Cat Bird Painting

Coco Chanel quote on my painting.  So very true.  That big furry bird is not like the rest of them and this painting cracks me up every time I see it.

An Artist’s Palette

Luscious color testing palette.  The painting I’m currently working on is going to be REALLY colorul!  My color choices are about half the paints laying here.  For this piece I’m going to follow Matisse for he never liked to sully his colors and Maxfield Parrish because he put down layers and layers of glazings for that nice Parrish glow.

These three brands of paint are by FAR my favorites!  Of course Sennelier has been around for years and years, and Matisse,  they’re absolutely luscious.  Some of their beauties are not duplicated in any other brand, nor do others even come close. However, that young upstart, Golden Fluid Acrylics, is going to give everyone a run for their money.  They are absolutely color saturated and I am IN LOVE with three in particular, Quinacridone Azo Gold, Teal and Green Gold, all three of which will make it into my upcoming painting, including Senellier’s Ultramarine Blue Light and Matisse’s Primary Blue, which also is peerless.

I could talk about color all day.

Such yummy stuff.  Thank you, Lord, for making me an artist!

In-Class Drawing Demos

Another one of my quick sketch in-class demos, this time of my all-time favorite stuffed animal. I’m teaching my students about space, line, texture, values and contrast, inferred lines and a little artist’s prerogative. The next time you want a sketch or painting, ‘just pick up the phone, just give me a call.’

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.

An Artist’s Self Portrait

As I have my students do self portraits it’s only right I do them as well.  This one stemmed from our show, Cinderella.  I got the entire orchestra to Sharpie a mustache onto a finger, and, as we sat at the foot of the stage would ‘mustache’ the actors when we weren’t playing to try to get them to break character.  Never worked but it was fun to try.  I also teach that portraits should reveal things about the person; in the background you can see words of some of my favorite things. :)

Big Ben Painting Explained

Here is the partner painting to Jabberwock which I just posted, although this is 30” square and the gears painting is, I think, 20”x24”. I grew up helping my dad build, well, everything, and am familiar with the chalk line.  I used mine to get the perspective straight in this piece and loved the look!  Look closely and you’ll see red lines from the thwack of my string.  I liked it so much that I painted over them to make them permanent.  This painting of Big Ben is named ‘Reconstructing Alice,’ for Refine Arts’ show of the same name. 

This piece and its partner, Jabberwock, are for sale on my website, www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Post-Apocalyptic Gears Painting

This is a portion of my painting “Gears of Jabberwock” which I painted for our daughter, Melody’s (Refine Arts) show, ‘Reconstructing Alice.’ This piece and its partner, which I will post next, hung behind the theater’s ticket booth. I named this piece after two of her particularly amazing dancers that performed that song. The entire show had a post-apocalyptic feel, which I carried through here.