Quarantine Lino Printing

My last post showed first prints with my newly finished lino block. This one shows how it looks on a color chart I made. 

Absolutely love the colors peeking through the black pattterns.

You can see in the third photo that I labeled the colors so I could tell how each interacted with the others. I like the layers, and even the words under it all. Do you?

Society6 Art for Sale

Here are three of the many images I have on phone cases and many other products at Society6. The two on the outside are my paint pours and the inside phone case is a woodblock that I carved which I use to make prints. Cool, huh? :)

You can find them here:

Color Cat Studios at Society6

Indigo Fantasy

If you have to be home it’d sure be nice to stare at something gorgeous, huh?

I finally got this painting posted for sale now on my website,

ColorCatStudios101 at Etsy

 I LOVE IT!  I kept it super sketchy for movement and glazed it in layers and layers of deep blues and violets.  Because of the glazing it takes on a glowing, stained glass appearance in person.  The colors are super hard to capture but it’s a combination of all these put together. 

This one, for example, is far too purple, and has too much light shining on it...

This one’s nice...

The many layers of glazing make this glow like a stained glass window, one color beneath another. ❤️ 

Another closeup...

 $700.00. There’s a lot more info on my website and I also give studio tours - and free gifts with each tour!  Just ask!

Phoenix Rising Painting

I decided to orient this painting vertically because I like the way that red wing stands out; hence I named it ‘Phoenix Rising.’  However, if you give it a turn to the horizontal it looks mysteriously like a chicken!!  

Any way you decide to orient it, I’ve now got it available on mugs, pillows, stickers, phone cases and more.  You can find it here: 

Society6, Color Cat Studios

This will definitely put a bright spot in your home, whether you need a phoenix rising or... a chicken! 

An Artist’s Supplies

Black, silver and white flatlay.  Last night I was waay too tired to be able to create art, but I’m a firm believer in doing the work.  So, even though I was tired, I went into my studio.  Since I’ve been working on a pair of paintings which are black, white and silver, I decided to do a flatlay of art supplies in those ‘colors.’  The simple act of putting these together gave me all kinds of ideas for those two in-progress paintings and I’m sure they will be better for it.  There you have it... one more way to get ‘er done.

Now, my supplies... many of my ‘brushes’ are rubber tipped.  I use these A LOT to draw into wet paint.  My handy dandy SOG, which I use just about every day of my life... the four cards are actually playing cards which I transformed into Artist Trading Cards, which I will trade card for card with other artists.  Fingernail polish... well, I TRY to keep my nails clean and paint-free.  Okay, it doesn’t work, but I try.  Umm.... oh... my lovely pot of Golden’s silver paint.  The silver/black ink is super cool and my Molotow chrome pens are peerless when it comes to shiny silver.  And then there are my Pitt pens and one lonely Blackwing pencil, the bedrock of a whole lot of my work.  There you have it!  Art stuff!  Oh, and my phone... oh... well,

Handmade Watercolors

Color.  Beautiful, glowing color. These shimmery watercolors are so yummy I could just eat them!  I got these through Indigo Art; does anybody else out there use handmade watercolors?

An Artist’s Palette

Here’s one of my watercolor palettes.  Isn’t it beautiful?  ❤️ I squeeze paint from tubes onto the palette and let it dry.  

The squares in the middle are paints I bought separately, called pans. They’re magnetized, so I just plopped them down. 

 Once everything’s dry, I rehydrate it by spraying all the paints to soften them up. In a minute, they’re ready to go!   You never want to use watercolor directly from a tube. 

The last pic shows my clean palette.  I never go onto the paint itself when I’m cleaning up; that’s too expensive - just around it.  Now it’s all ready for the next time. #watercolorartist

Art Show in The Woodlands

Last night Melody and I went to the opening of Argentine Art in Texas at Glade Gallery here in The Woodlands. We each chose a favorite painting.  Melody’s was a super thought-provoking piece by Ariel de la Vega.  It was done with pencil, cotton threads, ink and acrylic.  We both pretty much love it.  I chose a lush painting of peonies by Maria Marta Morelli.  If I had the patience to commit 200 hours to each painting, I’d paint like this; it is gorgeous! 

Super fascinating detail.

Oh, well, and the piano. Love. 

It was a fabulous evening (even if we missed the music.  Oh, well!)

Bad Art

It’s what happens to half-finished bad paintings.

Step one:

Step two:

Paint it all under - now.  I’m free of it.  Time to begin again.

One thing a creative person does is stab out and do new things, even if scary, all the time.  And another thing an artist does is continually practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  One cannot be afraid to fail, one can only be afraid to not try.  This painting was bad.  NO big deal; I learned stuff.  I’ll take my ‘learnings’ and go on and continue to improve.  I acknowledge that it was bad, covered it up and go on a little bit better and a little bit smarter.  I guess that makes me the winner!

An Artist’s Palette

What is this, you ask?  Why, thank you for asking!  It’s our... dum de da bum.... Palette of the Day!  (so exciting).  This palette represents something I don’t get much of a chance to do - artist’s play. Mixing colors, adding white, lowering the colors with black, etc.  This kind of ‘play’ is actually really key to an artist’s understanding and use of color.  Second pic is my results.  Work like this, which I find relaxing and rejuvenating, is super important to my ‘serious’ work. 

Art Show SATURDAY!

Looking for a fun way to not only knock out all those Christmas gifts on your list but to find those original, special ones you desire?  Come out THIS Saturday, December 7.  Be sure to find my booth; I’ll have all sorts of creative, one-of-a-kind gifts.  Check out my website at www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com and if you find something you want, let me know and I can bring it to the show for you.  Easy as 1, 2, 3!

SOLD - ‘Watermark’ Painting

SOLD!!!  This beauty, named ‘Watermark’ because it reminds me of water and rocks, is going to someone who collects rocks!  I think it will be a pretty perfect enhancement of their rock collection.  Maybe I sold it because I have a handsome male model, huh?  You can find more art like this at my website, shown below..  Sometimes my clients come to me asking for a painting I’ve sold and want one just like it.  Sorry it doesn’t work that way; once it’s gone, it’s gone.  This is original art in all its quirkiness and I couldn’t reproduce one if I tried.  So... if you like it, let me know, because it’s not going to come again!

www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com is my website.

Studio Art Work

This is some of the work behind my paintings.  I take meticulous notes which stand behind the legacy of my art for future repairs, new work or whatever.  These are my records for kitty noses for a piece for a client.  I have years of notebooks like this, all dated and labeled.  When you purchase my work, you’re purchasing an heirloom.  Best products, archival and acid free. Www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com.

www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Nashville’s Railroad Station

Is this a beautiful place or what?  It used to be the railroad station in Nashville and has been restored (to the tune of $14 million) and is now a hotel.  It was a delight wandering around and enjoying the architecture.  I grew up riding trains and have spent a lot of time in stations, many of them just beautiful. 

I finally plopped down on a comfy couch to soak up the atmosphere and do a little sketch, as shown below.  Did you know... statistics have proven that if you stop to make a sketch you remember more than if you snap a photo?  I didn’t need statistics to know that! 

When I travel, I’ll prep some pages in my little sketchpad with paint.  All the paint on this page was applied BEFORE I had any idea what I was going to draw.  When I want to draw something, I just scroll through my sketchpad and find the painted pages that seem to fit the mood. :). Sometimes I’ll paint further but not often.  As for this one, I like it the way it is.

What a place.  Although I’ve never been in this particular station, it brought back a lot of memories. ❤️ 

Matisse Paint Pour

For all its bold color I named this one ‘Matisse’ and took some shots of it so you could look at all its little nuances.  Really love the way the blues and reds mixed in this one with little bold shouts of black and white.  That gunmetal sparkle throughout is like the icing on the cake.  Armchair shopping at its best - www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com. 

www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

This photo shows how big it is: 8” square with 3/4” depth.  It’s on cradled birch - gorgeous, smooth and sturdy.  My little giraffe friend likes it too.

I was a little frustrated because I forgot to take pics of this before I laid down the resin.  Even in the video you can see a lot of reflections and probably see me with my camera if you look closely.  But you know, it’s all right - you can really see what you’ll get, and THAT’S a good thing!  Absolutely love this one with two of my favorite compliments working together

This shot shows how it wraps around the sides.  I love that it continues the art all the way around. :) ❤️ 

Sold - Chinese Lantern Painting

‘Look at the little beauty I purchased from Cindy Hanenburg Johnson!  Josie and I fell in love with it as did my grandson Andres!  The colors sing to me and that Chinese lantern looks so bright, it’s lit. So happy we finally own one of your artworks. ❤️’. That’s what my friend, an AMAZING artist himself, said.  As for me, I feel privileged that they wanted one of my pieces!  This is one of my series of three Chinese lantern paintings. Love it!  So glad it went to a good home.

Paint!

It would be pretty cool if paint came out of the tube like this.  Actually, this luckless tube happened to be under some kind of paint pouring piece I was working on.  When I’m doing pours, all else absolutely fades away.  If YOU, for instance, were under one of my paint pours, you’d look like this tube!  

Come on over! I need someone to catch paint drips! 🤭 

Leonardo da Vinci’s Faces

Now THESE are great faces! We’re studying da Vinci and learning about expression.  I am absolutely LOVING some of the drawings my students came up with copying Leonardo’s monstrosities.  Aren’t they fabulous?

Gifts in the Mail

Wouldn’t YOU like to get lovely packages in the mail filled with cool original art?  It’s possible!  Easy shopping and fun surprises as well.  You never know what kind of thank you gift I’m going to stuff into your package.  Now’s the time to start your Christmas shopping and you can get cool stuff in the mail AND get ahead of your gift-giving plans. 🙂. Always a good thing.  Www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com.

www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

And... if you happen to enjoy postage stamps, you never know what combination you’re going to get.  As a child I avidly collected stamps, actually well into my 20s.  I learned the political geography of the entire world because it was FUN and fascinating through the collecting of stamps.  It took me until I was an adult for me to realize that I was actually just collecting pictures.  Pictures!  What a surprise and how out of character for me, haha!  Even today I still go to the post office and stand in line to get the cool stamps with which to grace your packages. :)

My Art and Dave’s Killer Bread

You see one of the pictures I took for size comparison is with Dave’s Killer Bread.  We ALL know how good that stuff is - it’s art!  So, art next to art. 🙂  

This beautiful baby is a nice 16x20 and will make a strong impact wherever you put it.  I had difficulty photographing it to show the golds and the glowing layers without getting reflections.  It looks good in pictures but it pretty stunning in person and looks like a happy celebration as the bleeds and swirls pull you in.

Created with the highest quality archival paints on sturdy, 1 1/2” deep cradled birch.  The colors will not fade and you will be able to pass it down as an heirloom.  Signed on the side because it was just too beautiful to disturb anything by front signing.  Find it at www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com at a bargain price of $300.00! Oh happy day! 

www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com. You’ll find lots more infor and photos there as well. :)