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Katelyn Workman has always loved the outdoors. But try as she might, the junior art major says she hasn’t quite figured out how to convey the experience on canvas. 

“It’s like the wind in your face, and the sounds,” she said. “It can’t be matched.” 

Workman is no stranger to the plein-air tradition — painting landscapes out in the very sites they portray — thanks in large part to Charles Center funding that took her to the Mount Gretna School of Art last summer. 

The annual Summer Intensive program in Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, immerses a small group of students passionate about landscape painting through seven weeks of outdoor art classes, lectures, and critiques by 15 visiting artists who are recognized in the field.  

With the Louis E. Catron Grant for Artistic Development, Workman says, she was able to cover the cost of program tuition and supplies.    

“I was excited just to paint the whole summer,” Workman said. And paint she did — some days spending as long as 17 hours under the sun.  

The program is noted for this intensity, said Workman. Mount Gretna’s executive founder and director Jay Nobel describes it as “a pressure cooker,” she explained. 

This intensity taught her a lot.  

“I feel like my work has gotten better in a few areas just from sheer amount of practice. But the way that I understand and vocalize my thoughts and the topics about art has really improved,” said Workman. 

The classes were quick-paced and demanding, such as one lesson where the visiting professor walked around the landscape with a timer, ordering students to start a new work every time it went off. 

“You had 20 minutes for a painting. And that really drilled into me this mentality of if you have 20 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour and a half, you can pick up something and do something. It doesn't have to be good. It doesn't have to be perfect, but time spent is better than not.” 

Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Professor of Art Nicole Santiago, who first recommended the program to Workman (and says she’s recommended both Catron and Mount Gretna to dozens of students over the years), says that Workman has always had a distinct understanding of the “minutiae and headspace of painting.”  

“She talks about painting in a way that I don’t often get to talk to undergrads about, because they’re just not there in their understanding, and she understands it on a truly deep, abstract level,” said Santiago. “And I saw that shift happening, and when she came back from Mount Gretna, it was just a deeper understanding altogether.” 

Â鶹Æƽâ°æ faculty have a long history of involvement with the program. Both Professors John Lee (associate chair and associate professor of art) and Brian Kreydatus (professor of art) of the art & art history department have previously taught at Mount Gretna.

Workman admitted that the long days could take a toll. “The first two weeks, it was like 100 degrees with an insane amount of humidity,” Workman said. “That was . . . that was a lot.”  

But she mostly remembers the beautiful moments: being outside, connecting with her peers, and learning more about her practice.  

“After the lectures in the evenings, we would all walk as a group back to our cottage and debrief,” she recalled. “Getting to talk about art to other people who were also learning about it at an insane velocity — because you’re doing so much and you’re growing so fast — was a really cool experience.” 

Spending all day outside meant connecting not only with the other students, but with nature, too. “I was painting this creek, and all of a sudden this deer came running through the forest,” Workman remembered, eyes wide.  

She recalled another instance, “a really rough painting session,” when a hummingbird suddenly floated above her canvas. “You don't get hummingbirds in the studio! And that little moment can pull you out and be like: reality, touch grass. It's okay.” 

The value of the Catron scholarship to art students, says Professor Santiago, “is immense.” “This is giving them the opportunity to go elsewhere and do some sort of intensive study over the summer that maybe they couldn't afford, or maybe it doesn't seem feasible, or they wouldn't allow themselves to spend that much money.”  

For art students, she says, it legitimizes the pursuit of improving their craft. “It’s like: there’s a scholarship out there saying it’s important that you go and learn more about your craft. This isn’t something silly, this isn’t something frivolous, this is something where you need to train to do it — it’s like learning an instrument, or a sport, it requires years and years of training,” said Santiago. 

As for Workman, this experience left no doubt in her mind for what’s next: “I'm applying to go back,” she said.

Interested in learning more about the Louis E. Catron Grant for Artistic Development? Click here. Applications for 2026 Catron grants are due March 2!