K's art room

Yosemite From the Swinging Bridge

2011-04-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to share the largest painting I have done up to this point. It is 24"x36". I was a bit intimidated but pushed through and got it done. The reason it's this large? Well, I wanted to put it above the fireplace mantel and anything much smaller just didn't look right.

Bob and I like to hike and take our cameras with us frequently. This view was one that was taken at the Swinging Bridge at Yosemite National Park in September of 2009. It was a lovely late summer/early autumn day, and the trees had not really changed color yet, but would be any day. Perfect weather. We enjoyed the day we spent there, and I hope to go back soon....

Postcards and Tea

2011-04-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

I belong to a group that is primarily focused on watercolor pencils. One of the fun things we do is a monthly postcard swap. The painting has to be done mostly with watercolor pencils and be on a 4" x 6" postcard. It has been a fun project and I have learned a lot by doing this. Each month we are given a challenge and this one was to be monochromatic in blues.

This is the card I sent away last month. The teapot is one I got from my Mother in law. I really love white and blue porcelain, and was sorry to have to send the card away to it's new home.

The next card due to go out this week is monochromatic again in reds, but I haven't started it yet. I think I'll go have a cup of tea and get started.

Elkhorn Slough in September

2011-01-20T16:46:00.001-08:00

Elkhorn Slough in September, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Every year we try to take a little time out for a trip close to our birthday time. This year was Monterey and a side trip to Moss landing. We hiked at Elkhorn Slough and took lots of pictures. Just after this trip I started taking my watercolor class and our teacher lets us choose our subjects to paint and then is there to guide and advise as we work on our individual projects. I am loving this class.

Reflections on 2010 and Goals for 2011

2011-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here this morning and thinking back over the past year and setting goals for 2011. I started painting with acrylics in September of 2009 and continued with those classes through 2010. I plan to continue with that. I am currently working on a painting of Yosemite's El Capitan that is quite big. At least I think so. It is the largest painting I have done so far.

I had been playing with watercolors at home for the past 2 years and not really making progress there, so in September of 2010 I signed up for a class at a local art center. I'm so glad I took the class, because now I understand better how the paints behave and how to get the effects I want. I will try to get some of those paintings up here on the blog this weekend. In 2011 I am going to try to do a watercolor painting a week to post. I know I'm already two weeks into the year, but will start this this week with that. So, that's 50 paintings.

The new thing for this year is that I am going to be working with pastels. I have the materials to begin that now (Christmas presents). So far I have just done some practice making different marks and learning techniques- no pictures yet.

So I have big plans for the year. I guess I better get to work!

Coastal Bike Ride

2010-12-23T07:10:00.001-08:00

Coastal Bike Ride, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Almost every year on my birthday we take a mini vacation-getaway. This year we went to Monterey and took our bikes with us. Our first day was spent at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing hiking the estuary.

The last day we took our bikes down to the bike path and rode. Now this path is long- 29 miles to be exact. It starts at Castroville and goes all the way to Pebble beach. We did not ride all of it that day. We started just north of Cannery row and rode south. The path here follows the shoreline so we had a beautiful view the whole way!

Winter Scene

2010-12-09T08:24:00.001-08:00

winter scene, originally uploaded by kquilts.

This small scene is one I painted in my watercolor class. At this point each student picks the subject and works independently. The teacher moves around the moves around the room and gives advice as needed. I have one more week and then we take a break till after the new year begins.

Pointsettia

2010-12-04T16:05:00.001-08:00

Pointsettia, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I love poinsettias and never seem to be able to keep them alive through the holidays. Last year I wised up and bought an artificial one. Maybe a cop-out but it couldn't die before the end of the holiday season. This year I painted one.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! May you all have a joyous holiday.

Rainy Saturday- Perfect Time to Stay in and Paint

2010-10-30T18:28:00.001-07:00

IRIS 2, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Autumn is definitely here and it has turned cold and rainy. A perfect day to stay in and paint, so that is what I did. I painted a little exercise in negative painting, which I'm not sharing here. Not great results with that. While it was drying I painted this little iris. Iris' are my favorite flower and I have wanted to learn to paint them well. This was my first attempt at it with watercolor.
Done on Arches cold press paper- 140 lb. 5 1/2" x 7 1/2"

I finished the afternoon off by making a big pot of chili for dinner. Wish I had the ingredients here to make cornbread to go with it!

Girl In Pink Hat

2010-09-13T16:49:00.001-07:00

girl wearing pink hat, originally uploaded by kquilts.

The month of September is the one year mark from when I started taking acrylic painting class. During that year I have painted two still lifes, a landscape, a floral-close up and my daughter in laws cat. I have been trying to vary my projects so I get instruction on a lot of different types of painting, so I decided I needed to learn how to paint people- faces so that I could say I had tried portraits. This one was painted during the late spring course of the class. I am a slow painter, and most of this was done during class time which is two hours a week. She is not anyone I know. I got the reference photo off of the image library at WetCanvas. After painting this I realized the little girl looks amazingly like one of my cousins.

I am currently painting an ocean sunset scene and should be finished with it soon.

My other news is that I have signed up for a local class on watercolor painting. I have waited for a year for this class and when it was available last winter I could not sign up for it. A good thing I didn't because of other things happening in my life I would have missed quite a bit of it. You will be seeing some of the watercolor class work soon.

2010-08-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't got a photo taken of my latest picture yet. I just wanted to post this important message:

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month
Learn about neck checks. Get free materials.
ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, Inc.
www.thyca.org

This is so important as I found out earlier this year. For more information click here:
http://www.thyca.org/awarenesstips.html

I'll try to get my newest picture up sometime this weekend

Class Lily

2010-06-28T06:41:00.001-07:00

class lily, originally uploaded by kquilts.

This is the fourth or fifth painting I have done in my acrylic painting class, but I just photographed it today. It had been out of the house for 3 weeks, because I sent it to our local county fair. I have entered things in the past into the fair, but never a painting. It had always been quilting or knitting projects. I am a beginning painter, so was not expecting much. The competition is tough. There are some amazing artists in my area, so I was pleasantly surprised when we went to the fair and I saw that this had got an "Honorable Mention" I would like to try again next year, but rumor has it that there might not be a fair so we'll have to wait and see on that one.

Feria and entering projects in the County Fair

2010-06-06T11:01:00.001-07:00

Feria , originally uploaded by kquilts.

I have been taking acrylic painting classes since last September. I go once a week unless something derails my plans. I have missed a few times when I just couldn't go, but generally I'm there every week.

We have done still life twice now, and I have done landscape and one floral. This little kitty is the most recently finished project. She is a beautiful kitty that resides with my son and daughter. She has a lot of fur which was a challenge to paint because she has so many colors intermingled together.

I am now working on faces and portraits and will post that when finished. I am using an image from the WetCanvas image reference library of a little girl wearing a magenta colored straw hat.

I have entered quilts and knitting in the county fair in years past, but this year I entered paintings. Entered are my hydrangea painting, the landscape I painted using a reference photo from Kate Johnson, and a lily I painted. We shall see how they do. The judges are judging today, but I won't know till June 16 how I did. There is a lot of competition there and I am new at this so I don't really have expectations of winning, but it is fun to enter and get critiqued.

Getting sidetracked....

2010-03-21T15:28:00.001-07:00

class landscape, originally uploaded by kquilts.

In January I signed up for my third 6 week session of painting classes. I really had big plans for the 2010 year- things I want to accomplish in my artistic endeavors but you know how it is....Things happen and plans get set aside. My single accomplishment so far this year has been one painting. It is done in acrylics from and inspiration photo from Cathy Johnson's monthly photo resource group on Flickr- Thanks Kate for the gracious sharing of these resource photos. I have not done anything else- no artist journal pages or drawing. I hope to be back soon with more to share but till then I will be working on health issues.

More soon.....
Karen

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-20T19:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas bear, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I just needed to get in here and tell everyone who reads (all 12 of you ha ha) Merry Christmas. This will be a busy week for most of us with the holiday upon us this week.

The little bear is a stuffed animal I bought at the local grocery store. I passed the time drawing him, while waiting for my sister in law to do her grocery shopping. I used watercolor pencils, watercolor paints and white gouache for the fur trim on his hat. All in all, he is a cute fellow. Have a happy and safe holiday to one and all!

Hydrangeas in basket

2009-12-12T14:58:00.001-08:00

Hydrangeas in basket, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I have taken 2 classes now on painting with acrylics-each class meet once a week for 6 weeks. This picture is from the second class set. I learned a lot in this class and look forward to more. I would like to work on some landscapes and maybe portraits. We have done 2 still lifes. Class won't pick up again until mid January. I'm still working through the artist's journal class Kate Johnson is teaching, plus am busy with Christmas being so near.

Mom

2009-12-06T21:53:00.001-08:00

Mom, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I painted this portrait on the 24th of November- 4 years after Mom passed. She was a wonderful Mother and lady. She always encouraged me in what I wanted to do, and always had confidence in me that I could do whatever I wanted to do. Mom-I miss you every single day. I love you (I hope you know that). You were a wonderful person and the whole family love and miss you.

Handmade Journals (or not)

2009-11-15T17:48:00.001-08:00

Covered journal, originally uploaded by kquilts.

A lot of people are making journals lately, and I was inspired by that. Last year I made one and have only done one sketch in it. I didn't like the fabric I covered that one with. This is a commercially made journal by Aquabee with 93 lb paper in it- labeled for use with both wet and dry media. I have covered it with quilting cotton to make it look pretty. Maybe I will be more likely to use and fill this one.

This is going to be used in Cathy Johnson's Keeping an Artists' Journal class I signed up for. It starts tomorrow!

apple October Monthly Sketch Project Challenge

2009-10-10T21:50:00.001-07:00

apples, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I am participating in the new Monthly sketch project and this was my attempt at the apples photo Leslie Hawes provided for the challenge. The red apple was not difficult, but I really had a difficult time with the green one getting it the color that I was satisfied with. I have been taking classes in acrylic painting so decided that I would use acrylics for this project.

Class-phase 3

2009-10-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

Class-phase 2, originally uploaded by kquilts.

This was done during the third of 6 acrylic painting classes. I still need to work on foreground area and do some corrections on the taller of the jars. I also need to work on the basket of daisies. I hope to finish this with the next class. I do hope to sign up for another session of these classes. I do feel I learn more in a classroom setting than on my own.

Class-phase 2

2009-10-04T13:17:00.001-07:00

Class-phase 1, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Today was the second day of my acrylic painting class. It went well. We went over some things and then started doing underpainting to establish the values in the painting- not so much detail yet. The teacher said that we will probably take 2 more classes to get get in the details and refine to the finished piece. I'm enjoying this class very much and would like to take the follow up class that starts in late October.

Still life

2009-09-16T10:26:00.001-07:00

Stiil life, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Yesterday was the first day of the acrylic painting class I signed up for. I really didn't know what to expect. First day we were shown an arrangement that was set up on a table. Each side of this arrangement had a very different look. We were told to sketch the side of the arrangement that appealed to each of us, and the teacher walked around the room giving advice. Then she had us crop the image down to what we really wanted to include, and what to leave out. Next we redrew the final image on an 11 x 14 canvas.

This was all that we did on the first day. Next Tuesday we begin painting. I really think I am going to like this class. The course lasts 6 weeks.

I also have started an art journal, but really don't have anything yet to show on that front.

Time for art

2009-07-28T11:33:00.001-07:00

IMG_0704, originally uploaded by kquilts.

This picture was taken at Sonoma Coast State Beach, up along the bluffs we hiked a week ago. I really liked this shot because of the bumble bee in it. I will be working on a painting or wc pencils (not sure yet which- aybe bot) of this one sometime this week and just thought if I put the picture up now, I will be more likely to follow through with this idea. Making the time to do the art work is hard for me and so I am looking for ways to encourage myself to do this. We shall see if this works.

Bodega Bay

2009-07-20T15:50:00.001-07:00

Bodega Bay, originally uploaded by kquilts.

California's San Joaquin Valley gets hot during the summer months. This past week has been in the 100 plus degree range most days, so my husband and I decided to go someplace much cooler- which for us means the coast. The dilemma was deciding north or south. We opted to go north on the coast to Bodega Bay.

It was much cooler there by about 40 degrees, and we encountered a lot of fog, but it felt nice after the heat of the valley.

This little sketch was done at Sonoma Coast State Beach. I was sitting up above the beach because it was cold and starting to get windy.

We hiked the bluffs and saw all sorts of birds and one deer and a snake then went back to the car and had lunch. Then Bob went on another little hike while I stayed closer to the car and painted.

It was a lovely way to spend a weekend.

Day-lily

2009-06-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

June is here and I have joined a blog that will hopefully keep me on track with my art goals. My June goal: I want to paint twice a week and sketch 5 days. I'm also planning to be better at posting on this blog.

Yesterday we went to Yosemite and later on this week I'll have something put up here for that. Today I played with watercolor paints and I painted this day-lily flower. I see them a lot here in California in the summer. My watercolor version of this did not make me happy at all so I did another version of it using the Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastels (I would personally just call them watersoluble crayons). This one I liked much better. I seem to have a bit more control with these. Plus it's just plain fun coloring like a kid again.

EDM #1 Shoe

2009-05-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

Shoe 2, originally uploaded by kquilts.

Well it's been a while since I put anything up on the blog. Life has been busy lately. I'm hoping it will soon settle down. My father had his surgery and is recovering nicely.

Here is my EveryDay Matters challenge. Draw your shoe. This was drawn with my new pen set. I bought a Faber Castell PITT pen set in sepia ink. Who new sepia was green? I always thought it was brown. Now I know. I have the black set also. I really like these pens. I tried the Rapidosketch pen in the 000 size and didn't really bond with it, so I gave it to my husband who is now beginning to sketch. I also went online and found another PITT pen set in Sanguine. Maybe that will be brown.............

Garden Gate

2009-04-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

The Garden Gate.
I made this quilt 1 1/2 years ago. I loved the colors and wrought ironwork. I really love florals anyway. We had spent the weekend in Ft. Bragg California for my birthday and this was one of the souvineers I brought home. I usually have to check and see if there are any quilt shops or fabric shops in the area we are traveling in and sure enough Ft Bragg had one!

The white tag on the left side was a label that was put on it for our local quilt show that took place April 18 and 19

My loving husband is the photographer here. You can see this and some of his other pictures at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jestrbob/

Rhododendron

2009-04-25T20:14:00.001-07:00

Rhododendron, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I have been wanting to participate in the Virtual Sketch Date challenge for months now. I finally sat down this last week and made two attempts at the chosen picture. I liked this one best of the two. The reference photo was by
Jeanette Jobson. I enjoyed this process a lot. It was interesting to look at all the different ways other artists approached this challenge.

Sketching and waiting.....

2009-04-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

cottages, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I had planned to do this little lesson with watercolor wash along with the ink, but ended up using water soluble pencils instead. It just seemed easier to do it this way, as I was at the hospital waiting as my Dad had some tests done. I do like these pencils, but found the sky challenging. I didn't want a flat wash, I wanted it kind of mottled looking. I tried out a new Rapidosketch pen on this little picture. It worked pretty well, but it's going to take some getting used to.

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While waiting for the nurse to take Dad in for tests I sketched this picture. He was napping and snoring quite loudly. When he woke up I showed him the sketch and he thought it was ok.

Ink & watercolor wash cottage

2009-04-07T21:52:00.001-07:00

Ink & watercolor wash cottage, originally uploaded by kquilts.

I like looking at and trying out little painting lessons I see on the "net". This is one I found by Raymond Whitehouse. It was a lesson in ink and monotone wash. I really liked this technique. It just seems like it is easier- a very low stress technique. I'm not trying for perfection. That would drive me crazy.

Tomorrow I'll be working on another one that has more colors to it. I'll also be trying out my new pen- a RapidoSketch pen. I'm not sure if I'll take my little travel watercolor set with me, or watercolor pencils- maybe both. I can then decide at that time which I would like to use.

Karens bluebird

2009-04-04T11:50:00.001-07:00

I painted this little bird last year. He just reminds me of spring and warmer weather. I really don't like the cold. I know... this is California and we are nowhere as cold as a lot of the United States get, but 75 or 80 degrees would feel real nice. I'm thinking I may go back and paint this one again.

Second picture

2009-03-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay obviously I didn't get this right the first time or both pictures would have shown up on the first message. This is my great niece.

New Blog

2009-03-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

This is a new experience for me. I have never blogged before and hope I'm doing this right. Today I'll just share a couple of pictures I drew this week.