New Year’s Resolution - Cleaning

Let’s take a moment to laud the lowly stir stick.  Beautiful in their own right where would we be without them, after all?  As for me, I’d have very colorful fingers. Today is studio cleaning day which involves a lot of gathering and putting things into their rightful place.

The background is a handmade linen scarf we bought from a vendor in Belgium.  We were traveling on a particularly chilly day.  Gary bought a sweatshirt, I bought this scarf.  The two items made our day and we were nice and cozy after that!  I first laid the stir sticks on my desk, but the desk looks the same so it was like they were wearing camouflage.  Had to find a plain background! 🤭

This unsung paint sticks really ARE beautiful, aren’t they? And now I actually have them all in one place instead of scattered all over the house and garage.  Maybe.  Now... what else can I organize around here...

Paint Pouring Day!

Whew!  All day at it.  Today I spent the ENTIRE day doing paint pours!  I am excited to show you what I did, but right now... right now I have a rather large mess to clean up.  

Studio Work

Whew!  Well, at least I cleaned the paintbrushes before taking the pic. What are YOU doing this summer?

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.

Maxfield Parrish Fan Here!

If I was forced to choose, I could pick ten of my most favorite artists of all time. Maxfield Parrish always floats to the top. 

This popular American artist painted in what I call a color-saturated on-steroids classical style, became a household name and introduced beauty upon beauty into American homes. 

He achieved great heights (pun intended) with his mountains, and used props - a mirror placed on his table upon which he placed well-chosen rocks and hit them with a strong side-light. Perfection.  

Oh,my goodness, the colors are so stunning I can hardly breathe!

Most of his scenes work was done later in his life.  He earned his (very rich) bread and butter working for magazines, illustrating calendars, illustrating books, etc., until his name became common.  As he got older, he had the luxury of being able to paint exactly what he wanted.  And boy, could he paint.

How many artists have the privilege of having a color named after them?  Look up Parrish blue.  It’s close to the colors in the first picture I posted at top.  Glorious.  These colors were achieved by his layering.  Rather than mixing them in his palette, he layered them on, adding clear layers of glaze in between.   

Pardon me, I’m going to leave now.  I’m going to wander around and find some cool rocks to light up.