"Seafaring Wreck"

On the South Carolina coast in the barrier islands, this old hull spoke to me like a beached whale, still breathing. 

"Seafaring Wreck", 14" x 11", oil on canvas panel, studio painting from photo reference

Summer is All About the Color Green

Tomorrow's the 4th of July, and already it's so hot and humid I feel like I need to swim through it sometimes.  Presently I'm reading Pat Conroy's South of Broad which takes place in Charleston, SC, the city near the barrier islands of Seabrook where I painted in the relatively dry spring.  He describes the summer in Charleston as being even more humid than Indiana so I shouldn't wine too much.  The other thing about summer that painters want to wine about is the color green--there's just tooooo much of it in the landscape.  Painting in the summer is all about seeing how many variations of the color green we can come up with.

This is my first painting of the summer, and I'm trying to discover some of the greens in the trees over Burnett's Creek outside Battle Ground, IN.   I've included a photo of the initial drawing on the (oil primed) linen canvas with its "block in" to show you how it looked as I began the painting.

"Sultry Afternoon on Burnett's Creek", 20" x 16", oil on linen canvas

This is how it looked when I "finished" it yesterday.  But I'll put it away for a week and then see it fresh to determine if I need to tweak it one way or another.  If you'd like to make a comment, I'd love to hear them.  And please forward this on to anyone else you think might like to see it.  Hope the summer's been good to you so far and that you're staying relatively cool.  

33rd Indiana Heritage Arts Juried Exhibition

Indiana Heritage Arts is a nonprofit organization with a mission of nurturing the rich art heritage of Brown County and the famous Hoosier Group Impressionist painters from the turn of the 19th Century.  http://www.browncountyartgallery.org/indiana/heritagearts.html That group included T.C. Steele, Otis Adams, William Forsyth, and Otto Stark among others.  This exhibition is perhaps the most important annual exhibition for realist painters that happens in Indiana.  Any painter who has ever lived in Indiana can enter.  All original paintings must be delivered to the Brown County Art Gallery for jurying.  This year the juror was Kathryn Stats, a fabulous landscape painter from Utah.  http://www.kathrynstats.com/   Collectors seek out this exhibition to purchase the best paintings by the best artists in the state.  I was delighted to have two paintings accepted and to win an Award of Merit for "January on Moot's Creek"  http://kathrynclarkfineart.com/works/569710/january-on-moots-creek.  This is the other painting that was accepted:

"Voyageur Sailing the Wabash"  oil, 14" x 11"

This exhibition is still on display, but only till June 25th.  It's at the Brown county Art Gallery, corner of Main and Artists Drive in Nashville, IN.  open till 5pm each day.  I hope you can work a visit into your busy schedule this week.  Their phone is 812-988-0099.

Along with painting landscapes out in the elements, I'm trying to paint in my studio some this summer from "field studies" (smallish plein air paintings) and photo references.  In this way, I'll hopefully be able to create a couple of larger paintings for a fall exhibition that's coming up fast. 

Also on a techy note about this blog, Google now offers an option for blogs to be viewed on iphones and other android devices, so I have applied that format to this blog.  You can now see it on any computer device for your convenience.  I don't have any of those devices so I can't see what that looks like.  So I hope you like what you see.  Let me know.  Your comments are always enjoyed by me, and I hope you'll enjoy the rest of June!

The Silent and Beautiful Salt Marshes of South Carolina

My painting buddies and I just returned from a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina called Seabrook, about a thirty minute drive from Charleston. Three mornings of the week we were there, I walked from their home out on to this vast, still, quiet, salt marsh to try to capture its beauty.  Because the marsh is ecologically fragile and filled with deep mud, tall sea grass, tiny crabs, and other small wild life, there are wooden board walks above the sea grass that slink out into it. This is where I painted.

"Salt Marsh Channels", oil on linen board, 9" x 12"

This is the second view of the salt marsh which I painted from the dock in the main water channel. 

"Salt Marsh Dock", oil on linen board, 12" x 9"

Back on our host's porch, I made some final changes.

Although we didn't get a chance to paint along the ocean side of the island, we did take many photos of the ocean, boats, and much more.  Here are a few pics to give you the flavor of the place:

The commercial fishermen were out shrimping when we were here.  

The restaurant to the right where we tasted the local catch looked out on a dock of charter fishing boats. 

I hope your sun is setting in a beautiful spot as well.  Until next time......I'll be finding exciting spots to paint back home in Indiana. 

Painting a Fishing Boat is Getting Me In the Mood for Summer!

"Tied Up in Newport Harbor, Oregon"  14" x 11", oil on linen panel

This spring, I haven't been painting as much as I did last spring.  So to get in the mood for summer, I painted a commercial fishing boat that catches crab in Newport Harbor, Oregon.  This painting was done from a photo that I took last summer when I was there and was painted in my studio over two days, about five hours total I think.  Another reason I painted this is that, in a few days, I'm going to Seabrook, SC with a couple of painting buddies (Therese Lynch and Margaret Hanke) to paint (of course).  I suspect there'll be lots of boats there, and I had never painted a real, traditional fishing boat so I thought I should give it a try before I get to the ocean in South Carolina where we'll be painting plein air.  I loved the reflection of this bright blue boat in the water and its juxtaposition to the yellow and orange boats.  Never knew commercial fishing boats were so colorful!  Life is Art and so is fishing!

Several people reminded me that, in my last post, I raved about Twinrocker Handmade Drawing Paper but didn't include the link to their web site.  Here it is:  www.twinrocker.com.  If you want to get a swatch set, ask them questions, or place an order, their toll free 800 number is on their web site also.  Paintings and drawings on my web site are now for sale through PayPal and include packing and shipping.  www.kathrynclarkfineart.com  My next post will hopefully include some paintings from Seabrook, SC---sun and sand, oh boy!  Thank you for your comments and for viewing this blog.

Drawing the Figure at the Lafayette Art Museum

11" x 14"

It's difficult to explain to a non-artist how intensely enjoyable it is to look (gaze, stare, scrutinize) an object, landscape, or figure for an hour or more without stopping.  However,  it's almost unimaginable how FAST the time flies by when I'm drawing or painting it. That is interpreting the subject on paper or canvas with pencil marks or brush strokes,.  If I wasn't drawing the subject, it would probably be impossible to sit and just look at a figure for an hour. But when you draw or paint it, you're constantly comparing, adjusting, asking yourself, "Is it too big or too small, too high or too low, too dark or too light?  What part do I want to emphasize?  How will I lead the viewer through this?" and on and on...

10" x 7"

12" x 12"

Then there's the beauty of the mark itself to consider, i.e. the calligraphic stroke, be it pencil, pen, or brush and the sweep, looseness, pressure on the paper.   

10" x 7"

10" x 7" 

In the beginning, there is the gesture of the figure to consider, especially in a quick 8 minute study as in the two figures above.

11" x 14"

14" x 11"

And one of the MOST IMPORTANT things to choose are the MATERIALS AND TOOLS I'm going to draw or paint with.  After all, the materials I choose are what the viewer will actually see and possibly own and live with.   When drawing, the pencil and especially the paper is crucial.  The paper needs to be responsive to my touch, beautiful to see (as the drawing itself will cover very little of it) and yet tough and erasable.  That's why I always draw on Twinrocker handmade paper.  This paper has a sensitive, natural look like the marks I'm making on it; it's not mechanical looking like machine made paper.  Consequently, it's much more fun to draw on than machine made paper, and the result shows it.  Twinrocker paper is also completely archival, cotton rag, and light fast so the drawing on this paper, colored with pigments, can hang in someones home without ever fading.  Sometimes artists think handmade paper is too good for them or too expensive, but a large sheet of Twinrocker drawing paper, in a Text or Heavy Text weight is about the price of  lunch.

Well, I guess I sound like an advertisement, but if you purchase one of these drawings, you'll see what I mean.   All these drawings are priced at $45 which includes packing and shipping in the lower 48 states.  You can see them in a larger format and other work as well on my web site  www.kathrynclarkfineart.com  .  I'm happy to  say that soon, all the drawings and paintings will be available for purchase on my web site with PayPal, hopefully within the next few days.  I'm trying to make it easier for people to purchase works without having to contact me.  Thank you for all the comments and thoughts you've sent.  I enjoy them very much, and remember I'm happy to answer any questions whether it's about art, ideas, materials, or techniques.  Please share this with friends who may be interested.  And thank you for viewing this blog.   

The Paint-Out in New Harmony, IN

There were about 150 artists at the Paint-Out in New Harmony, IN, "The First Blush of Spring", perhaps the most ever, and the weather was predicted to be good and bad.  The tiny historic town near the tip of the boot of Indiana sends everyone who visits back in time, and spring is a lovely time to be there.  The first day was sunny without a cloud in the sky.  I painted along a little wooded creek just behind the New Harmony Inn, a little 8" x 10" oil supported on my "Easy L" pochade box.

I love the delicate pale green color of spring leaves as they begin to leaf out along with the color and reflections of the bridge and trees in the creek.  The New Harmony Paint-Out has an event called "From Field to Finish" in which the artist paints a small "field study" (no bigger than 12" length) during the paint-out and then paints a larger, more developed painting at home in the artist's studio from the field study.  Just before the next year's paint-out, the artists send their field study and the larger, finished painting to the Hoosier Salon Gallery in New Harmony to be exhibited and possibly to receive a prize.  I plan on painting a larger, finished painting of this image from this field study for this competition.

My husband, Howie, entertained me and other artists as we painted.  He plays in two bands and needs his practice time too.  It made for a very pleasant afternoon.  The next day, we woke to rain and wind with a miserable forecast but went ahead and set up our easels under a very large awning in front of a great coffee shop in the center of town.  The coffee warmed our fingers and dispositions.

Slowly, the temperature warmed too; the rain stopped and the clouds even parted occasionally to let the sun through in the afternoon.

 Another artist and musician, Rick Wilson from Edinburgh, In, joined Howie who was playing banjo and another visitor joined the jam session with his banjo.  Several of us were singing harmony as we painted, and all of a sudden four more artists showed up to paint the musicians.

This is what "paint-outs" are all about, painting little plein air studies of the landscape and having a great time with other painters, meeting people and making new friends.

Now I'm home and trying to get my vegetable garden in if it will ever stop raining.  One note that is a follow-up from my last blog:  my painting "Winter in the Lilly Garden" which is in the Indiana Artist Club competitive exhibition at the Indianapolis Art Museum won an Award of Merit which made me very happy indeed!  You can see that exhibition through June 5th.  Also, the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette just had their paint-out this past weekend with perfect weather.  I was on the paint-out committee but managed to finish one painting which I'll post in my next blog after I photograph it.  More about that event then, and that's all for now.   Stay tuned...

Please share these ramblings with whomever you think would enjoy them, and you can see more of my paintings on my web site at www.kathrynclarkfineart.com.  As you know, your comments are always appreciated.