Cathy Horvath Buchanan

My work has evolved over the years but has always explored landscapes that combine imagery I've collected either through plein air studies, photos from my camera roll, remembered scenes and/or my imagination. My goals is to create views that evoke joy in others and provide an escape from reality with my stylized picturesque world.

For many years my paintings were constructed purely from my imagination in the form of bright colorful landscapes with a simplified, folk inspired sensibility. My current work is based on sources from the real world, such as the lakeside water views, and flower garden imagery.

The external inspiration is the starting point, but during the process of creating the work I change many of the details to suit the composition, looking for ways to add bright colors and interesting lines and mark making to accentuate elements within the view. My previous experience of working from my imagination informs many of those changes, so that I don't need to rely on the source materials, letting me freely adlib to find the rhythms within the image to serve the painting.