Artist of Note | Cathy Haight

A wide-open life

Cathy Haight, Canyon Walk, oil, 24 x 36.

Cathy Haight, Canyon Walk, oil, 24 x 36.

This story was featured in the October 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Cathy Haight is searching for freedom. She left her comfortable journalism job and her galleries, and she even leaves home for most of the year while traveling around the country with her husband and dog in a motor home. “I want my life and my art world to be large and open,” she says.

While Haight learned oil painting at a young age, she didn’t work seriously in the medium until after college. During that time, she also learned the medium of batik, in which artists use dyes and melted wax to paint on fabric. “I was intrigued by the process but felt more could be done with it,” she says. “I wondered why it couldn’t be considered fine art by pushing it far enough.” Haight began using the process to create landscape paintings with distinctive textures.

Today, the artist works in both batik and oils to render her favorite subject: wide-open spaces. A hiker and environmentalist at heart, Haight searches for unique views along the back roads of New Mexico. Whether to use batik or oil paints is a decision she makes for each scene. “Each one informs the other, but with batik it’s a backward process because it’s about keeping the color away from where you don’t want it,” she says. The artist hopes her work offers viewers a moment of peace. “I don’t portray negative things because I want the viewer to have time to calm down and heal from the day. It’s something everybody needs,” she says. —Mackenzie McCreary

Haight’s work can be seen at www.cathyhaight.com.

This story was featured in the October 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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