Paintings With Soul

"Poppy Gray," 12" x 16", dog portrait of my favorite little Frenchie, my live painting project from last Friday. Poppy is acrylics on museum quality panel (and he has a lovely home, thank you so very much!). All inquiries may  come to me . What a week I had in Louisiana!  First off, it was four days of herding cats, err, students. They were fantastic at pushing paint and excelled at keeping my strength up (grits and bread pudding and fresh seafood, baby!). I don't think I've ever had a group that bonded immediately and laughed so hard. Then I got a whirlwind introduction to New Orleans courtesy of the real Stella Gray. More extraordinary tastes combined with new friends, live music, a moonlit walk along the Mississippi, and beautiful objects made for an excellent cap to my week. Many many thanks to the Louisiana Art & Artists Guild for hosting the workshop, my students for putting up with me, and the remarkable Diann...

From 2007, a gallery stretched painting titled "The Red Collar." This piece has been in a private collection for many years (THANK YOU!). You can read about Harley, my muse, and the painting's seed of inspiration here, and then this post includes the story behind the painting's unveiling . Artists are always learning and growing, and it's sometimes hard to remember that those who might be considered accomplished started out learning the same basics as everyone else. So, as requested, this week I'll share a few older paintings, along with a checklist of what I've learned since then. First off, let me say that The Red Collar is a strong painting with a lovely mood as is. However, given the things I've learned the last few years, were I to paint it again (and I'm very tempted to!), I would change some things up. 1.  A direct light source would help accentuate the dog's beautiful form. He is very fl...

View In Process Photos "Panther-ette," 9" x 14", acrylics on museum quality panel, depicting a house cat playing at being something quite larger, $549 to the first  asking nicely  . Every so often I need to throw my black paint to the wind and wallow in color. Lots of it, just for color's sake, just because it is lovely and makes my heart sing. Thanks, as always, for following along with my artwork, Kim