About the Artist

Capturing the fleeting beauty of a sunset, a flower glowing with sunlight, the sun sparkling off a lake - gives me such joy as an artist.

While out and about hunting for my next inspiration - perhaps my single favorite thing to do - a scene will suddenly seize my attention.  Immediately, a painting will take form in my mind’s eye.  These are the moments I bring back to the studio to paint.

My current work has three reoccurring themes:  water, trees and flowers.  These subjects offer endless exploration in color, pattern and varying degrees of realism.

I work in oil and prefer to work large.  The process begins with observations, followed by photography, sometimes stalking a place several times to capture the light just right.  In the studio I use my reference photos to establish the overall scene in a detailed drawing.  Next, a transparent underpainting is brushed on for value.  Then opaque layers are added to build the image.  After that, anything goes as I set the photos aside and just have fun seeing where the painting wants to take me.

Rather than simply rendering a particular scene or image, my aim is to capture its vibe, its essence. The goal is to invoke in the viewer the same appreciation of the scene’s natural beauty that I experienced and that inspired the painting. 

A lifelong resident of upstate New York, Cathy Diefendorf began her career as a freelance illustrator after graduating from Syracuse University with a BFA in Illustration and Painting.  Working as an illustrator allowed her great flexibility as an artist.  Throughout most of her career Diefendorf was represented by one of the largest illustration reps in the country, Mendola, LTD of Manhattan.  For many years, Diefendorf enjoyed working on a constant and varied stream of projects commissioned by commercial clientele which included corporate murals, magazine and children’s book illustrations, product advertising such as wine labels, pharma, gameboards, tissue boxes and on and on.  After nearly twenty-five rewarding years in the illustration field, Cathy decided to make a change and began to focus her professional efforts exclusively on producing fine art pieces. “It was time to paint from the heart.”   Now, Cathy paints what she loves for galleries and private commissions.  Her Lake George paintings have been especially popular with collectors.