Artist Spotlight: Catherine Curl

Mandi
7 Min Read
Courtesy of Catherine Curl

We’re back with our Artist Spotlight! We’ll be highlighting various fandom artists and their work. First up, we have CatCurl, also known as Catherine Curl. She’s an artist who does a lot of art around Supernatural, as well as Star Wars and other fandoms. Take a look at our interview with her below!

Courtesy of Catherine Curl

Nerds and Beyond: How long have you been creating art and how did you get started?

Curl: I’ve been creating art all my life. Art was my favourite subject at school and what I was best at. I used to paint patches to put on jackets/jeans at school during recess for extra pocket money. When i got married, I put my skills to use helping my manager to create video displays at work which lead to cinema displays for movie tickets. For friends birthdays I create portraits as gifts.

Nerds and Beyond: What originally inspired you to start doing fandom art?

Curl: In 2016 after years of going to pop culture cons I decided to paint portraits of the guests to get autographs rather than do photo ops.

Nerds and Beyond: What fandoms are you most known for when it comes to your drawings/paintings?

Curl: I’ve always loved Scifi/fantasy and grew up on Dr Who and Star Trek devouring anything that allowed my imagination to run wild. At 12 yrs old I watched Star Wars in the cinema and it became a consuming passion. Then my twenty-plus year marriage disintegrated I needed to be distracted and got very addicted to Supernatural.

Courtesy of Catherine Curl

Nerds and Beyond: What type of art do you typically create? (Digital, oil, charcoal, acrylic…)

Curl: My people skills are rusty and painting portraits of people fascinate me. When my dad got very sick he took up painting with Hobbytex. It’s an Australian product that’s been around since the late 60’s and a hostess would do parties like Tupperware where printed pictures came with paint by number colour charts. It’s oil based paints in a tube that has a ball point tip like a biro pen. They great there own material that’s like a heavy duty fabric stiffener or fibrous paper canvas.

Nerds and Beyond: Who or what type of art is your favorite to create? A favorite person to draw? A favorite fandom?

Curl: Painting geeky portraits of my favourite movie/tv celebrities is my thing. I feel if you are going to do a portrait, I believe you should do it big enough to make a statement on a wall. I usually paint 40 x 60 cm size and add a border to fit a standard 50 x 70 frame. I’m addicted to painting Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester.

Nerds and Beyond: What would you say right now, is your favorite artwork you’ve ever created?

Curl: Its hard to choose my favourite artwork I’ve ever done but its a Christmas present I did for Steve Sansweet doing a portrait of Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-wan Kenobi. I put a lot of love into it. A close second would be a portrait of Dean praying for Sam. They have been the closest I’ve gotten to being photo realistic.

Courtesy of Catherine Curl

Nerds and Beyond: If given the opportunity are there any celebrities that you’d like to work with?

Curl: When I was really into Star Wars I dreamt of working for Lucusfilm and meeting George Lucas or J.K. Rowling but nòw I’d want to meet/work with the Supernatural crew or Eric Kripke. I’m attracted to passionate people with child-like big hearts.

Nerds and Beyond: Are there any other artists who personally inspire you or whose work inspires you?

Curl: #8 Always inspired by Alphonse Mucha. Love Drew Struzan. As for fan art especially Supernatural art I love Alexandra Shvetsova/Armellin. There’s a lot of comic and Topps artists on my Instergram/fb feed that I love.

Nerds and Beyond: Do you have any advice, tips, tricks or words of wisdom for other artists/aspiring artists?

Curl: I suffer a lot of self esteem/self worth issues and never though my art was good enough for anyone to want to buy my art. It’s taken a long time to learn not to compare myself to others as it can really do your head in. There’s always someone that’s going to be more talented. I’ve learnt to revel in my own uniqueness and do what I’m passionate about. For me right now that’s Supernatural art. I love sharing it. I try not to worry about other people’s criticisms. Art is open to interpretation and everyone sees something different. It’s hard to ignore that one horrid comment when there have been many praises.  The other important thing, keep practicing. The more you do the better you get.

Courtesy of Catherine Curl

Nerds and Beyond: Do you have an online store or website where we can see more of your work?

I did tumblr along time ago and have forgotten how. I’m on Deviant Art under eclepticgears but never got much response and found it very overwhelming. My first art page was Geeky Key Art Studio on Facebook but the new FB one just comes under Geeky Art. I really should streamline it all using my name. I’m on Instagram under Catherine.curl. I tend to live mostly on Facebook. Twitter I find is a bit clicky, like Instagram it works better if you link to a lot of people.

Thank you again to Catherine for answering these questions!

Courtesy of Catherine Curl

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