About Us

Jim & Lynn Powers began Creative Catalyst with the core belief they call "win-win-win".  It is the idea that life and business works best when we strive to find ways for each person to "win" in each interaction or transaction.

Creative Catalyst Artist / Instructors win by creating royalty income from professionally produced art instruction videos.

Students win by having low cost access to art instruction by master artist/teachers. Students can now sample an artist's teaching before attending a live workshop, or take the teacher home on a DVD or Digital to continue learning after a workshop.

We win by being able to pursue our dream of melding our technical and artistic talents in a venture we call Creative Catalyst Productions, fully utilizing our Oregon home and studio and doing something useful and fun for other creative people.

Thank you for stopping by. We now feature over 300 art instruction videos produced by ourselves and another 100 or so videos by other producers.  We look forward to seeing you again soon. If you have any questions or require additional information, please let us know.

A Little History  

It all started in 1993 when Lynn worked with Jan & Bill Kunz to develop three watercolor art instruction videos with an independent production company. While the project was ultimately successful, we quickly realized that the high up-front cost of production, which took years to recover, would be a barrier to most artists. In addition, we learned that our independent producer lacked the artistic sensitivity to produce a video workshop that focused on what is important to artists and art students.

In 2001, with three children out of the nest, a comfortable home on three rural Oregon acres, and the desire to create an art education video business together, we developed a concept that we hope will benefit all concerned. Creative Catalyst Productions Art Instruction Videos emerged from our beliefs that:

• Most talented artists are underpaid and under-recognized.
• National artist seminars & classes provide exposure to many students who would like to continue their art education after class ends.
• Only a limited number of students can attend these art instruction workshop classes. Many more would like to learn from these artists but simply can't afford the time or cost.
• Learning from master artist books is one step toward larger exposure but is limited, by the nature of the medium, in communicating what serious teachers and students wish to teach and learn.

We decided there is a need for a place that brings together professional artists, technology, marketing and sweat equity for the mutual benefit of all concerned. Creative Catalyst Productions was born. Over the next 12 years we produced over 90 art instruction DVDs with 57 artist / instructors.

In 2013 we stopped filming new artists and Lynn jumped back into her own artistic career as a watercolor painter, full time.  Creative Catalyst now focuses on introducing quality creative art videos to our customers and providing great customer service.

In March of 2016 Lynn passed away and we all miss her terribly.