I just went to Barcelona to visit my son.  He is studying abroad and I have missed him.  My daughter planned the whole trip. We had a great time traveling together.  It was a wonderful trip and I will always remember the time spent with two of my kids.  Having grown up with a creative mom, they are okay with going through art museums and sitting with me painting on the side of the road.  I have terrific children and obviously I am proud of them. Here are a couple of paintings that I started in Spain and one that I am working on.

I have been working hard on a series of larger paintings.  I find that I need to work on several paintings at a time to avoid over working.  I become obsessive about painting and before I know it, I should have stopped an hour before.  I like to have a fresh eye and working on several at once helps this.  So I have about four paintings in various stages.  While I am working on all of these different paintings, I sometimes decide I need to concentrate further on some aspect, i.e. lighting, capturing the expression on the face with minimal detail or perhaps draping with the minimum of strokes.  I decided that the way to achieve this without adding to my stash of paintings was to paint a small 6X8 study and work on the aspect that needs my focus. Today, it was expression and minimizing the strokes.  I would love to know what you think.

Here is a photo of the museum trip painting. For whatever reason, I couldn't get it to upload with the previous post.  I am sure I will get more familiar with the changes that have been made to blogger since I last posted.

Painting at the Museum

I am going to try to be better about updating on the site.  I have struggled with staying on top of all the social media.  I really spend more time painting than anything else.  Yesterday I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum with a couple of friends and painted for about 3 1/2 hours on a Sorolla. It was such a good experience.  I really concentrated on two things.  I wanted to keep the lights light on the face and capture the colors that he used as close as possible.  I left the museum feeling like I had received a lesson from a master.  I really would like to paint like this more frequently but like social media, my studio work will pile up and I need to focus there also.

I feel bad that I haven't posted. Thank you, Stephanie, for commenting about this. I felt humbled that someone cared whether I posted. I decided that I would answer your question as to where I have been. I kind of pulled away from most of my galleries when the economy took a fall and decided that it was a good time to focus on what I wanted to say with my work. I still work everyday from 9 -5 in the studio. I have been focusing on all aspects of painting that I love. this includes a lot of drawing. I am working from life almost all the time with models as well as still life and plein aire. Here is a drawing that I have been working on. As always, I would love your thoughts !

Thank you

Kate

Italy

This summer I went to Italy with my family. We stayed in Florence with one side trip to Sienna.

It was so incredibly inspiring. There is so much art there and some of it is so old. It reminded me of the importance of using quality materials and making sure that when you paint that masterpiece, it is on a substantial support. There were enormous paintings, maybe 10 feet tall or more, painted on board from the 1500's. It was surreal to see the beauty still there after such a long time. The sculpture in the Accademia dell'arte was also amazing.

I carried my art box that I made from a casino humidor and four tubes of paint. In Sienna, I bought no odor turpentine and was able to plein aire paint two small paintings early in the week. These paintings would take at least four days to dry enough to get home and since I was only there for seven days, I had to paint early.

I chose to paint the "via" leading up to our apartment as it was so typical of the area. It was one of those pinch me moments. Am I really sitting here in Italy painting on the side of a road. Vespas flew up the hill as did several of the small cars. It was noisy but so vibrant. The next day around six in the evening, I took wine up to the porch overlooking Florence and painted the scene from there. It was such an amazing view, I am glad to have the painting as a reminder of how that moment felt. I hope to use this plein aire and paint it larger soon.

Since returning home, I have begun work on a large painting of Ponte Vecchio and so far I am happy that I feel like I caught the feeling that the view from almost down at the bridge down from Ponte Vecchio gives a new visiter to Florence. I will post this painting soon but here are the two quick studies I did on location. Hope you enjoy and I welcome your thoughts !

Back to blogging

Well, it is sadly obvious that I have had a lot going on since March. My youngest graduated last weekend from high school and now I hope to begin posting again on a more regular basis. I have continued painting during this time but don't feel that I was putting myself in to the work.

It is important to feel connected to the painting or the viewer may not get a sense of the artist. The paintings that I am the most passionate about are the ones that seem to vibrate on the canvas.

I have been painting still life,plein aire and models from life. It is helpful in all aspects of painting. The only thing that I think helps more is drawing all the time. Sometimes I sculpt figures. This helps with understanding what goes on under the skin and helps with drawing and painting.

Recently, I was invited to paint a figure outside. it was a great time. I love to paint outside with all the challenges. There is such a sense of accomplishment in being able to withstand the bugs, the light changes and on this occasion, the heat. Add a model to this and the bar is raised higher. What a great day and great fun with some really fun and talented artists.