Lower Falls of Yellowstone Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
By Paul Cato | July 12, 2012
The first of my long-awaited “Yellowstone Series”. The warm setting sun adds its golden glow to the already spectacular cliffs of the canyon. Oils on canvas, 40″ x 54″.
I wanted to visit this place and paint it myself, ever since seeing Thomas Moran’s epic painting, “The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”. The visit hugely exceeded my expectations. This canyon is truly spectacular, and the waterfall itself very impressive! Moran’s composition was very much contrived, combining views and features from various different viewpoints. My own composition will be recognized as far more literal, as viewed from Artist’s Point – looking out over Red Rock to the Lower Falls. One day I may also revisit this with a less literal painting.
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Poppy Field
By Paul Cato | July 12, 2012
Continuing with the floral theme..
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The Sunflower Pickers
By Paul Cato | August 19, 2011
And now, for something completely different..
I didn’t plan it to be this way but this week, while it was snowing incessantly and the entire view outside was tints of white, I was completing a warm, sunny scene I had begun earlier. Sharon had come into my studio a few weeks back and said “Florals – you need to do some florals!” And so I thought, “OK, what sort of flowers have I never done? Ah, what about some sunflowers?” So after some research as to how they grow, various different types, etc. Here’s the result.
The Sunflower Pickers 26"x40"
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Floral Garden
By Paul Cato | July 19, 2011
Here’s a painting to lead you up the garden path.
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Skippers Canyon Evening
By Paul Cato | June 29, 2011
Earlier this year I saw a couple of consecutive sunsets which I guessed would probably look quite spectacular from Mount Dewar (the next mountain west of Coronet Peak). I rushed up there the next evening and began the steep ascent – about 80 minutes up from the Skippers Saddle from memory. The skies looked perfect but there was a strong wind building from the West-Sou’west. Halfway up and heavy clouds were swirling in behind me, and by the time I got to the ‘perfect’ spot I had about a minute to get camera gear out and get the shots. It wasn’t long enough! I sheltered under an outcrop of rock on the edge of a cliff for a while and waited for the clouds to pass. It was freezing cold, despite being officially summer, with a total blanket of cloud reducing visibility to around just 20 feet! Eventually I got enough clear distance to get a composite of photos which I then put together later, along with a huge amount of imagination and previous reference material. And people ask why I don’t paint these scenes on location.
And here’s the painting: 36″ x 54″
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Lake Tekapo & Historic Church
By Paul Cato | June 28, 2011
Here’s a commissioned painting I recently completed. Lake Tekapo is in the central plateau of New Zealand’s South Island high country. The water contains a high percentage of glacial melt which colours the lake with a distinct turquoise hue.
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Chasing the Seagulls
By Paul Cato | August 31, 2010
Here’s another new painting. It is inspired from a photo-shoot a few years back now – about 2001 from memory. I have visualized this painting for some years now, so it is long overdue. The models are, from left to right, Britt, Jen and Ash.
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Milford Sound Sunset Painting
By Paul Cato | August 14, 2010
I’ve just emerged from working on some big canvases; here’s one of them. It’s very much a favourite place of mine–Milford Sound. This view is from a beautiful mid-spring evening. Being in the southern hemisphere that’s late October.
Painting by Paul Cato, Queenstown, New Zealand
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More visitors drop out of the sky
By Paul Cato | September 7, 2009
I just sat down for a cup of coffee around noon and heard a helicopter close by. There’s nothing too unusual about that because they often fly around here and quite a few guests have flown in over the years. Usually I get a phone-call first but this one just kept getting louder until I was face-to-face, through the window, with the pilot and a chopper full of visitors.
Just as well the roses aren’t blooming yet or Sharon would have been upset to see them blown to bits. It was her idea to plant them right next to where helicopter pilots like to land, but they just HAD to go right there!
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Manapouri – Eye of the Storm
By Paul Cato | August 31, 2009
This is a painting just finished – the size fairly large, at 48″ x 60″ or about 1.2m x 1.5m. The scene is looking out over Lake Manapouri, New Zealand, to the Cathedral Peaks. The stormy sky casts an eerie and colorless light over the mountains and lake, whilst the foreground picks up some extra warmth through the cloudburst onto the rocks and scrubby foreground fungi (or whatever it is!).
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- Lake Manapouri – looking to Cathedral Peaks
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Chubby Cheeks
By Paul Cato | March 25, 2009
This was a commissioned figure study. Painted in oils on canvas for clients in Australia, this was from a photograph actually taken in Queenstown, New Zealand, a few years back. I figured that the beach background might have a more timeless appeal.
A carefree youngster at the beach
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A Commissioned Portrait Completed
By Paul Cato | October 23, 2008
Of all the figures I have painted up until now I have only once needed to paint a convincing facial likeness. (The painting was of my daughter and the purchasers recognized her, from the painting, in town.) My main objective is usually to paint the feminine form in combination with the landscape. I just haven’t had a desire to do portraits, as such.
In this case my client insisted that I was the right artist for this project, based on some of the figures I had painted previously. This posthumus portrait was painted from a set of photographs, one of which I was told captured that “certain special look” that only astute observers would recognize. It was both gratifying and heart-warming to share the moment with the family when they saw the finished painting and assured me that “every detail” was correct.
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Huge Paul Cato Landscape Painting now complete
By Paul Cato | October 11, 2007
This large painting is now completed. All 46 square feet of it! It will be delivered to some new clients in the U.S. next week. I have absolutely enjoyed the process of working at this large scale and I’ll definitely be keen to do it again. I have some subjects in mind already.
Topics: Landscape Paintings, Painting in Progress | 7 Comments »
Detail of tidal flats
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
I did some research to find out exactly what this bird is – but I have forgotten again. I think it is a type of heron but I’m really not too worried. It is strategically placed to help set the scale of the grasses.
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Left-hand Foreground continued development
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
The sun is brought out a bit more with the addition of some warmer highlights and cooler shadow tones. The foreground bushes get some work, including some ‘shiny’ leaves.
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Left-hand Foreground
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
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Right-hand Foreground
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
Moving forward a lot of emphasis now includes the accurate placing of shadows and highlights. The establishment of the sun’s position in the landscape’s sky is an important part of creating the illusion of three dimensions. With a painting this large various parts of the painting show shadows and highlights in different positions. In this particular view the sun is slightly to the right of the picture so it is almost directly backlit.
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Right-hand Mid-Ground
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
Some more detail is painted in: rocks and driftwood get blocked in. Scale and perspective are more important than form at this stage because everything forward of the mountains must work convincingly to make the flat canvas look like it is 3D and the water lying flat.
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Middle distance left and right
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
The initial background tree colour was applied with a filbert brush.
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Starting on the foreground
By Paul Cato | August 23, 2007
I blocked in a thin under-coat of a neutral-to-warm brown to most of the foreground of the painting
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