Catherine Suthard, and her lady black lab MaKai, have lived in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of America close to the Olympic Rain Forest for the last 12 years and if Catherine has her way she will never go back to the city. Although born and raised in cities, Catherine is a country girl at heart. Her favorite childhood memories are of the summers she spent on her Uncle’s ranch, in eastern Washington, riding horses, going to rodeos and eating BBQ outdoors almost every night.
When not working on her art and design, Catherine can spend hours exploring the beaches, forest trails and streams near her home. She also enjoys wild life observation and around her home she can find eagles, deer, coyote, bobcat, rabbit, geese, swans, ducks and all manner of other wetland creatures.
Catherine has loved to draw ever since she was a very young child and she began painting in Junior High. She remembers drawing detailed pencil and charcoal reproductions of animals from the photographs in National Geographic magazines. In recent years Catherine discovered the internet, digital graphics programs and vector art. She started her digital drawing with a mouse and MicroGraphx Windows Draw6 over 10 years ago. Then she fell in love with a Wacom Tablet and began using other software products to create her art and design as well.
Layout and composition is where Catherine feels her strength lies. She creates beautiful derivative works from elements she has purchased or commissioned from artisans, who work in highly specialized 3D modeling software. Catherine uses her skills with digital painting, effects, layering, blending components and composition to create amazing finished pieces of digital art.
Inspiration comes to Catherine from a variety of sources and she describes her style as a potpourri. Some sources of inspiration are Catherine’s country roots including ranch life and her beloved horses; her Irish heritage; the beautiful nature that surrounds her where she lives and celebrating her Faith and the blessings in life.
Catherine is a member of "The Indie Exhibit", a wonderfully talented and supportive group of artists worldwide, who contribute their art to fill gift bags that are provided to celebrities and the press at the major Awards shows like The Golden Globes, The Kids Choice Awards and The Sundance Film Festival just to name a few. She is also a member of a Zazzle colleague group. The members of this group support and assist each other to learn progress and succeed as designers and as Zazzle shop keepers. Catherine doesn’t teach at all, but she says she does try to inspire others where she can and pass on what she knows if someone needs help.
These days Catherine is learning more about using Zazzle store keeper features to efficiently increase the availability of her art to her customers on Zazzle. She is also expanding her services to business clients, offering a full spectrum of design services. Recently Catherine also began publishing a monthly newsletter, which is available via email to subscribers. It features an interesting article, Zazzle specials and coupon access, links to new products in her stores, a few graphics freebies, a favorite recipe and links to her favorite websites. Occasionally it will also feature an interview with another Zazzle shop keeper.
Plans are in the works for Catherine to open a Wedding Shop later this year and she is working on designs for that. She is also considering creating a resource site for designers to access tips, tricks and tools to use in their creative work.
Catherine sells her art and designs on Zazzle. She offers her images on all of Zazzle’s products and they are all customizable. She does take custom orders. Recently she worked with Miss Rodeo Kansas 2011 to create special Coronation Dinner Invitations and business cards. Catherine currently has three stores on Zazzle. RANCH LADY has a central theme of County Western and Christian Country designs. THE GOLDEN SHAMROCK features St. Patrick’s Day designs as well as Celtic and traditionally Irish designs. KEDS KRAZY offers a huge selection of Keds shoes. Catherine was so excited about offering shoes that she did nothing but design shoes for about a month.
The next year holds lots of plans, work and challenges for Catherine. She will continue to learn and grow as a designer; she plans to become a full time Zazzle contributor and to grow her business client base. She also plans to work towards some personal goals including doing volunteer work and writing.
Visit Catherine's Blog Western Spirit Designs
Visit Catherine's Zazzle shops:
RANCH LADY
THE GOLDEN SHAMROCK
KEDS KRAZY
Join Catherine's Western Spirit Designs on Facebook
Follow Catherine ZRanchLady on Twitter
Connect with Catherine on LinkedIn
All Images Copyright Catherine Suthard, All Rights Reserved
Written by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved
