Caetlynn Booth

My studio practice centers on making paintings in oil on paper or wood panel, sequential in nature, with potential for the modular pieces to be installed in a variety of configurations. These images represent my newest work, including “Cloud Machine, Dream Machine” paintings based on recent waking dreams as a meditation on the transmutation of matter and energy from one state to another. “Swamp Shimmer" is drawn from my experience observing consecutive sunrises in the swamp as an artist in residence. Each painting represents a moment of the auroral environment, and I show them individually and in groups as modular paintings. By looking deeply into memories of color to find hues that vibrate and resonate to create a particular emotional tone, I connect to the universal concept of landscape, and all the sunrises I’ve witnessed over my lifetime thus far. Both series speak to my overarching practice of exploring the spiritual qualities of intermingling observation with internal visions, through time, color, light, form, sequence, pattern and reflection, to distill symbolic essences that speak to my feeling of interconnectedness with the worlds I inhabit.

Interview with Caetlynn Booth / Fall 2025

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? Who or what were some of your most important early influences?
My parents were both in the arts (painter/decorative painter and woodworker) and always encouraged me to engage with materials to make things. I really decided to pursue fine art halfway through undergrad after exploring other areas in the humanities and realizing I was most interested in making art. Early important influences include sewing and making quilts in high school, family trips to museum in San Francisco, and I loved the art of the poster designers for rock concerts of the 60s and 70s.

Where are you currently based and what initially attracted you to working in this place? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired aspects of your work?
New York City! I just haven’t found another place like it, with a critical mass of other artists, galleries, and art to see at any given moment! I am constantly inspired and challenged (in a good way) by what I encounter here.

Can you describe your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it functional? Do any of these specific aspects directly affect your work?
I work in watercolor and gouache and oil on paper or panel. I make paintings whose subjects start in observation or memory, and become a kind of symbolic language of sequential or modular paintings, so that many of my paintings can be hung together in relational configurations with each other. I think one of the things that makes my practice functional is a routine schedule that is consistent week to week, and this does affect the way I work in terms of incremental pacing and how time is measured across and within my work.

What are you working on in the studio right now?
A 48” x 36” oil on panel painting for my solo show next year. The color palette will be loosely based on the colors of sunrise or sunset as I remember them from looking out of airplane windows, and the composition creates a conceptual “viewing space” of a landscape as if it’s folded out from itself into a mirrored cube. By reflecting up, out, and down from itself within the larger framework of the painting, the abstracted landscape as a construct is reinforced, provoking new questions about the viewer’s relationship to the natural world.

What are the primary themes of your work right now?
Abstraction within the landscape that include bodies of water, whether swamp or ocean, as well as the human figure in relation to pattern. By intermingling the spiritual qualities of what I observe with internal visions, I strive to reconcile the internal and external, exploring my own symbolic language through synthesizing elements of color, light, form, sequence, pattern and reflection to speak to the interconnectedness of the worlds I inhabit.

 What is on your mind a lot recently?
How surreal it is to be a human at the moment.

What is a typical day like? If you don't have a typical day, what is an ideal day?
An ideal day finds me feeling like I belong in my own skin, going for a morning walk with a friend and then in my studio, in my own headspace, listening to podcasts I like and working on a painting or two. Bookended by petting my kitties and ending with dinner and a good convo with my sweetie.

What gets you in a mindset conducive to making work?
Knowing ahead of time and blocking out and expecting that time in my studio. On the days I’m not at my day job, I switch over to studio mode thinking, whether or not I’m actually in the studio.

What criteria do you follow for selecting materials? How long have you worked with this particular media or method?|
I’ve been a committed painter for several years now. I try to keep a certain quality brand standard or higher for my paints and have figured out I really like working on paper or panel. The other supporting materials I use are fairly consistent as I know how I like to work, and these other items aid me in doing so. I’m interested in taking risks and trying really new things within the content and compositions I’m making, so if I need something new to achieve a desired result, I will seek it out.

Can you walk us through your overall process? How long has this approach been a part of your practice
I’m always thinking of paintings to make and ideas I want to explore in paint. I make sketches whenever an idea persists, whether at my day job or in my studio. I cull through these sketches to arrive at the ones that pique my interest the most and then make studies in watercolor and gouache on paper. Out of these, I further select the ones I want to explore in oil on paper and/or panel. This is usually how it goes, although I can be working on a few different things, each at different stages, at the same time. This way of working has emerged over the past seven or eight years.

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?
I’ve been working with a particular abstracted swamp landscape composition that I developed as an artist in residency at the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi. I’ve made many paintings of this composition, with different color palettes derived from memories of sunrises on bodies of water. They work both sequentially and as modular paintings, and when I install them together, they become something larger, a tapestry or quilt of sunrises. Modularity, working in sequences, color relationships, further abstractions of the landscape, and working with the human figure in relation to pattern are all interests I continue to work with and see myself working with indefinitely.

Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors?
I really love curating and try to do this as often as I can as time allows. I run a studio building with eleven studios in my community in Queens which is fulfilling, and work in arts administration in the non-profit sector as my day job. Everything is interrelated in that it’s part of my experience and speaks to my preferences and personality and I’m sure all kinds of subconscious and conscious connections run throughout these affiliations.

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music—that are important to you?
Wow, recent influences range from observing the colors in the sky and color relationships on walks at the Ridgewood Reservoir, to thinking about the human figure within abstracted mouth shapes as symbols within black and white compositions. Roger Brown, the Chicago imagist, has been a major source of delight and inspiration, as well as artists throughout time, especially Odilon Redon, Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, and the list goes on; to the work of artists who I know or have known personally: those who have recently passed, Lumin Wakoa, Yvonne Jacquette, and those who inspire me when I see their work: Liv Aanrud, Ever Baldwin, Sascha Braunig, Corydon Cowansage, Amie Cunat, Julie Curtiss, Loie Hollowell, Caitlin Keogh, Hein Koh, Amy Lincoln, Bridget Mullen, Rose Nestler, Giordanne Salley, Elisa Soliven, Robin F Williams, Kalina Winters and so many others.

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory and why do they stand out?
Andrew Wyeth at the Brandywine Museum for his confidence, attention to edges and texture, and his commitment to his own vision and how he applied it to the landscape and people he was closest to.

 Lisa Corrine Davis at Miles McEnery Gallery for her masterful approach to working with a grid and abstraction while keeping the human touch and experience central to these paintings. Also her terrific use of color and overall composition.

Ken Price at Matthew Marks for his great use of form in space and terrific humor.

Christina Ramberg at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a Chicago Imagist, for her surrealism, feminism, use of pattern and the relationship between her paintings and quilt making.

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?
A recent quote by Joan Didion resonated: “I’m not telling you to make the world better. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.” 

What’s coming up next for you?
I have a solo show coming up at Jennifer Terzian Gallery in May of 2026, so am working towards that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your work and talk with us!

To find out more about Caetlynn and her work, check out her website!