Isa Catto finds beauty in wild places: the gardens beyond her studio-gallery and home in Woody Creek, on birdwatching trips around the country, and even in the absence of perceived inspiration. Overhearing a woman lamenting a lack of winter color outdoors, the artist found a challenge. Last January, Catto began her Daily Color Series, at first to capture the infinite shades of nature amid our snow-blanketed, frozen landscape. Her abstract watercolor paintings on hand-torn paper depict rainbows aplenty: red rocks along a walking path, green lichen on an oak tree, and a kaleidoscope of birds nibbling seed at a backyard feeder. 
“Understanding color in context has been second nature to me, like another language, even when I formally studied color theory,” says Catto, who purchased the property adjacent to her childhood home in 1995 and raised her own kids there. “Every day, I notice something different.”  

Calling her style “organic symbolist,” Catto has documented her natural surroundings in watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media for more than three decades. In recent years, she’s translated these works into functional printed goods: journals and wrapping paper to neck gaiters, Italian-silk scarves, and socks made in the USA. 

“We want art to be accessible,” adds Catto, who welcomes visitors to her gallery shop by appointment. “We inject art into the everyday by creating beautiful, compelling products.” 

Besides peeking behind the curtain to see how Catto’s art is made, visitors may partake in the process at Isa Catto Studio’s Custom Notebook Bar. Here scribes can choose various papers (lined, unlined, calendar pages, art- and nature-inspired quotes) and a sturdy cover illustrated by Catto, to assemble a one-of-a-kind, seven-by-nine-inch notebook ($24) on an old-fashioned binding machine.
“For people who love color and pattern, it’s visual eye candy,” says studio director Jennifer Roberts, of these affordable alternatives to framed artwork. “In addition to being a pretty showroom, it is a working studio and we’re getting jobs done.”