Cat and Bird Painting

Pippy’s Adventures continued.  If a cat and bird can be kind to each other, then we can be kind to everyone as well.  Let’s do it, shall we?

Many of these beautiful paints are handmade and very special indeed.  The flow from one to the next and pattern of colors makes for a charming little piece.  I’ve got the entire series, many of which I haven’t posted, on my website at: 

colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Art Giveaways

For those of you who entered and won my Win the Masked Cat art contest, they are now ON THEIR WAY!  If you didn’t win, I’m putting some of them on my website at Colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Finished Painting - Hint!

Today I’m celebrating the completion of a new painting!  Yay!! I can’t show it yet but tomorrow I’ll work on photos to reveal it tomorrow evening.  What you have HERE is a hint as to the color scheme.  So happy! #stayahome #quarantinelife

Cool, huh? Some of my favorite watercolors below...

This paint is SOOOO AWESOME!

This last pic is an Artist Trading Card (ATC) If any of you trade ATCs, let me know!j

This particular one is a ‘swatch card’ of some of my handmade watercolor paints from Indigo Arts on Etsy.  Love her paints!

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,

Lino Printing in my Advanced Art Class

In my advanced art class I’m teaching my students linoleum printing.  Oh, what FUN!  As a woodcarver I have found that this is soo much easier, ever so relaxing and beautiful as well. And once you get those printing blocks carved, you can go into printing production until the house burns down around you and you realize you haven’t eaten for three days.

Below are some of the linoleum blocks carved, and some of the printed works below them.  You see varying darknesses of ink; the second printing in a go is called the ‘ghost’ and I often prefer it to the first printing.

This one is a little print I made and laid out in the classic fashion.

I love printing on top of already painted works.  For me it’s all about layers. And here, some of our tools.

Artist Celebrating Over Here

It’s time to celebrate! Whenever I use up a sales receipt book and have to buy a new one it’s time to celebrate. Thank you, Lord, for directing me into this profession! How can I help YOU? 

Trip to the Art Museum

As an artist, I need new stimulation all the time.  A trip to the museum was just what the doctor ordered.  Isn’t this gorgeous? Whew! From the late 19th to early 20th century, this would have been worn by a bride in the Indonesian islands.  Pure gold.  A little heavy, huh?  The little chains would have tinkled as she moved.  I’m entranced by the detail they worked into the metal.  Personally, I would’ve worn it.  Shouldn’t we start a new tradition? (From the MFAH permanent collection) Next time I work in metal, I’m going to use this as inspiration!

Oh my goodness, it is SO lovely!

Charcoal Sketches in Art Class

I don’t know who this little guy is, but he was fun to draw.  Charcoal in my advanced art class, teaching the elements and principles of art - value, space, line, contrast, inferred line, texture, movement, rhythm and of course artist’s prerogative.  LOVE charcoal! This sketch would’ve looked much better on charcoal paper, but, oh well.

Newsies

You’ve got two last chances to see this fabulous show! NEWSIES! It’s been a smash hit.  There are only two more shows - tomorrow night (Thursday) and Friday. Even if you get spots in the nosebleed section, you’ll be glad you did.  Www.cythouston.org for tickets. 

Note the scaffolding which was raw wood.  They asked me to paint it to make it look like metal.  :). I like it!

Art Students

Here are my art students from 2017/2018 school year. Love these guys SOOOOOO much!

It doesn’t take very long for my classes to get to be family, due to the nature of our study and the way I work.  By the end of the year, it can be a pretty sad last few classes!

An Artist’s Desk

An artist can take cleaning her desk to an entirely new level.  Scrape, scrape, scrape.  As an acrylic artist I usually just wipe it away or level it off when I’m done working.  Over time the layers get so thick I can pull them off pretty easily.  If I ever get to a point where I’m really tired or uninspired I’ll clean off some of the layers.  Gives me some productive thinking time. What do you do when you need time to think?