Lorraine Cathey’s Felted Landscapes
Lorraine Cathey
Felted Landscapes
Hendersonville, NC
Having grown up in an artistic family art has always been a huge part of my life. My mom was a professional artist and was always dragging us to art shows and exhibits. I remember watching her in her studio for hours while she painted and longed for the day that I too could create beautiful works of art. After raising my family and working for the Escambia County Schools in Pensacola, Fl. I retired in 1998 and began pursuing my encore career as a fiber artist. While continuing to make authentic mohair teddy bears, something I began doing for my grandchildren, I branched out marketing them through shows and shops. I became intrigued with needle felting, a dry felting technique, and took classes at John C Campbell Folk School to learn the technique. I also began taking watercolor classes to learn the fundamentals of landscape painting.
In 2013 life changes made it possible for me to relocate to Hendersonville NC and return to the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina I had visited so often. In 2014 my fiber landscapes and teddy bears were juried into the Southern Highland Craft Guild, a goal I had set for myself after my first visit to a Southern Highland Craft Fair in 2000. I am extremely proud to be a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. I primarily work with wool fibers and create fiber landscape paintings using needle felting and wet felting. North Carolina provides an endless array of possibilities for landscapes and I often can be seen driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and taking photographs for future work. I love what I do
About Lorraine Cathey
When did you first start making your craft?
1998
What mountains/state park to you most identify with? What region are you from?
Anywhere on the Blue Ridge Parkway, particularly north of Asheville toward Boone.
How do you incorporate the mountains into your work?
Most of my fiber landscapes feature the Blue Ridge Mountain scenes along the Parkway or waterfalls in the region.
Favorite season?
Fall, or spring, maybe summer or winter. The four seasons are each spectacular in their own element.
When did you join the Guild and why?
I joined the Guild in 2014. I relocated to the area after my husband's death in 2013 to be near my sisters. I had been coming to these mountains for years to visit and always felt a peacefulness here. I knew of the guild back in the early 90s. We would plan our vacation to be here for one of the fairs.
What is your favorite part of being a Guild Member? What is your participation in the Guild?
Do you teach workshops?
Yes, I teach a couple workshops a year.