“A visiting artist on the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour first got me interested in trying the egg tempera,” Catherine O’Mara states. Originally a watercolor artist and then an oil painter, she didn’t start using her present painting medium, egg tempera, until seven or eight years ago.

  “It is not used by a lot of people,” she explains, “but I find it really suits me.”

 She went into a transition period, “as egg tempera is a little tricky,” she states. “It’s a very old type of painting originally used by the old Master painters. I do it the same way, painting on natural jesso, and using real eggs to mix the paints,” she explains, continuing, “there was not much information available about it. Then I was in touch with an artist in the US and he helped me to realize how versatile it can be. It has a beautiful glossy finish and dries very quickly, so layers can be added,” she says. “But you have to be careful as it is water-based so you don’t want the colours to lift from previous layers,” she states, pointing out that her watercolour experience has helped with that aspect.

  Catherine started doing small paintings and sold these on the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour. Then someone came back with one he’d purchased and asked that she make a large painting like it.

  “So I did that and now like it very much,” Catherine says. “It has changed my style somewhat too, as I used to do genre paintings but now I like to focus on texture and do close-ups of landscape, as the egg tempera lends itself to such details.”

  “I paint pictures that portray the nostalgic feelings cottagers have for the Muskoka experience and landscape,” she explains. A one-time cottager herself, she and her husband Michael moved to Muskoka and raised their four children here.

  “Once people find their way to my studio on a country property near Huntsville, they find themselves gazing at paintings that they can relate to through a memory or the desire for having experienced that memory,” Catherine says.

  “As a self-taught artist learning continues everyday, each new painting being the best teacher,” Catherine concludes.

  Catherine O’Mara presents a variety of styles and mediums, dramatic Algonquin oils together with nostalgic views of cottage life in watercolour and egg tempera. Commissions accepted. 12 km east of Huntsville along Hwy 60, at Limberlost Rd. (Muskoka Rd. #8), turn left (north), go 10 km, studio on the right. Fire number 1968. RR 4 Huntsville, P1H 2J6. (705) 635-2093. Hours: By chance or appointment. email: catherine_omara@yahoo.ca