http://paulcato.com/blog

The Sunflower Pickers

Paul Cato — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:56:02 +0000

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"

Floral Garden

Paul Cato — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:11:03 +0000

Here’s a painting to lead you up the garden path.

Skippers Canyon Evening

Paul Cato — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:56:51 +0000

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″

Lake Tekapo & Historic Church

Paul Cato — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:52:52 +0000

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.

Chasing the Seagulls

Paul Cato — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:16:06 +0000

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.

Milford Sound Sunset Painting

Paul Cato — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:05:47 +0000

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

More visitors drop out of the sky

Paul Cato — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:32:21 +0000

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!

Manapouri – Eye of the Storm

Paul Cato — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:43:59 +0000

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!).

Chubby Cheeks

Paul Cato — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:18:54 +0000

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

A Commissioned Portrait Completed

Paul Cato — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:02:53 +0000

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.