Runs silent and deep

Oil on canvas

18x24"

available 

Reverie

Oil on canvas

18x20"

available 

Fran

 My long time friend asked me to paint a portrait of her mother who passed when my friend was quite young. To say the very least, it was difficult working from a blown up image that was originally a 2 inch polaroid photo. Even the color of the photo was quite faded. I did a rough sketch to get the "gist" of her face and sent a snap of that to my friend so she could see my progress and tell my anything necessary that I was missing. The day I sent it was the anniversary of her mother's passing! I had goosebumps!
So, on to the rest of it. I scanned it onto my computer and enlarged it, then used calipers to make sure I had the correct proportions as I sketched it directly onto the canvas with charcoal. I sealed that, then started painting. My friend asked me to frame it as she said she had no idea what she would choose so I went real traditional with gold, heavy and quite lovely. I'm pleased with the end result and very glad I had the opportunity to make my friend happy.

Wisdom

Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still

....Or I could have said, "Not birds! Stars!"
Cheers!
Karen
Colored pencil on illustration board, 8x10", portrait
available

Fiona

Well, I worked damn hard on this painting of this sweet, sweet girl.
This is Fiona. My sister in law Lori's granddaughter. She is an adorable little girl and I feel privileged to have "captured" her likeness on canvas. Lori had no idea I was doing this and I got to present it to her, framed and ready to hang.
I enjoyed painting her. 16x20", oil on canvas
Cheers all,

Love the people around you, family or not. They won't always be there.
God's peace,
Karen

I'd tell all my friends, but they'd never believe me

I started this years ago. And got rather irritated with my daughter when she posted it on her Facebook  page before I'd finished it. (Well, it's her image that I used.) So stupidly, I put it away. But now I've pulled it out and finished it and I'm rather happy with it. I hated - hated - hated the spaceship! It fought me at every turn but it's OK now. 

The title is from a Radiohead song that I just love - and is so...fitting.

https://youtu.be/QYAvrvglBnI

And in my perfect world, I'd follow that up with Bowie's Starman - but that's just me.

Oil on canvas, 18x14", fantasy, figure, portrait

Available

Cheers all,

Karen

The World is Not Enough

Hi and hello,

Finally feeling better these days.

Been sitting around tinkering with this.

Colored pencil on illustration board - which I don't think I'll use again for colored pencil.

Any type of layering was burnishing as far as the board was concerned and I couldn't get the smooth darks I was going for even with a bit of solvent.

9 1/2 x 15" 

Available

Cheers,

Karen

Life Model 1

Hellooo,
This is my result of the first day at a new class over at Calartinst with Mark Schwartz. Life painting with a nice length of four hours and, of course, I loved every minute of it.  Omg holding the same pose that long with just a few stretches. Oooph! I would never want to do that! I never did catch her name, although the others in the class called out hello to her. I do wish I had begun with a few colors rather than (ivory) black and (titanium) white as she had beautiful long, red hair and was wearing some bright turquoise earrings.
Titanium dioxide is used in paints, of course, and paper, plastics and..... wait for it..... toothpaste. Makes me want to run out and buy the natural stuff.
Here's a link to Mark's blog http://markschwartzart.blogspot.com/ Check out his drawings. wow

Oil on canvas 8x10"
Cheers all and God's peace.
Karen