Friday, August 26, 2016

OOOPS! I moved!

Find my new posts at http://www.kathleenbarnesartist.com/paintdiva-the-blog

Week in Review!






 It has been a very good week.
Lots of new habits,
new explorations,
new fun.
I am painting ahead for my 30 in 30 challenge 
to cover the days when I know I will not be able to paint,
not cheating, just planning ahead.
I am also taking full advantage of
Powder Valley Nature Preserve.
I'm out there hiking the valley trail,
then having coffee and journaling in the woods.
The Japanese call it Forest bathing.
I love it.
I come home fully charged and ready to paint.

The photos above:
  1. a paint "string" of values pre mixed on my palette before I even begin to paint.
  2. a repurposed dishrack I use to hold wet paintings and store dry work.
  3. my perpetual calendar reminding me how close I am to September and the kick off!
  4. Coffee and journal ready for a rest after my morning hike.
  5. The trailhead for the hike I love so much.
Now for some fun links:
http://littlecoffeefox.com/  is a great site on bullet journaling...a great way to organize your life!
http://www.chasejarvis.com/blog/30-days-of-genius/  is a free series of talks with some of today's geniuses about how to start your own path to success.
http://www.marieforleo.com/  Marie Forleo is my new inspiration hero. Check out her Marie TV
http://www.stankakordic.com/  is my latest portrait hero. Her website has a free video and some of her amazing drawings and paintings.

Hope this keeps you busy and having fun for the weekend. You may also want to head out to the Wildwood art fest. You never know who you will see out there!



Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Create Magic and Savor


This  reminder is on my studio wall...
a great philosophy when it comes to creating art.
Creating is the magical part, the part we need to summon up
all our energy and spirit for.

Little rituals help.
I clean and organize as much as I can at the end of each day,
but those first few moments are for choosing a canvas, 
laying out tubes of paint, contemplating what I need
to begin the magic.
Then the strokes of my magic wand....OK, it's a charcoal pencil.

Here you can see brushes ready to go, paper towel waiting,
easel standing at attention with a brand new board.
That cute black and white power tool with the pink accents is a heat gun, not a blow dryer.
 I promise it will fry your hair.
It helps when I'm in  hurry.

You can also see I have a thing for butterflies.
It's the concept of transformation.
That's what we're all doing , all the time. It's just that sometimes
 we're controlling the process,
and sometimes the process is controlling us.
We do get to choose most of the time,
some of us just don't realize that is a possibility.
There is a lot more to savor,
if you control the magic.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Getting organized

 Way back in 2012, I did attempt Leslie Saeta's
30 paintings in 30 days challenge.
I did about fifteen paintings.
Not bad,
but not 30.

So this time I have a plan!
Beware a woman with a plan!
above, you can see I have been hitting every canvas sale in town.
My only limitation is size and cash.
I'm sticking to 8 x 10 and 8 x 8 canvases.
I'm also trying to get gallery wraps as much as possible...
a little bit pricier, but no framing necessary.

Paint


Lots of paint!
I am working in acrylics because it dries fast
and....
I seem to have a lot of it!
Although you can see a wild collection of color here,
for the most part, I plan on sticking to a limited palette.


The third part of the plan is to use this covered palette
to save paint from one day to the next
and try to use leftover paint from one day's work
on a smaller painting the next day.
Since I tend to mix big piles of paint when working with acrylics,
this could be a time and money saver.

So these last few weeks in August are dedicated to cleaning up the studio,
sketching out 30 (or more) possible ideas,
and gearing up for the challenge,
Oh!
and one more thing...
I'm limiting my subject matter somewhat.
My theme for the 30 paintings in 30 days is:
WINGS.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Click to buy
A new friend from Europe was looking at my online gallery
a few days ago and noticed that my style
varies wildly.
I get bored.
One one hand, that's a good thing,
it makes me explore new mediums and techniques.
It makes the world of art appear limitless.
I can do whatever I want on my little
 world of canvas or paper.
Lots of fun.
On the other hand,
it seems to annoy galleries, collectors and
European friends.

Hmmmm.

So, my internal artist has been digesting this.
Wandering around the internet,
looking at artwork by artists I admire.
Sure enough, they seem to have a rather static style.

So, in the interest of switching things up once again,
 I've decided to start with
the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
hosted by Leslie Saeta.
I've already committed to it.
Now I am setting parameters for myself
such as subject, canvas size and surface, palette
and now I am thinking style must be added.
Can I paint 30 paintings all in one style?
Of course I can.

Can't I?

Well, we will certainly see.
The last two angel paintings as well as the first couple were all painted on canvases that were first prepared with black gesso.
So I am thinking that at least ten canvases must be prepped with black gesso.
The angel in shades of gray was done on a surface prepped with
a modeling compound.
So ten will get modeling compound.
I'm leaving ten as wild cards.
They may get surface preps and they may not.
They key will be they will all be more or less in the same style.
Mixed media acrylic (less expensive than my oils)
big brush, expressive and a touch of linear.

The angel in this blog is in that style,
big impressionist strokes,
scraped in lines.
Click on the bottom
to see more details.

Check back for more information on the upcoming 30 in 30 challenge.
I'll be posting information on my preparations
and daily paintings right here!


Thursday, July 21, 2016

New works and a bit of catching up


Oh my!
It's been a long time since I've been here.
So I've tidied up a bit.
Changed a few things here and there.
Preparing for the next big project.
Yep, I've got a surprise coming for you, but that's for another day.
For today, we"ll play a bit of catch up.
Last up was my first angel.
Since then I've been painting and drawing angels
like a mad woman.
Some have wings, some are just little angels.
Angel faces.
You know I work in a photo studio
that caters to children and their families.
I love my work.
I love creating beautiful images of the children.
So it wasn't surprising when I started to want to draw tiny faces.
The Renaissance artists called them "putti",
baby angels.
Their tiny faces have an entirely different proportion from adults.
What I really love is their expressions.
So honest, even when their sad, like the little one above.

Sometimes I just got carried away and the little ones went WILD!

I had no idea I could have this much fun with a pencil and an eraser.
I actually only use the eraser to add shapes and highlights.
I have some erasers that look like pencils
and I can sharpen them to tiny points to get details.

I am also using some water soluble pencils and charcoal.
Everything gets sealed so not a single smear or smudge can happen
once I am finished.

That's it for now.
Next up will be my winged angels.
I've painted one for each of the terrorist attacks.
Just painting them helps soothe me
a little, gives me hope,
and a prayer for a world with a bit more
peace.

Monday, December 14, 2015

 
 
Angel of Peace 12 X 16 mixed media
 
 
Oh, I love this last painting. I loved painting just values,
just light and dark.
I needed an angel and a blessing.
Some light in all the darkness
that seems to be occurring around us.
 
She inspired me to be loose,
to be open,
to be free.
 
She brings dreams of a new year full of hope.
I can see painting like this more often,
with a prayer for openness
and light.
 
Painting lessons begin again in January,
in St. Charles.
Message me for information and a holiday special.