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Windsor artist Catherine Doocy takes an exhilarating journey from the natural landscapes she draws from memory to the inner artistic vision she expresses in the paintings of her new exhibition "Transitions," continuing through May 26 at the Good News Cafe and Gallery.
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.
"I invent landscapes from memory subconscious visions that materialize on paper or canvas," Doocy explained. "A few brushstrokes, stains of color or smudges of charcoal can conjure up a field, a cloud, a day. I use the vernacular of the landscape as a method for exploring composition and color. My work is about the process of painting rather than a specific landscape. It is about illusion, not representation; about drawing, not twigs and branches."
Recipient of a bachelor's degree from the University of New Hampshire and a master's degree in fine arts from Wesleyan University, Doocy's development of her distinctive portfolio of abstract landscape paintings and drawings has been tracked in some 40 solo, group and juried exhibitions in which she has participated across the Northeast over the past two decades. Her art has received recognition with juried show awards from the Wintonbury Art League and the Art Guild of Farmington, and with artist residencies sponsored by the Weir Farm in Wilton and Griffis and Orpheus Foundations in Bulgaria. She showed selections from her work in 2007 in exhibitions at the Washington (Conn.) Art Association and the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury.
Art reviewer Cynthia Roznoy, writing in the program guide for the Mattatuck exhibition, emphasized that "subsconscious vision and illusion are the impetus" for Doocy's works.
"Unlike the pastoral inventions of 19th century American art that aimed to promote an iconic vision of rural life,the inventive landscapes of Catherine Doocy are singular and contemplative," Roznoy noted. "The inner worlds of imagination and memory instigate her work, where we see recognizable but not real-life portrayals of an unpopulated countryside.. She is careful not to give her works site-specific titles; the places could be anywhere and nowhere."
Doocy observed in her artist statement that this inner-directed approach to landscape interpretations at times conveys the impression of a work in progress.
"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," she said. "If a work seems 'unfinished,' it may be that I have chosen to stop just as the paint begins its magic. I leave more and more of the process visible; drawn lines bleed through thin glazes of paint, and the composition shifts across the canvas."
Throughout her career as an artist, Doocy has experimented with a diverse range of formats and materials that have enabled her to continue constantly to revisit and reshape her artistic vision of natural landscapes. "In a recent series of 'panoramas,'" she said, "I extended the traditional long, horizontal format by creating multi-part works. Each part is related, but not connected. I like to let the viewer fill in the gaps. Creating the illusion of 'transition' is an important part of my work whether it is the shift of colors through the seasons, the movement of passing clouds, or the evolution of a painting."
Doocy is an active member of the arts community in the Greater Hartford area, including service as board member and past president of the Artworks Gallery in Hartford and as a group visit coordinator and docent at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Since 1997, she has been coordinator for the design, construction and performance of giant "parade puppets" featured in the annual First Night Hartford celebration.
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