Cathy Munson Biography scroll down to view works

Cathy Sue Munson paints intricately detailed watercolors and gouache, specializing in wildlife and western subjects. In addition, she is known for her commissioned dog portraiture. She was featured in an article on outstanding canine artists in the April 2008 issue of Southwest Art Magazine, highlighting this aspect of her portfolio. Cathy is an Austin, Texas, native and still lives and maintains a professional art studio there. She graduated from the University of Texas with a BFA with HONORS in Studio Art.

The artist is widely recognized for her commissioned artwork with the University of Texas Athletics and Texas Exes alumni and her paintings of longhorns over the last several decades. A favorite and heartfelt honor was to be selected to paint a life-size oil mural of a herd of longhorns now in the Olympic Sports Conference Room at the North End Zone. In addition, she has done portraits of the UT longhorn mascots dating from Bevo IX thru the current Bevo XV, which are on display in the Silver Spurs Museum at the football stadium. The artist has just finished the newest portrait, “Texas Tough” Bevo XV, which shows the beloved and famous five-year-old mascot leading his team out of the game day smoke fog entering the football field. “Longhorn Proud” Bevo XV, at age three and a half, has a spur cloud behind the handsome steer honoring the Silver Spurs student organization. Yearling “Centennial Champion, Bevo XV”, was a collector’s edition done in honor of the 100 years of Bevo as the mascot. All three of these recent portraits have a portion of the proceeds from sales going to the Silver Spurs Bevo Endowment Fund to help with the care, lodging, and travel of the UT MVP mascot. Cathy is very active with Ducks Unlimited and serves on the Austin committee. She was selected as the Texas DU Sponsor Artist in 1999 and 2011 and enjoys doing hunting dog artwork for chapters across the state and nation.

She participates in the Phippen Museum Memorial Day Weekend Show in Prescott, Arizona, where in 2014, she won 2nd in the overall WATERCOLOR category. This painting, “Rodeo Roustabout,” was the only artwork selected for the 2018 prestigious traveling Rodeo exhibition at the Bob Bullock Texas State Museum in Austin. In addition, Cathy paints in the Plein Air Auction event every summer at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She has been in the prestigious Fall Arts Festival Quick Draw in Jackson Hole for several years and annually in the Whodunnit Show in early spring with the Jackson Hole Art Association. Cathy is a member of the Women Artists of the West, Texas Watercolor Society, Wyoming Watercolor Society, Louisiana Watercolor Society, Arizona Watercolor Association, and the Texas Wild Bunch.

Being known for her dog portraits, Cathy was selected for the extraordinary honor of painting Texas Governor Greg and Cecilia Abbott’s first Christmas card while in office in December 2015, depicting their beloved dogs with a Christmas tree. Cathy Munson strives to capture the inner personality and the realistic outer image of each subject she paints.

Her art is her life’s passion, especially since she was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 20U and malt lymphoma in her eyelid in 2017. She realizes every day how blessed she is to be able to still paint and create her distinctive detailed style. Not only was her life saved by her brilliant doctors of M. D. Anderson in Houston, but they also “saved her hands” from possible numbness and loss of touch due to chemo by doing all radiation and again doing radiation on her left eye, “saving her sight” so she can continue her beloved profession. It has also enabled her to see how much the spirit of the soul is essential to one’s life and passion. One needs to be able to heal physically and mentally and live a meaningful life balancing the universe with animal and human entwined side by side.