Ottawa's katerina mertikas - Ottawa At Home

I am a mother first and happy to bethat. But exercising my creative sidewill always bring me contentmentand personal balance.— Catherine WhitlaArtist Catherine Whitlaon her layer of happiness14 | oah | september/octoberWith her hectic life—twin boys Logan and Brodie, 12, Grayden, 5, and anew golden doodle puppy—and her preference for working in the daytime,finding time to paint regularly can be a challenge. But it’s one theformer model is glad to take up: “When I’m not being a mom or doingcommunity relations for my family’s business, Brown’s Cleaners, paintingallows me to feel grounded and provides a layer of happiness to my lifethat is so personal and separate from everything else. It fulfills me in a waythat makes me feel well-rounded.”Before she began painting almost a decade ago, Catherine originally expressedher creative side through fashion design. After she graduated from design schoolshe found herself pulled in other directions, and then her passion for painting wassparked when she decorated a bedroom for the arrival of her twin sons. “It didn’tstart out as a love for painting,” says the artist who works with many differentmediums, “but as a love of working with my hands.” She experimented witheverything, from paper maché balloons to mini murals that wrapped around theroom, and soon found it was a natural progression to start working on canvas. Itwould be hard to put a label to Catherine’s style of painting because she is alwaysexperimenting with new approaches, although she does say colour and textureare very important to her.Despite the fact that Catherine’s paintings garnered a great dealof admiration from friends and family, it took the urging of a closefriend before she finally submitted pieces to a local art show. She soldfour paintings, had several requests for commissions, and was invited tohang some paintings in a gallery. Her children were still quite young,