Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Holiday's Here and Time for Reflection

Now that the Holidays are almost here, it seems like a good time to reflect on this past year and to show you the paintings I've completed since October.  After a wonderful year full of travel and plein air painting in New Harmony, IN, Winter Park, CO, at the Dunes of Lake Michigan, by Lake Wawasee in mid-north IN, and at the Brookville home of T.C.Steele.  Now I find the cozy fire in my studio wood stove a delight and am enjoying settling down to dig into some larger paintings.  This is the first one larger than 11"x 14" which was completed this week. 

"River Bend"  16"x 20", Oil on linen canvas, $950

As a warm up for studio work, I painted another interpretation of my neighbor's apple tree for which I used a photo reference from last summer.  

"Apple Tree IV"  14" x 11", Oil in linen canvas panel,  $650

Thinking backwards, before I got back into my studio for the winter, my husband, Howie, and I had a great time at the IPAPA Brookville, IN Paint-Out in southwestern Indiana.  Of course Howie had his guitar and banjo with him.  Two of the famous artists in the Indiana Hoosier Group, T.C.Steele and Otis Adams shared a large home in Brookville with their families, dividing the house in half with a large studio for each painter at the far ends. It's now a bed and breakfast with many of the original artifacts and furniture so we love to stay there.  This year the weather was cold and rainy which could have been a bummer, but after painting outside the first chilly day, all the artists staying in the house painted in Otis Adams big studio the second day for a very fun time.  It felt like we were back in 1910.
(You can't find me because I'm taking the photo)
 The third day, I painted with some friends in Metamora, a beautiful, historic village with a canal going straight through the middle of it, an important transportation route with locks and all.  This is a Quaker Church in a line with many other buildings that front on the canal. 

"Along the Canal in Metamora"  11" x 14", Oil on canvas panel, $550

After returning from Brookville, I did get into my studio to paint two works from photo references taken this past summer.  One is of lilies in my garden with the intense shadow from Arborvitaes behind them.

 "Garden Lilies"  11" x 14", Oil on canvas panel,  $650

The other painting is from an encounter with a fisherman when I was out taking photos of landscapes.  He walked by with his days catch in a bucket.  I asked if he would hold the fish up for me.

"Catch on a Muddy Creek"  14" x 11", Oil on canvas panel, $650

I hope this isn't stimulus overload.  I haven't been keeping the blogs up with my rate of painting.  Correcting that sounds like a good New Year's Resolution.  Thank you for all your comments sent this past year, and if you have anything to say about all this, please do.  I appreciate it all and trust that you'll have a happy holiday. If you'd like to see more paintings, my we site is www.kathrynclarkfineart.com Until next year, thank you for viewing my art.