“Painting feeds my soul,” says the artist Christine Cathers Donohue, “and light in nature influences that expression.”
That’s part of the Collingswood resident’s artist statement and it gives a glimpse into her inspiration, which she says is often born from witnessing an ordinary moment.
Between 2009 and 2010, Cathers Donohue memorialized one such fleeting scene in a piece dear to her heart. Entitled “Stay with Me,” it depicts a bittersweet moment between her daughter, Emily, and her son, Aidan.
“My daughter was four, and she was hugging my son, who was crying because we were leaving the playground, and it just was this beautiful moment,” she recalled. “The light was making my daughter’s hair golden and wild.”
Capturing the moment with her camera, Cathers Donohue then set out to turn it into art. Utilizing acrylic on paper proved difficult because the combination caused the paint to dry quickly, but she continued undeterred.
“I labored over that for more months than I usually ever spend on a painting,” she explained. “I really just poured my heart into it.”
When finished with the piece, she took it to be framed at Arts Plus in Collingswood and the painting caught the owner’s eye. Impressed by what he saw, he encouraged Cathers Donohue to do commissions.
From there, she entered the piece into a national art show and received a Best in Show honor.
“I was shocked,” she recalled. “I didn’t know that gallery work was going to be a direction. That painting changed the trajectory [of my art].”
Christine Cathers Donohue at home with her daughter, Emily, and her dog, Olive.
After graduating from college, Cathers Donohue worked as a full-time staff artist for a greeting card company for five years. She then spent the next ten years as a freelance illustrator, primarily creating greeting cards, a career that allowed her to be a stay-at-home mom. Later, she became a freelance children’s book illustrator. Today, in addition to creating her own artwork — she is now focused on oil painting — Cathers Donohue works as a framer and fine arts teacher at Repenning Fine Arts in Audubon.
While visiting her friend’s lakeside cabin in May 2022, she stopped by Louisa Gould Gallery in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and began speaking to the owner. At the conclusion of their discussion, Gould invited Cathers Donohue to display her artwork in the gallery — an invitation she happily accepted.
Much of her work centers around natural and outdoor scenes, giving her plenty of opportunity to explore the element of lighting in various environments. This infatuation with the natural world comes from her childhood trips up North.
“When I was 11 years old, my family started going up to Castle Island Camps in Belgrade Lakes in Maine. I just fell in love with that landscape — the mist on the water in the morning, then it would burn off and be this beautiful day, the smell in the air, and the skies just looked huge compared to New Jersey,” she reflected. “It cultivated my love for the outdoors.”
From low-lit people watching in New York City and wild horses on the beaches of Assateague Island to a peaceful sunrise over Castle Island Camps and autumn stroll down Kings Road in Haddonfield, Cathers Donohue continues to capture the beauty of our world in its many values.
Cathers Donohue’s artwork, both paintings and prints, are available at Haddon Hall in Haddonfield.
She takes tremendous pride in inspiring confidence and artistic understanding in her students — a critical step in an artist’s development.
“Support is where it starts,” she explained. “Especially for a kid that might feel different, who maybe feels like they don’t fit into the model of education.”
Cathers Donohue felt she always needed a creative outlet while in school.
“It surprises me, if someone’s interested in art, how little art they’re allowed to have in high school,” she expressed. “It just felt like it was an essential; it was a need… I couldn’t imagine not having it.”
Forging her own path, as a senior in high school she worked with the history and art teacher to create her own independent study in order to access even more art in her daily academic life.
She went on to attend the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in illustration in 1993.
“I couldn’t imagine being where I am today without it,” she said in reference to her college education. “Now I am a teacher and it just gives me that full circle feeling … It gives me the opportunity to help a student find their voice.”
She is teaching Kids Art Camp, which runs Monday through Thursday from July 6-30 at Repenning Fine Arts. This 4-day class, aimed at children aged 8-13, focuses on drawing and painting techniques as well as color mixing and building.
When asked about her best advice for young and new artists she urged, “Follow your heart … Try not to listen to any voice, your own or someone else’s, that misdirects you.”
