CATHERINE MOORE RICHTER
 May 15, 1888 - January 14, 1990

 

 

Born in La Veta, Colorado, on May 15, 1888, Catherine Irene Moore grew up in Grand Junction.  She attended Colorado State Teachers College and after obtaining her teaching credential, she studied drawing, design, and interior decoration at the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

     In 1915 she married artist Henry Richter and, with her husband, taught at Colorado State Normal School in Gunnison, Colorado from 1916 to 1919, and at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1920 the Richters moved to Long Beach, California where Mrs. Richter taught at Polytechnic High School.  She retired from teaching to raise her family.

 

     Catherine continued to express her creativity in many ways.  After her husband died in 1960, she became a student again, living in Mexico studying watercolor painting, lithography, Mexican history, and Spanish.  Catherine documented her travels with notebooks filled with descriptions, paintings, and sketches.  She was self-taught in many art forms.  She learned woodcarving from a book and in 1915 hand-carved a china cabinet.  Her other artistic works include writing and illustrating books, designs for notepaper, watercolor paintings, lithography, china painting, jewelry, weaving, and other crafts. She continued to produce works of art until her passing on January 14, 1990, at 101 years old.