Kathleen Cavender

Art form: Painting in pastel and oil.

Best known for: Use of color.

Major influence: Cavender’s great-grandfather was a professional artist in England at the turn of the 20th century.

“His sketchbook was a major influence throughout my childhood,” she says. Her grandmother sold art supplies and kept her stocked with paints, canvases and “good brushes.”

Cavender has traveled to many of the best art museums in the world and “beheld stars whose light I am continually drawn to,” she says. “Many contemporary artists spur me on to explore art making more deeply. Close artist friends challenge me to continue to be honest in my work. Who could ask for more?”

When did you start painting? “I knew at a very early age that I was going to make art for a living,” she says.

“I did a sketch of a neighbor friend when I was nine. It was passed around to all the adults at the neighborhood picnic and the comments were very affirming. I was convinced on that day that I was born to be an artist. My grandmother enrolled me in an adult oil painting class when I was 10. I’ve been hooked on paint ever since.”

Process: “For me, process is everything. And it’s not just the ‘step one, step two’ kind of thing where I draw out the composition and then start painting,” says Cavender.

“The creative process is like breathing in and out,” she continues. “I breathe in life and breathe out creativity. Breathing in is like drinking good coffee, taking a walk in the garden, listening to good music, sharing a good conversation over great food and fine wine, traveling abroad and experiencing other cultures.

“Breathing out is expressing myself through creativity. It’s a natural outpouring of all the joy I have experienced in life – even in the hard times because I have learned so much from those experiences. If I truly breathe life in, creativity will flow out naturally.”

Cavender works between six and 10 hours a day.

“I don’t wait for inspiration to hit me,” she says. “Inspiration will show up once I begin the work.”

Technically, Cavender’s compositions begin with a combination of lines and shapes or a loose sketch.

“I transfer a few of those lines in pastel to canvas, panel or paper,” she says.

“In oil, I build layers of paint with brushes and rags,” explains Cavender. “I splatter with a toothbrush dipped in thinner and/or paint.” She applies more layers until the image has a satisfying tension of color and form.

“It’s all about give and take,” she says. “Basically, I create and solve problems all day long.”

What keeps you creating? “My new studio has everything I need emotionally, spiritually and physically to be creative,” says Cavender. “Creating becomes addictive and habitual in a place like that.

“I also am very appreciative that I have a career where I can express myself in anyway I choose,” she says. “I have a lot of freedom in my work. I never take that for granted.”

What’s ahead? Cavender is busy working on oversized landscape paintings for the Florence Biennale in December. She is also painting a series of small portraits of extraordinary twenty-somethings, as well as working on still-life and landscape paintings for her Open Studio Sale in November.