Just Listed

Even though the temperature is soaring, it kinda feels like the edge of autumn to me. 

Anywhoo, I had "girls night" over here the other day and got some very positive remarks from my friends when they spied this on the easel. One of them said when she retired she wanted to take up painting. That felt "too late" to me. I'm scrambling to learn as much as I can now. For example: Manufacturers of pigments use the word hue e.g. 'Cadmium Yellow (hue)' to indicate that the original pigmentation ingredient, often toxic, has been replaced by safer (or cheaper) alternatives whilst retaining the hue of the original. Replacements are often used for chromium, cadmium and alizarin.

 I was unhappy with a tube of cadmium yellow paint that (sure enough) read (hue) on its label.

Hm. Buyer beware (or at least be knowledgeable.) Again with the yellow!

Oil painting on board 8x8" Available for sale at my Etsy shop. 

Cheers all!

Karen

Who doesn't love Robby?

And now for something completely different....

How could Robby the Robot not make anyone smile? I had to snatch him back from the jaws of... I mean, from my daughter who oohed and awed over him and threatened to run off with him when he wasn't even finished.

(I have to say my classwork has helped me tremendously with form detail.)

This a scan which is closer to his colors, but it cut off his toes. (Not that Robby has toes....) Eventually I'm going to paint something on his sign. No, it's not a purse! Why would Robby carry a purse? He has a wallet. And a fanny pack. 

And here I am holding him close. He's not too big... about 8x12". Oil on board. 

All-righty then. To Infinity and Beyond!

Cheers all! Karen

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/karen-stitt/robby/179191

AVAILABLE ON DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM

Portrait of a Georgian Princess Study

 So this is my attempt at Portrait of a Georgian Princess by 

ALEXEJ ALEXEJEWITSCH HARLAMOFF (RUSSIAN, 1840-1925)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/alexej-alexejewitsch-harlamoff-portrait-of-a-georgian-5673159-details.aspx

Drawn straight onto my gessoed board surface. I read an article by master-artist Daniel Greene from a few years back where he suggested making your own MDF panels. I bought some MDF at the hardware store, had my husband cut it up in smaller random pieces, wiped it down with mineral spirits, sanded it, coated it with gesso and sanded it down smooth again. Piece of cake! (Need to recheck about treating both sides. I'll get back to you on that. Though I suppose gesso the other side, then sealed with varnish would probably suffice.)

She looks like I beat her up here, poor thing. My goal is the one behind. 

This was actually shot upside down and I flipped it to post it. I really agree that painting upside down is a good way to trick the eye and brain. And Oh boy, the things that jump out at you when you really study something up close: SHE HAS ZOMBIE HANDS!  Well, they look like zombie hands. Take a closer look at her lower hand and the multi colored mottling. If I had hands like that, they'd say I needed to go to the doctor to have my circulatory system checked out. 

Now, I know I certainly wouldn't fool any museum conservators, but I am quite happy with how she turned out. And it was a better attempt and finish than the last one. Much closer to the mark, although mine looks not as young or as innocent. She was TOUGH!  I am reassured in that I recently read most painters would have a difficult time recreating their own masterpieces. And I had to scan this as I couldn't get a decent photo (see that oil glare in the photo above!) so unfortunately it appears , um, grainy.  

C&Cs welcome. (In true fashion, I think I dropped the nose down a tad too long.)

Oil on panel 8x10

Well, that's all I have to share. We went up to the Sierras for our Fourth of July. (So beautiful!) Hope you all had a good holiday, or a wonderful weekend, whichever applies. 

Cheers all and God's peace to you.
Karen

Veracruz

Hi and Hello,

I mentioned earlier my art classes had gone onto perspective and I absolutely needed to be dragged about by the ear to learn it...correctly. I have to say Chris (Armstrong) does a calm and relaxed job of teaching it. One of the first nights of class I threw my hands in the air and went home quite frustrated with myself, but from that point on it all made sense. I quite enjoyed drawing this, from a photo my husband took in Veracruz, Mexico.

Pencil, Prismacolor markers in cool and warms (those are fun!), touch of colored pencil and white charcoal on Canson paper, about 12x9

Revisiting the music of Queen. Freddie Mercury really did have a wonderful, wonderful singing range

Cheers all!

God's peace!

Karen

Postnote: I got a second place ribbon at CalArtisnt! Yeah! :)

Cecilia Beaux in Charcoal

I've been tinkering around with this for about a month and I guess I've reached a point where I'm not interested in taking it any further. So, my homage to Cecilia Beaux who painted some stunning, stunning artwork. Two of my favorites of hers are Sita and Sarita 1893 and Mother and Daughter 1898. Somewhat tragically it appears she more or less stopped painting after she fell in Paris and broke her hip in the 1920s. But I just loved that she able to achieve such success during her lifetime - with respect from her peers and from many countries.

C&C's welcome (but I don't think I'm going to revisit her once I spray her with fixative.) 9x12 Charcoal, pencil, & Wolff carbon on Canson paper

God's peace,
Karen

The Letter (wip?)

Like quite a few of you, I've just finished (maybe finished?) painting from what I consider is a masterwork. The artist was Mary Brewster Hazelton http://www.askart.com/askart/h/mary_brewster_hazelton/mary_brewster_hazelton.aspx and her painting of The Letter is one of my favorites. 

 I started with a grid for this one and, it seems to me, I was on a better track with the face at the start than the finish. I must have wiped her face off at least a dozen times. Mine looks more like her slightly younger cousin. In my defense (a lame defense,) I was painting on a 11x14 canvas and the original is on a 38x32. I was using a magnifying glass at the end to capture her face but her face is only about an inch and half so..... I'll stick to that as an excuse. I am quite happy with how I captured Mary's color pallet (I was using an article from The American Art Review as a reference) but the dress in the Askart pic seems to be greener. And yes, I certainly see my other mistakes; I should have moved the figure over at the start so the table wasn't too wide, the shawl color ( I admit I liked it too much to change it) and her hands are too far apart. And then there's her face... It's a sweet face, doncha think? I could attempt just the face on another canvas, right?

But other than that....I had a blast painting her! And isn't that what it's all about? Ah, the learning....ever learning curve.

Cheers all! And God's peace.

ks

Tea in the Sahara

Hi and Hellooo out there,
I had saved this inspiration from a calendar eons ago and finally got around to it on a "repurposed canvas board." I had wanted to limit my pallet to five paint colors but I ended up with seven after deciding the purpley sand dunes needed more...purple. Purple is my friend. (I always have to tell myself that cause I forget about purple and how good it is.) The smaller version of it is all I could capture with the scanner and second full size one was taken outside in the shade. The colors are much more like the scanned one.
Enjoyed painting this. Oil on canvas board 11x14. So my little friend and I will now trip off through the sand dunes, listening to Sting sing about drinking tea in the Sahara.
Cheers. (My hero of the day is Angelina Jolie, but there are so many unsung heros in this world of ours.)
ks

A little bit of randomness

Hi all.  Last week or so was hot, wind, fire, followed by rain and cool. It is a little disturbing, especially to have fire storms in May. Usually we have a bout of that in October. Been working on some paintings but I'm still tinkering with them so just some drawings to share. The first three are on Mi-teintes pastel paper, charcoal, pencil and white charcoal. I like the feel of Mi-teintes. Just enough "crispness". 

 And this last one is on that darn Bee paper. It is too soft! No bite to it at all! I know I've complained about it before but it makes it hard to get clean edges. (So why do I continue to use it?) I think I'll call it a day on drawing them and carry their story onto some sort of painting surface. That way I can separate them even more and increase the drama Dean Cornwell-like, smoke and battlefield behind him and whatnot, letters in their hands, get rid of her pointed chin. Ha!

This months issue of Drawing Magazine has set my mind spinning and now all I want to do is draw. But when do I ever not just want to draw?

Cheers all! God's peace!

ks

Yello-Shea in

Sometimes when you've got lemons... or yellow...
I spooshed out a lot of yellow paint a week or so back. As I'm staring at this pile o'paint, I'm thinking "Okay, what to do with this?" Paint the usual suspects?  And then I remembered when my oldest had been playing nonstop with the pictures on the computer that she had taken of herself, her sister and various friends - Shea included.  Can you say "Saturation?"
And so, we have Shea. I just love Shea. She has a great laugh. I've known her since she was about five. She is all beautifully grown up now and, no, she is not normally yellow and, yes, they are all still close friends. I hope she'll be OK with this. It was a tough angle. A tad too much that way and she looked like the wicked witch of the west. I think it was good practice to paint it "outside of the box" so to speak, but the better test would be to paint from an un-doctored photo and try to judge the values.

I had to check.

Ok, it was fun. I'm gonna to post this on dailypaintworks "Friend" challenge since it was done within the allotted time even though Shea is actually my daughter's friend. I haven't turned any of my friends yellow. At least, not on purpose. 

Cheers all. Hope you're well and good.

ks

Oil on canvas 8x10

Lemon up

I had to force myself to s l o w d o w n on this one.
      I wasn't happy with it at first and now I like it better.
so
     yeah.
For sale on dailypaintworks.com
 http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/karen-stitt/lemon-up/170032
Oil on canvas 8x10
Cheers all. Hope you are thawing out.
ks

Credit for a wonderful photo by a fellow who goes by samygpunkt on deviantart
http://fav.me/d4gwj6x