people. I love being in the studio creating, but it sometimes is lonely. By balancing the healing work and the artwork, I am a more complete person.
It is also my desire to help other artists prosper and teach how to promote themselves. Most artists I know do not know how to promote themselves. I too just want to be in the studio, but success is all about balancing the art, business, and marketing of ourselves.
Within the next 2 weeks, I hope to have a free tele-class to teach artist how they can promote themselves on twitter. I believe that twitter is the most powerful tool we have today on the internet and it is free to use. Please email with Yes ,teach me about twiter in the subject line to catherinefoster@mac.com and I will send you the call in info and date of the call.
There is so much more to share and my heart is open to help any artist ready to be successful.
Thank you for this opportunity to share.
Sincerely Yours,
Catherine Foster
catherinefoster@mac.com
www.catherinefoster.com
www.catherine-foster.com
www.youtube.com/cath4art
http://www.twitter.com/cath4art and my site to help other artists: http://www.twitter.com/artistsearch
Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Foster-Art-Studio/797991617...
http://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinefoster
Artists2Artists: http://www.artists2artists.net/profile/CatherineFoster
http://www.twibes.com/artistwebes
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alison Galvan on
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Thanks for sharing your life experiences with us Catherine! We each have such a wonderfully unique story and it's fun and interesting to learn about others.
Again, many thanks,
Alison -
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Permalink Reply by Catherine Foster on
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Thanks Alison, I think it will be taken off. I got mixed up on the Knowledge Artists and will be put back up in August. catherine
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Permalink Reply by Davina Parypa on
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This is a vary inspiritional and encouraging. Your mother sounds like my mother. I was the oldest out of 6.
davina -
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Permalink Reply by Slone Fries on
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Wow it seems like you took a problem and turned it into something great! Sometimes I focus so much on tiny inperfections I wish I could take a more broader few off things. right now I am facing the chanllange of painting sculptures in outdoor arches that are about 10 feet high. I just don't know how to make the sculptures look like they aren't flat and instead seperate from the arch themselves. Do you have any words of wisdom on this area?
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Thank you all for reading my story. I am having trouble getting into windowslive.com for I have a mac and no clue what my password is. Does anyone know how to do this on a mac?Thank you, catherine
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