Cathleen Windham

@: cathleen.windham@gmail.com

Though Cathleen Windham didn’t discover a true artful path till about 2002, her creativity was apparent from a young age. Work from a 3rd grade assignment was lost after a show and was found years later hanging in a local doctor’s office. “I had it in me, but my creativity was unguided, I simply didn’t know what to do with it.”

In 2002, that finally began to resolve itself. After a drawing class at Watkins College of Art & Design, Cathleen began to really pay attention to what moved her in the art world. She began studying plein air work, fascinated with the concept and technique of painting “en plein air”. She discovered a weekend class being offered by the Frist Center of Visual Art in 2006 on painting in plein air and decided to give it a try. The instructor was none other than Dawn Whitelaw. It was virtually love at first stroke, “I can still visualize nearly all of that weekend, but what I couldn’t see then was how those 2 days were going to change my life!”

Since that pivotal weekend, Cathleen has spent time learning from many of the artists she paints with often in The Chestnut Group in formal and informal ways. “Painting with artists of such high caliber has forced me to step up my game! Painting in plein air is a constant reminder to Be Here Now, and part of that is being open to the possibilities.”

Cathleen is the president of The Chestnut Group, a member of Women Painters of the Southeast (WPSE)and Tennesseans for the Arts.