This is the view in front of Many Glaciers Lodge in Glacier National Park, from last July. I was struck by the sunset over the jagged mountains, and the hidden glaciers on the slope. This is what’s known as a Contemporary Fresco. It is pigment on clay Aquabord, and is varnished and does not need framing under glass. It is 9 X 12”.
"Retro Resort" Juried In To "Art In Bloom" 2024
Note! I’ve just been notified that I’m going to be part of 2024 Art In Bloom at The Gallery at Flat Rock:
https://galleryflatrock.com/art-in-bloom-2024?fbclid=IwY2xjawEeA0ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSBJpTsodCTBzGWdQOQSYGHRogJzY1XX5nhWMvvbkURnleJozgwEYWr21g_aem_K1H6Xs-AuoSDcsM94EYgYg
The Preview Party will be August 30; and tickets can be purchased here:
https://galleryflatrock.com/art-in-bloom-2024
The exhibition will open to the public August 31 and September 1, 2024. Hope to see you there!
My plein air piece, “Retro Resort” (oil, 16 X 20”) will be a part of the show.
The Glacial Experience
Painted along Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, summer, 2024. It was 90 degrees, but the snow on the peaks still held up, shimmering in the sunlight. The glacial silt in the water made the most beautiful blues.
To purchase, please visit: https://www.catherinetwomey.com/available/many-glaciers-lake
Upcoming Exhibition & Sale! August 17/18!
Upcoming Exhibition & Sale!
Please join me at the upcoming “Come To Leicester” Annual Studio Tour, August 17 & 18 from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Learn more about the tour at www.cometoleicester.org This is a studio-clearing, once-in-a-decade sale that you won’t want to miss! I’ll be located at the Olivette Community Center and Farm office building at 272 Old Macedonia Road, Alexander. Hope to see you there!Upcoming Exhibition & Sale! Please join me at the upcoming “Come To Leicester” Annual Studio Tour, August 17 & 18 from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Learn more about the tour at www.cometoleicester.org This is a studio-clearing, once-in-a-decade sale that you won’t want to miss! I’ll be located at the Olivetter Community and Farm office building at 272 Old Macedonia Road, Alexander. Hope to see you there!
"The Secret Forest" Work In Progress by C. Twomey
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.
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
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
"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.
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.
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."
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
"Birds Eye View Summer Spruce" by Catherine Twomey
"Birds Eye View Summer Spruce", 16 X 20" oil on canvas over aluminum. There are seven spruces off of my deck, and I've painted this one 100 times in my mind. Finally got it down on canvas! Plein air to studio; available this week at Blend Gallery in Asheville.
"Island Edge" by Catherine Twomey Sold!
THANK YOU to Blend Gallery at 67 Biltmore Ave (Asheville) for the sale of "Island Edge." This original oil was painted plein air at Bass Lake in Blowing Rock, NC - obviously a beautiful, serene place filled with happy walkers as storms came and went.
"Center For Humans and Nature" Awarded Artworks by C. Twomey
Thank you to the Center for Humans and Nature (https://humansandnature.org/) for the unexpected award for six of my works to be published in 2023! What a terrific way to start the New Year! Citation: A version of ‘Accelerating’ first appeared in a
publication of the Center for Humans and Nature Press and is revised and
reprinted here with permission of the Center for Humans and Nature Press.
"First Baptist" and "Earlysville General" Sold!
THANK YOU to the collector from Earlysville, VA for your purchase of these two prints. I love that people still have nostalgia for the way things used to be. For additional work, please look under “Landscapes” when you visit: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/catherine-twomey?
"Sea Leveling" by Catherine Twomey Through ERA Contemporary Gallery
Thank you to ERA Contemporary Gallery in Philadelphia, PA for featuring my painting: "Sea Leveling" - now on offer. Check it out: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWfQJcMZKh/