Instructor: Catherine McCarthy
August 19 - 23
Monday - Friday
9am - 12pm
5 Sessions

Open Studio: Mon - Thurs, 1pm - 4pm

This workshop is suited for both objective and non-objective painters who want to refresh and recharge their evolving practice. Participants should be familiar with the medium and have at least two years of experience painting. Expect to find a high energy approach to painting, exploring a range of techniques from classical to contemporary strategies. We will investigate underpainting, alla prima, glazing, limited pallet, thin/thick textures, and various ways to image transfer. Layering as well as subtractive techniques will be explored and phones or portable devices utilized as integral tools for study. Participants will find inspiration from nature as well as their own sketches, photos, and any other source material they wish to bring along.

We will work relatively quickly, painting 2 to 3 paintings per session. Our goal will be to develop and build new painting muscles while forming a deeper connection to our topics. Slide shows and demos will further enlighten our time together. Painters with intermediate skills to practicing studio artists will all find this experience will broaden their arsenal of skills and techniques, adding depth and breadth to their toolbox for use in their future paintings.

Catherine McCarthy is a Boston based painter with an extensive exhibition history. She has been featured in 24 solo exhibitions including at the MFA in Boston, the Kemper Art Museum in Kansas City, the San Jose Art Museum, and the Knoxville Art Museum. She has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions including at the Harvard University Museum and the Rose Art Museum, among others.Her paintings are in the collections of the MFA, Boston, the Kemper Art Museum, the Rose Art Museum, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Phoenix Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, as well as many corporate and private collections.In 2024 her work will be featured in shows including at the PAAM, as a Lillian Orlowsky William Freed award winner, and at the Fitchburg Art Museum in the exhibition “In Her Own Terms: Feminine Power Embodied.Catherine’s work has been reviewed by Art In America, Artforum, The Boston Globe,San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, and The New York Times as well as featured in Oxford American, Arts and Antiques, Audubon, Boston Magazine, The Denver Post, and Art New England.She studied at The Ruskin School at Oxford University and received her BFA from Mass College of Art.