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Cathleen Ozmore
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Cathleen Ozmore

An Interview with Cathleen Ozmore

Comments (11) Interview

I have never met Cathleen Ozmore in person, I’m in the UK, she is in The USA and our backgrounds are very different. However we both stumbled upon fluid art around the same time and became friends through YouTube, discovering that we both have a great appreciation for Courtney Hoelscher and both became instantly hooked on the ‘swipe’ technique.

It’s my intention over the coming months to interview those artists who have influenced me, delve a little deeper than what you see on screen and find out what makes them tick. Cathleen very kindly agreed, in turn I hope you will be influenced as I was and can identify with her journey through fluid art.

Cathleen Ozmore

How did you get into fluid art and did you paint before?

I retired from my Landscaping company of 30 years in 2019. I worked very long days. I had a difficult time going from a 60 hour work weeks to having not much to do. I needed some way to express my creative juices. I found a video on YouTube from Courtney Hoelscher. Watched it then watched it again. I was overjoyed with the possibilities. “I can do this” I told myself. I have always been an admirer of Abstract Art. So I started to practice and play and experiment. Each time learning and growing. This was in December of 2019. So many possibilities, I was hooked!

Who and what are your influences?

What: my need for a way to express all those creative juices I had inside me  Who: Courtney Hoelscher, Elyse Fournier, most abstract impressionist.

Cathleen Ozmore

Whats integral to you as an artist?

Making beautiful art my friend. Watching those paints come to life in front of my eyes. The endless possibilities. The first pour I ever did was Christmas 2018. I wanted to make my own Christmas ornaments. I remember pouring the paint on the glass ball and being mesmerised, watching it move and evolve as I twisted that ornament around. I thought “ Oh my” what if I did this on a canvas. That was before I even knew Acrylic Pouring was a thing.

How would you answer those critics that say ‘Fluid Art isn’t real Art’ or ‘there isn’t a great deal of skill needed’?

Well this is a easy but hard question for me. Something that happened last weekend. I stopped into a gallery on a lovely little town near my home. A friend suggested I display my art there. The gallery supports and promotes local artists so I introduced myself to the women behind the counter. I asked her questions about how I go about displaying my art in the lovely gallery. I then showed her several photos of my work, she was so excited and was filled with praise! Then she asked if I was doing brush work or palette knife with my acrylic paints. I smiled and said “sometimes I use a palette knife but mostly it’s acrylic pouring”. She stepped back and looked at me with a surprised look, the look like “I’m not sure that’s real art”! I was then asked to submit my photos for approval. Ten minutes before, she was ready to clear a large space on the wall for my paintings. Yes I am sensitive about it. I am truly not sure why. I have a good friend who I recently moved close to me here in my Happy Place, we met him and his lovely lady for dinner a few weeks ago, she is a talented landscape artist and showed me several photos of her paintings. I did not show her any of mine, on the ride home my Rick asked me why. I was not able to answer. Maybe because it came so easy to me, maybe because I wasn’t schooled as a fine artist. Maybe it’s because Acrylic Pouring has been criticised and considered “Not Real Art” I just don’t know the answer yet.

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