Lion Painting

This lion is a direct descendant of my first lion.  A client liked the previous one but wanted a different size and different colors and this is the result.  I do really love the colors of this one, and rather than predatory, like my first one, this one looks like a paradise lion. Sold, but I have mini-posters and magnets.

An Artist’s Palette

Palette of the Day. My work for today is with this palette and an entirely new set of colors. What’s your work today?

Honestly, though, although I don’t paint a whole lot of abstracts, I love the abstract qualities of my palette and really love looking and the colors, layers and values.  I think it’s beautiful in its own right.  Sometimes I’m sorry to cover it up and start anew.

Can There Ever Be Enough Flowers?

Here’s a cutaway of a floral I just finished and absolutely love.  Tonight I’ll post the painting in its entirety.  This pretty little thing has an abundance of layers in mixed media. I did a wax crayon resist with watercolors and acrylics, used pencil and paint pens and gave some pops of serious colors with some glorious Golden fluid acrylics.

Artist Palette

Ya know, every now and then I just really love the look of my palette and think it should be a painting.  Such is the case today. Happy Memorial Day.  Today I will paint a little, we will remember. We will eat, swim and celebrate,and plan to go down to ‘our’ sculpture down on the Waterway to pay tribute to our lost friends.  Thank you to all who have served to keep us free and great, and grant us the freedom to plan our days in such a wonderful way.

Inspiration for This Artist

These are my Peruvian Lilies.  I prefer to call them Bad Hair Day flowers.  Aren’t they just lovely? Even though they are beautiful, they DO look like bad hair in the morning, though, don’t they? Scroll down to see what the background pattern is.

It IS a nice background.  Actually, it was serendipity.  I washed one of my summer dresses and hung it outside on our umbrella table.  It just happened to be hanging there. Of course, turquoise is such a nice compliment to red that it seemed like the perfect foil.  So there you have it!

I spend a lot of time outside. Working in the garden, puttering around, biking, swimming and of course having coffee in the morning with my guy. ❤️ I cannot overstate the inspiration I draw from the beauty of God’s creation.

Cookie Artist Palette

Seems a fitting way to end a year of art classes, doesn’t it?  NO, I didn’t make these; one of my students did. And they tasted even better than they looked! Yum. 

The Work Behind a Painting

You usually don’t get to see the work behind a painting.  Here is some very basic, typical work I do when I’m choosing my colors. As shown, it usually ends up on some page in a cheap sketchbook where I’ve made previous notes.  Once I HAVE chosen the colors, I paint swatches in my permanent workbook and write down the colors and brand.  That way if in the future some client needs to have a painting repaired, I’ve got everything I need to remember what went in to it. 

When you have me paint a piece for you, you can have full confidence that my art is going to last because I use the best products, AND, if anything ever happens to your art, I can fix it for you!

Art Teacher’s Car

What’s in your front seat?  This is very typical for me.  Art Supply and Art Teacher Transport Vehicle is at your service.  There is paint all over this car, in and out. What do you carry in your car? 

I teach classes in two locations, The Woodlands and Conroe.  In The Woodlands it’s with the HIS Classes, 

www.hisclasses.org

And in Conroe it’s with The Training Center.  www.ttcclasses.com

I also teach private lessons in my home and will be offering summer classes.  The summer class schedule will be coming out very soon!

Painting In Studio

Here’s a typical scene in my studio. My Yeti filled with tea, of course, and some acrylics ready to start a new painting.  As you can see, I also have my sketch pad out. I often keep a pad nearby to work out problems or record colors. Often I’ll clean off my brushes onto the pad as well, or do a mini painting similar to the canvas. Anyway, as you can see on my IPad, I’m looking at some photos of kalanchoes from our garden. Spring is inspiring!

What you see on my sketch pad is the first layer of paint.  On the canvas and on this pad I plan to do many layers with clear glazes, so that you can see through the colors. Not sure at this point, but I’m guessing there will probably be about 12 layers.  I’ll know when I get toward the end, of course. 

Paintbrushes in My Studio

You know, these are the unsung heros of my studio. I have ... I just counted... twelve containers of paintbrushes. Mostly arranged by size and purpose. Some are for students to use, and then there are some that STUDENTS MAY NEVER TOUCH OR EVEN LOOK AT.  This particular broken urn holds my faves. Most often used, they find their way here for easy access. The square one at the base is also my go-to, and it hangs on a nail on the wall directly to my right. Here I’m using one of my paintings for a backdrop.

By the way, I always use broken things to house my brushes.  Broken favorite coffee mugs, broken pitchers without handles... it’s a good place for them. :)

Collie Painting Finished

Yay!! I just finished a commission and they love it!  Here’s a little sneak peek at a small portion of the painting; it’s of three gorgeous collies.  It was such a pleasure to paint these beautiful animals - I fell in love with them as I worked.  And now, it’s varnishing time.  Looks like the weather’s going to be sunny and good for that this week. Happy! And yes, I do commissions.  Just ask.  My email is colorcatstudios@gmail.com.

My Current Painting Commission

Here’s a small hint for my current work in progress, a commission which is getting close to being done. I do commissions on all requests, and the process is really quite fun for the buyer as well.

More on this soon when 1) it’s finished, and 2) I have buyer approval!

My Art Studio

Black and white in my studio. What better way to celebrate a cold winter’s day?

Theater Sets Artist

Here is some more of the work I did for Porter High School’s fantastic production of Peter Pan. What a great show!  This was their poster; I thought it looked great.

They asked me to make their fireplace look like marble and paint a landscape over it. Generally in the beginning I will ask them to paint the object with a color of medium value, neither light nor dark.  That way I can add the texturing, dimension, etc. with colors and values on both ends of the spectrum.  The lowlights (shadows) and highlights (nice warm lights) are what make the sets pop.

When I first looked at the fireplace it was a base of off white with a clean red brick veneer.  My first project was to dirty up the brick so it looked more like brick and not just the flat surface.  Several layers of blacks, greys, some green and blue splatter to pull it together with the walls, and believe it or not, I rubbed a little yellow up on the mantle.  Most of these things can't really be seen, but they are felt.  Although you couldn't really see the yellow per se, you could feel the radiating warmth when the light hit it.

Below, some of my paints.  This is my go-to toolbox when I work offsite.Oh yeah, I love my Yeti. It has upped the quality of my life.  Funny how little things can do that, huh?  I didn't mean to wear my good Born boots that I painted; usually I wear sturdy Skechers shoes which I have dedicated to paint.  They're good for climbing.  But these LOOK so good, and I was planning on seeing the show!  Just remember, if you like them, I can paint YOUR shoes, jeans, shirt or purse like this.  Message me.  I charge fifty bucks and you will literally have people chase you asking where you got them.

And yes, just like anybody else and a whole lot of artists, I googled ship to find exactly what I wanted.  Didn't work.  I finally hit upon galleon and hit gold.  This is the little printout I taped up so I could actually see what a ship looked like!  A lot of times I just keep the needed pics on my phone but that has its drawbacks.  Theaters are dark caves.  You have to use your phone flashlight a lot so you don't die.  AND, they're often notoriously bad for reception.  Better to have a hard copy so you can get it done.

In my previous post you will see that I did silhouettes of the characters; they build and hung frames for me to work inside.  There was no frame above the fireplace so I had to paint it in.  (Straight lines are my big weakness - can I get an amen?)  I tried using a long paint stick to get the frame lines straight, but it was too painted.  Imagine that.  Finally I just eyeballed it and went for the long strokes.

This close you can see that it's a little wonky, but trust me, you can't see that from the audience.  If you really want to know the BIG SECRET, everything in theater looks a little wonky closeup.  Costumes, makeup, sets, props... doesn't matter.  What matters is the audience.

They nailed down the bouquet, of course, which also matters huge as this entire sets piece was wheeled in and out innumerable times.  The mantle was also built sturdily because Peter Pan flew up and stood upon it.
I had about 20 minutes to paint the entire ship, and as it was, they were already practicing flying before a show!  I had literally just removed the paint cans when Peter flew up there and almost got paint on her butt!   Yikes!

Because I had to do this quickly, I used big brushes; a 1/2" flat brush is my absolute smallest for sets, and I almost never even take one.  The background of the sky is almost all simply the wall color (hey, it matches!) with the addition of some grey-green clouds.  The final touches of those little yellow dots warmed up the entire feel of the piece, and the red flags added the much-needed flash of color.  I didn't have a brush small enough for the flags so did it with a finger dipped in paint.

Here are the brushes I used.... well, not quite... the three middle ones were the ones I used.  The two outsiders were used on a project at home.  If I HAD had that nice little flat brush on the left, I wouldn't have had to sully my fingers!  Sometime I'll show you my fingernails.  It's a pretty hopeless cause.  But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Once again, whatever it is you need painted, big or small, call me!  My number is 281-734-3362 and my website is colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

One last word on brushes; I think the big center one is a two inch flat.  It's been a favorite for years because I can hit hard with it and it always remains flat.  Good paint retention too.  The two rounded ones on each side of it are filberts, sometimes called cats' tongues (wonder why).  They don't show brushstrokes as much as a straight-edged brush.  The smallest guy is a 1/2" flat, a size which is one of my personal favorites, Bubba.  Lastly, the brush on the other side, the lowest brush, is a course acrylic or oil brush with completely stiff hairs like boar's hair or something.  It doesn't hold a lot of paint, but the stiffness works under a lot of conditions.  It's one of those brushes that takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

You may note that some of them look a little sudsy?  They are.  Coming soon, a lesson on brush care.