Through the arts, patients get reminded, for a brief moment, that you're more than your illness. — Linda Belans

Artist Information

Catherine Courtenaye

ccmadrid@catherinecourtenaye.com | www.catherinecourtenaye.com

"By recombining, layering and embedding lines and images into fields of color, I hope to reanimate and give new expression to each bird."

My work explores the practice of American penmanship during the 1800’s. Handwriting how-to manuals were legion at that time, a central part of a national craze for self-improvement that was sweeping America.

These paintings feature “off-hand flourishes”—ornate displays of the penman’s prowess, used to create birds out of letterform pen strokes. Each bird was meant to inspire viewers to improve and perfect their own penmanship.

By recombining, layering and embedding lines and images into fields of color, I hope to reanimate and give new expression to each bird.

All 16 artwork(s) by Catherine Courtenaye

Bird 01	Bird 02	Bird 03	Bird 04
Bird 05	Bird 06	Bird 07	Bird 08
Bird 09	Bird 10	Bird 11	Bird 12
Bird 13	Bird 14	Bird 15	Sparkler 5 - Thomas Flemming