By Carmen Brown
Photos by Lisa Cheek
When Cathy Phares decided to move from McCalla to Homewood in 2006, she and her husband David were looking for a three-bedroom home for them and their two daughters. When exploring one cottage-style home from the 1935-era, Cathy loved it, but she could not find the third bedroom.
“I was walking down a hallway looking for the room, and I opened up a door that I thought was a small closet,” she says.
But, it wasn’t. It was a wooden spiral staircase that went up to the third bedroom.
“It had six windows, three on the left and three on the right,” Cathy says. “My husband thought the house had some issues, but when I saw this, I said, ‘No. This is the perfect art studio.’”
Cathy knew it was meant to be. Her father was Ron Bowen, a charter member of the Birmingham Museum of Art and an award-winning master photographer. When Cathy was a child growing up in Roebuck, Ron worked as a portrait painter at an art studio on Cobb Lane, and she had to climb a wooden spiral staircase to go see him.
“He was such an inspiration,” Cathy says. “He would show me how to draw shapes and circles, and by the time I was 6, he was dragging me to art museums, so I grew up with it.”
Cathy has now made a name for herself in the Birmingham art scene as well, and she climbs her own spiral staircase every day to work in her studio, which she calls “organized chaos.” A self-proclaimed night owl, Cathy says she puts on some Motown tunes or her favorite, Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” and will stay up past midnight perfecting her oil paintings of landscapes, as well as animals, abstracts and botanicals.
“I love nature and capturing God’s beauty,” she says. “In shadows I see purple. I don’t see brown.”
Cathy always wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps, but she also knew it would be difficult to make a living solely as an artist. After graduating from Banks High School where she took art classes, Cathy studied medical terminology at Southern Research Institute and landed a full-time job as a medical practice manager. Soon afterwards, she married David, and within two years, they started a family.
“I had my two girls just three years apart,” she says. “It was a lot, so I put down my paintbrush for 16 years. This was when my daughter started driving, and I knew I would have extra time in the evening to paint.”
In 2002, Cathy did a solo show of her work at St. Vincent’s Art Gallery. She says that at first, she was just painting for fun, but this was when she realized there was a market for her work.
“In 2011, I turned 50, and I wanted to do something special for myself, so I joined the Mountain Brook Art Association,” Cathy says. “I wanted to learn more, and I wanted to do a group show.”
Cathy says she was still working full-time in Trussville, and she would drive to Mountain Brook during her lunch break every day to watch demos.
“The next year I did my first art festival show, where I sold 20 paintings. I’ve done them every year since then,” she says.
Cathy says she decided to retire from her “day job” in 2019 to stay home and paint, but not long afterwards, she went through a life-altering experience. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.
“I really neglected my health and had a false sense of security because I worked in a medical office,” she says. “I had no symptoms or family history, so I kept rescheduling my mammogram. I really encourage women to take the time to get one.”
Cathy says her reconstruction took almost a year, and during this time, she could only do small paintings because her arm had limited movement.
“It was a huge wake-up call for me,” she says.
Since then, Cathy says she has been more enthusiastic than ever about her art. She recently spoke at the Kiwanis Club of Homewood-Mountain Brook about her involvement with the Alabama Plein Air Artists—a support network for artists who enjoy painting outdoors.
“It’s very challenging, but I needed to push myself because I’m used to painting inside my studio,” she says.
Last year Cathy served as president of the Mountain Brook Art Association and now serves on the board of directors. This year, she was invited to the Joy Art Gallery at Cumberland Presbyterian Church as September’s Featured Artist.
“That was a solo show, where I sold half of what I brought,” she says.
Cathy says her goal is to create something meaningful and personal for every client.
“The customer is involved in every step of the process, but they usually let me do my own interpretation,” she says. “There are no big surprises. They’re always happy.”
Sometimes, Cathy says, they’re so happy they cry.
“One of my clients had a horse that passed away, and I painted her a four-foot-tall portrait of the horse’s face,” she said. “She had just built a house and wanted to put it in a special place. She cried so much when she saw it.”
Ron passed away in 2017 at the age of 83, but even up until then, Cathy says he was still painting. He continues to be her inspiration behind her work.
“A lot of Birmingham photographers knew him,” she says. “Sometimes, I walk through the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and take photographs. I trained my eye early on because I liked to draw from his photographs.”
Cathy says she is also keeping that eye on the trends, and she’s always learning something new.
“My journey has just begun,” she says.
Cathy Phares’ next scheduled art show will be Sunday, Oct. 13 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gateway Art Festival in the Trussville Entertainment District. For more information, visit cathypharesart.com or contact cathyphares@gmail.com.
