Cathryn Lynea is a contemporary Bay Area artist whose work explores identity, self-construction, and transformation through layered abstraction, figuration, photography, and mixed media. Working from studios in Sausalito and Oakland, she creates paintings that combine color, texture, and material to examine how the self is shaped, concealed, and ultimately reclaimed.

Her process is intuitive and deeply layered. Paintings often begin as fields of abstraction, collage, and gesture before gradually revealing figurative or natural elements. This interplay between concealment and revelation mirrors the emotional landscape of the work, where vulnerability and resilience exist simultaneously. Rather than presenting identity as fixed, Lynea's paintings embrace it as something continually evolving through memory, experience, and reflection.

Her ongoing series, Finding Self, explores visibility, body image, and self-reclamation through painting, photography, and mixed media. Developed over several years, the series traces a deeply personal journey from fragmentation toward wholeness, examining how inherited narratives, lived experience, and the search for authenticity shape our understanding of ourselves.

Recent recognition includes selection for the de Young Open, participation in Women Artists Making Their Mark, and regional juried exhibitions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.