By Steve Sears

15-year Mendham resident, Karen Catron, became an artist during the Covid-19 shutdown.

“The kind of art that I do is called acrylic paint pouring,” explains Catron. “It’s abstract art. Acrylic pouring a lot of people just call it.”

In the fall of 2019, Catron had attended a small art fair at in town at Harmony Brookside Gifts, where she saw someone’s acrylic pouring work and thought she could do it. “I had just retired, and I got excited about it (the artwork).”

In December, her husband bought her a starter kit which included craft paints and tools for the art. At first, his wife didn’t attempt to use it, but when the coronavirus shutdown hit in March 2020, and there was plenty of time to do things at home, Catron turned her attention to and started experimenting with the craft acrylic pouring starter set. “I started doing it and I fell in love with it,” she recalls. “And instead of boards I started using canvases and I upgraded my paints from craft paints, and I remembered I had seen an article asking for work for an art show in Jersey City.” The show was called the “Very Affordable Art Show” and it was held at Art House Productions. “I thought to myself, ‘I could sell these (her paintings) for not too much.’ I didn’t feel like I should charge a lot for my newfound love. And I submitted four pictures and, sure enough, I sold two of them. All four got in and two sold. I just kept going and advancing.”

Often a visitor to the Mendham Township Public Library and their art gallery, Catron asked if they were looking for art. When told that the library was always looking for art and had a recent cancellation, Catron was in the right place at the right time. “So, I got in right away, and here we are.” This past July, 20 pieces of her work were displayed. 

Catron, an accountant by trade, views her work from the technical side. “There’s something about it that’s very technical, because there are so many ways of doing it, and it’s important you mix your paints. I learned from watching YouTube, and everybody’s got a different way of doing it. So, there was a lot of experimentation, trying to get the right recipe of your paint. And there’s a lot of tools to use to get it on the canvas. There’s something called Flip cups, there’s funnels, you can use sticks, and the latest thing is marbles, or you can use blow dryers, and you can use all of these different things at different times or nothing. And there are different kinds of pours. And not only do you have to get the right recipe, but to get the right recipe it depends what kind of pour you’re doing. I love the process of sitting there, it’s quiet, and mixing your paints and figuring out what you’re going to do, because you’re pouring the paint. It’s how you manipulate it and how you touch your canvas. You’re going to come up with different things, and it’s never exactly how you expect it.”

For Catron, who has submitted work again, this time to another art fair in Jersey City scheduled for November, her art is a whole new way of life for her. “The thing that I loved about it is what I could create using all these different techniques, and a lot of experimentation to come up with all these different looks. And I just love it.”