Catherine Temple

Catherine Temple is a wildlife and pet portrait artist residing in southeastern Washington. In this rugged, beautiful and diverse terrain she finds the inspiration for her art while pursuing her other passions of photography, birdwatching and hunting with her husband, Brian and dog, Balin. 

Catherine began her love affair with art, birds and dogs at an early age in rural northern Illinois. Her father had a passion for raising exotic birds and animals and this gave her ample opportunities to develop her drawing skills as well as her love of nature and the outdoors. As an adult she continued to hone her skills by studying biology and taxidermy to better understand the anatomy of the birds and animals she loved to paint. When she acquired her first hunting dog, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Jake, a deep bond was formed. Out of love for her dog she decided to paint his portrait and soon discovered that there were others who loved their dogs as much as she did. This developed a new direction for her art and she has since created dozens of portraits for pet owners across the country.

Primarily a self-taught artist, Catherine enjoys painting with water-based media, especially acrylic, as this gives her the most versatility in creating the detail and realism that her art is known for. As she develops the painting, she almost always completes the eyes first as she believes this brings the spirit and character of the animal to life. This is also what most people viewing her paintings comment on first.

In recent years all of Catherine’s passions of art, the outdoors, ducks and dogs have led her to begin entering duck stamp contests. She received her first win with the 2017-2018 Delaware duck stamp depicting her Chesapeake Bay retriever, Balin, and canvasback ducks. Her second duck stamp win came in April 2019 for her home state of Washington depicting another duck and dog combination of ring-necked ducks and a chocolate Lab. She continues to pursue this venue as well as showing her work locally and regionally and completing commissioned work for her collectors.