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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!

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.

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.

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!

New works and a bit of catching up

Click here to buy

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.

Sugar Angel Click to buy

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

Angel of Summer Click to buy

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.

Angel of Small creature Click to buy

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.

 

 

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.