About the Artist...

Artist and colorist, Sandy Cathcart, loves the beauty of creation and everything wild. Her immense privilege of living in the highlands of Southern Oregon, daily observing wildlife and the changing colors of sun and moonlight across the landscape, enables her to capture the nuances of color and shading not possible in a photograph. Pastel is her main choice of medium because she loves the richness and vibrancy of their pigment and the intimacy of nothing to break the flow from fingers to paper. She is quick to note that with proper care, pastels maintain their beautiful color for decades. In 1968, Sotheby’s sold at auction a Degas pastel for $7,500,000! It was as fresh and alive as the day Degas painted it over 120 years earlier.

Sandy’s interest in art emerged as a young girl, sitting on the couch and capturing images of birds in her notebook. Her interest continued through high school when her instructor told her she should become a freelance artist, but it took a back seat when she started raising a family. She has devoted herself full time to painting and writing since 1995. Regional and national publications, such as Oregon Fish and Wildlife Journal and Cascade Horseman, have often featured her artwork and photographs along with her writing.

Painting under the name of SCat, camaraderie, emotion, and majestic color are common threads found in Sandy’s fine art. What is it that drew her to this particular subject in the first place? What intrinsic beauty has the Creator placed beneath the surface?

On her annual treks into the Oregon wilderness by horseback, Sandy carries a sketchpad, and in her many travels to foreign countries, she takes the time to get to know her subjects, eating their food and walking their paths. On a solo trip to China, she spotted two Chinese men walking through the back streets of Hangzhou. They were each carrying a live chicken on their way home from work. Without realizing it, she followed them right up to their doorstep where they invited her in for a family dinner. This is often the way of it for Sandy as she becomes so engrossed in capturing the moment that she loses sense of time and place.

Her latest work, “Ariel as Confident Pitti-Sing,” took first place as a pastel original in the recent Upper Rogue Artists’ Association’s annual critique luncheon. It is a rendering of her granddaughter’s role in a Cascade High School play. Ariel looked so grownup that Sandy didn’t even recognize her. So she painted a grownup version of Ariel, capturing her beauty from the inside out.

Sandy views her art as an act of worship—a way of returning a bit of beauty to the Creator who so graciously gives the gift of creativity. Now, she not only enjoys her work as an artist, she is passing that desire on to her grandchildren. Together, they paint wild colors and interpretations of the emotions found in the created world.