Artist Spotlight: Cathy Gruetzke-Blais Is Inspired by Nature

During the day Catherine “Cathy” Gruetzke-Blais teaches art to students at the Ten Acres Country Day School in Wellesley. And at night and on weekends, she has been painting in her kitchen.

This month, all that changed for the Framingham artist and mother.

Gruetzke-Blais is the latest artist to join the Fountain Street Studios, at 59 Fountain Street in downtown Framingham. She recently got off the wait list and now has a “space of her own” to paint.

Today, Dec. 6, Gruetzke-Blais and scores of other artists and crafters will open up their studios at the 21st Annual Fountain Street Open Studios from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Shoppers will find a variety of art, including paintings, mixed media, photography, sculpture and textiles. They will also find jewelry, crafts, note cards, and ornaments.

The Fountain Street Open Studios is a wonderful opportunity for the public to meet Framingham and MetroWest artists and crafters and to purchase directly from them. Normally, the studios are open by appointment only, but twice a year - once in December and again in April they are open to the public.

Gruetzke-Blais specializes in painting and is inspired by nature.

She recently had a one-woman show at Starbucks on Prospect Street, as part of a partnership with Amazing Things Arts Center and her art is also featured at the Framingham Downtown Renaissance organization’s artPOP5 through Dec. 24.

She has shown her art in Boston since 1990. Several of her works are part of private collections throughout the Commonwealth. Her latest sale came from the one-woman show at Starbucks, which closed just before Thanksgiving.

Gruetzke-Blais has a bachelor’s of fine arts and a Masters in art from the Museum of Fine Arts through its program with Tufts University.

Earlier in her career she worked on exhibits at the Boston Children’s Museum. She was on staff as a scenic artist for North Shore Music Theatre, and for a couple of weeks on a Broadway show featuring Sting.

She also did artistic projects for The Big Apple Circus, the Boston Ballet, Disney Cruise Line and the Boston flower show.

in 2012, she was selected to be a part of a Dedham Public Art Project, featuring large fiberglass rabbits. Through that experience, she was re-energizes to focus on her art again.

Today, her focus is in acrylic paint. Her paintings are colorful, bright, and full of energy.

Many are florals, but she has completed abstract and semi-abstract pieces.

“It depends on my mood,” said Gruetzke-Blais, on what she decide to do with each blank canvas.

And once she starts, she said she lets “her intuition guide her.”

Once in a while, I have a final vision in my head, but other times it is a process that is always “changing,” she said.

Gruetzke-Blais said she sketches often.

“Typically, one or two ideas stay with me,” and those are the ones that I bring to life with paint, she said.

She said she is very excited to finally have a studio space “of her own.” Before she would paint in her kitchen, in between meals, working and being with her family.

Before she had her studio, she tried to paint three times a week. She said most sessions are about two hours but admits to binge painting working six or even 10 hours on a painting.

Her latest work is a 3-foot acrylic still life on canvas, of flowers in a vibrant cobalt blue glass vase. The vase, she said, was purchased while on a trip to Egypt years ago.

Gruetzke-Blais’ new studio is located on the third floor, #16 East, of Fountain Studios. Stop by today and say hello.

If you can not attend the open studios, you can shop her works online here.