Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Sue Munson.
Hi Cathy Sue, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
A native Austinite…I have always loved doing art more than anything else, even as young child. My mother would buy me coloring books and I would go from page 1 to end usually in one day. A new box of crayons was my favorite treat. I was blessed with parents who encouraged my artwork as well as my 2nd grade teacher at Gullett Elementary. I won a blue ribbon at Laguna Gloria Museum (now Art Museum of Austin) when I was in 2nd grade and that totally inspired me. From that day of seeing my painting of falling leaves on display at the museum I knew all I wanted to be was a professional artist. I graduated from the University of Texas with Honors in Studio Art (only one in studio art that year with that honor). That led to my working as illustrator for Austin ad agencies and then Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. a few years until I started freelancing and went on my own. I am known for my intricately detailed watercolor and gouache paintings of wildlife and western subjects. I have been selected by the University of Texas at Austin for many decades to paint longhorn works especially of our magnificent mascots BEVO IX thru current BEVO XV. He is my favorite subject to paint and a most special friend along with his owners and the Silver Spurs who take care of the UT mascot. I was even honored with a featured article in the Jan Feb 2022 issue of Texas Exes alumni magazine, The Alcalde, about my longtime Bevo artwork. The other specialty I paint are canine subjects whether sporting or family dogs or wild wolves. I was featured in the April 2008 issue of Southwest Art as one of the best dog artists nationwide. I have a small working studio in shopping center near my home and stay busy with commissions and museum art shows in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Prescott, Arizona. My art is not just my profession it is also my passion…and after two unexpected bouts with cancer and being in total remission (due to superb doctors at MD Anderson) I am blessed to be able to still paint and enjoy beauty of nature.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being freelance and on my own and being a woman…sure there have been challenges. Like the first Austin gallery I went to show my work to decades ago wanted me to not put Cathy in my signature especially on hunting dogs and sporting artwork. So I guess that is why I first started signing as C. Munson (when married years ago it was C. Munson McNeil). Even when interviewed by an important head of a major institution about a commission years ago the older man said to my face that there were “no women artists as they were just hobbyists”. I hope I have proved him and others that believe that to be wrong. My idol Georgia O Keefe certainly did shatter the glass ceiling for women artists. Most of the time no one cares about gender of artist but just the finished piece of artwork. Thankfully women in the art business and galleries have progressed and succeeded a huge amount since those early days of my being a professional artist. Unfortunately I never had children so I think of my paintings as my legacy and strive to paint the very best work I can as a professional artist.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Most proud of how long and how well I have done as an professional artist in Austin. It was a long road to climb for sure alone. You never know who you have touched with your art. I had an appointment a few months ago with a new young doctor in Austin and was absolutely blown away when she said she had a piece of my Bevo art that she treasured. I could not believe she knew of me and my art when reading my name on her patient information. I was so thrilled. My intricately detailed style of watercolor sets me apart from any other artists…I have made it my own unique style. Any of my honors I have gotten or contests I have won are all so important to me. I am so thankful for the many so important commissions I have been asked to paint. One of the most recent is my original painting of “Homerun Bevo” Bevo XV which hangs in the office of the Univ of Texas baseball coaches. I dedicated the painting to my beloved dad, Charles Munson, who played on the first national champion longhorn baseball team in 1949. Being in Austin my entire life and having burnt orange blood I have loved longhorn athletics since a child so this meant so much to me. If not at studio painting I most likely am at an Univ of Texas sporting event. Another heartfelt honor was being commissioned by the then Univ of Texas Men’s Track head coach to paint a life size oil mural of herd of running longhorns for the opening of the Mike Myers Track and Soccer Stadium in 2000. It is now hanging in the North End Zone suite area of the football stadium which makes me smile proudly.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I was so very blessed and had a truly fabulous childhood due to such wonderful caring parents and a kind big brother and extended family in and near Austin. As I mentioned probably winning the blue ribbon from the art museum in 2nd grade is an important favorite memory which started my art career. Also as a kid sitting in the knot hole section of the Univ of Texas football stadium for 50 cents a ticket with other kids and getting to watch the Bevo mascot during the games first hand was so special. Best seat in the whole stadium in my heart and my mind. My dad was a high school baseball and football coach and went onto being Austin AISD Athletic Director and also worked decades with UT sporting events so it was hugely important to be a loyal lifetime longhorn fan. My second grade teacher saw how much art meant to me and would let me paint in the classroom while the other classmates went to recess. She also made all of us aware of how important nature is to the world we live in. One morning in her classroom there was a tiny beautiful hummingbird that had somehow gotten trapped inside. She was able to catch the tiny scared bird with a makeshift net and she picked me to hold carefully on to the little bird till we all in classroom could let it loose outside. That feeling of holding such a perfect God’s creature has stayed with me to this day…the tiny heartbeat and rapid beat of the wings. We must make sure to protect all the endangered and threatened wildlife and nature from harm. My beloved mother, Dorothy Walsh Munson, and her father instilled in me the love of animals especially dogs and cats; so many loved pets have always been a major part of my life. When my grandfather unexpectedly died my mother cried the hardest when we drove up to his house after the funeral service and at least fifteen stray dogs that he had rescued thru the years were all waiting for him at the front gate. Think that is why I love painting wildlife so much. I have learned when traveling to the west how much the native American Indians believe the human soul is so deeply connected to the animal spirit while here on Earth and beyond.
Pricing:
- prints start at $100
- originals usually from $250 to $5000 plus
- it varies with each artwork
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cmunsonartstudio.com and cmunsonstudio@sbcglobal.net
