Claudie stands next to her oil painting, which is a portrait of her quarter horse, Boomernic. Courtesy of Maxine Rosenberg.
By Maxine Rosenberg
When not working as an Exterior Designer for Paddy-O Furniture in Scottsdale, Claudia Cattell can be found in her Carefree studio doing what she loves best-fine art. Scattered about her studio, the many Reining Horse trophies, ribbons and other memorabilia tell the story of her accomplished past. Autographed photos of Cattell with Kenny Rogers and Roy Rogers are just two of many celeb snapshots you will also find there, mementos of the 28 years she spent in New York as a Package Designer and the people she came to know.
In 1988, Cattell left her New York adventure behind and relocated to Arizona to pursue her dream. “I always wanted to be a cowgirl and ride a horse like the rodeo cowgirls of the 1800s. Their amazing abilities to ride and entertain always amazed me. When I rode my first horse at the age of 39, that dream became a reality. After, I bought a horse, took riding lessons and entered the horse shows”, she recounted. She went on to win the “Champion Amateur Reining” award at the 1993 Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. She also took first and second place on two different horses during the Top 10 Finals of the Amateur Reining Class the same year. While Cattell no longer shows, her love of horses lives on in her art. With past formal training from Ringling College of Art in Sarasota, Florida and, what is clearly exceptional talent with a brush, her large-scale horse oil paintings are stunning portraits of horses she has owned.
Adding to the dimensional quality of the piece, Claudia incorporates silver conchos and stained glass mosaics to enhance the horse’s halter. Courtesy of Maxine Rosenbert.
Cattell is passionate about her art; she loves a challenge and strives for originality. Her newest artistic endeavor hits the mark. Adopting the theme, “Rodeo Cowgirls of the 1800s”, she started experimenting with stained glass in February and is on her way to completing her first mosaic stained glass portrait. The process is painstakingly difficult, but the results are astonishing.
First, she glues a half-inch all weather-proof board to a 2”x4” to ensure stability and accommodate the weight of the glass. Next, she draws a color sketch of the images on the board choosing a color palette from her vast inventory of stain glass sheets. As she explained, “In this step, I select glass colors much the same as choosing paint tubes for oil painting on canvas.”
Once the board is prepared and the sketch completed, Cattell begins the arduous task of hunting for just the right stained glass sheets to obtain the desired color and shading called for by the sketch. This can be particularly difficult as stained glass has endless hues, striations and color variables. When the desired sheet is found, she cuts each 12” x 12” sheet in half, then each half into ½-inch strips and
The somewhat whimsical look of this 19th century cowgirl gives the piece a playful expression. Courtesy of Maxine Rosenberg.
ultimately, using a nipper, reduces the strips into1/8-inch squares or smaller. Unlike traditional painting where one can control the placement of paint and its shading with a brush, Cattell finds working with the mosaics a stimulatingly welcomed challenge. Thousands of these hand-cut mosaics have to be sorted, matched, fitted and glued in place on the board to create the finished art.
When complete, the 4ft x 5ft stained glass mosaic will be a tribute to the artist’s determination and talent. Courtesy of Maxine Rosenberg.
Cattell’s first mosaic piece depicts a nineteenth century rodeo cowgirl clad in the colorful western garb of that era and her horse. In addition to the natural reflective quality of the glass, the addition of accessories like Conches in the horse’s halter give even greater dimension to the piece. When complete, Cattell estimates she will have devoted almost 1,000 hours and used over 50 sheets of stained glass. The piece will be three by four-feet and weigh approximately 75 pounds.
Maxine Rosenberg is a resident of north Scottsdale and a member of GPPA’s Board of Director. Maxine has been a frequent contributor to The Peak.
Recent Comments