Catherine Newman moved to New York City in 1977 after attending the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting, studying with artists Babe Shapiro and Salvatore Scarpitta.

In the subsequent years she has painted consistently while supporting herself working in documentary film and television and feature films in New York City.  She is a long-time Zen student and serves on the board of directors of the Ordinary Mind Zendo in New York City.  She is a resident of Harlem living in the historic Hamilton Heights neighborhood.

She has participated in many group exhibitions in downtown New York including ABC No Rio, Public Image Gallery, White Columns and Stephen Rosenberg Gallery among others.  She has participated in the Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour, a weekend walking tour of artist studios and galleries in historic Harlem and presently has a painting on exhibition at the Penine Hart Antiques gallery in Soho.

Her paintings are represented in the collections of filmmaker Hal Hartley, art historian and curator Charles Stuckey, writer and psychoanalyst Barry Magid, and curator and art historian Linda Norden.