Another Mini Painting with Limited Palette

'Sherbet Sunrise' 2x3.5' pastel

I painted this little one for a pretty silver frame I have. I only used 7 pastels for the entire painting all of them Great Americans. This is one case when these little studies can be a great way to try out ideas for larger works. I think I would like to see this one bigger.

Wildflower Miniature Paintings 3x3

I found a miniature format that I really enjoy! I bought these frames months ago at Aaron Brothers. They were 3x3 inches and nice quality. Today I painted a couple of wildflower fields for the frames. It was fun to do a square format in such a small size!

Open Studio Sale next Saturday 12/5/09

'Summer Peace' 8x10 pastel

It's been fun going through my paintings in preparation for our 3rd annual Open Studio sale. This painting will be one of the paintings I will have available. We will have the art of 9 other local artists and I am looking forward to seeing their work as they bring it to me this week! I will be posting more preview photos hopefully tomorrow.

Afternoon at the Marsh

'Afternoon at the Marsh' 8x10 pastel

No time to paint today so I am sharing another plein air painting from my South Carolina trip. We made some of our own pumice supports and I used it for this painting. It gives a bit more of a textural look.

I am working on cleaning and organizing my studio for next Saturday's Open Studios Sale. We will have the art of 10 local artists this year so I am very excited about this year's show. Please stop by if you are in the Atlanta area Saturday December 5th from 10-6. I'd love to see you! I'll be posting some preview pictures over he next few days.

Wildflower Meadow Painting

'Ladybug Meadow' 8x10 pastel

I am happy to be back to a wildflower painting. This painting will be the start of a new series for me and I am so excited about the possibilities! On my trip to South Carolina I had a wonderful conversation with one of the other artists who happens to be a very respected paper artist and the conversation sparked the idea for the series. I wanted to find a way to have fun with my wildflowers and make them fun for the viewer as well. So from now on, in every wildflower painting there will be some hint of the creatures that live amongst the flowers. Sometimes they will be very obvious but sometimes they will be hidden. I am planning on having my titles provide clues on what to look for. Today's painting is a meadow of daisies on Nantucket Island. There are two creatures hiding in the grasses. Can you find them? You can click on the painting to see a larger view. That is also the best way to see my underpainting which was an oil paint wash.

I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for allowing me to share my work with you. I appreciate it so much!

New Landscape Variations

I have complete 70 variations on this same landscape. Can you tell what artist inspired these variations? Hint... I was reading my new Southwest Art magazine last night before going to bed and I woke up with the idea to paint in this artist's style. If you are interested in learning more about my challenge and about these four little paintings, visit my challenge blog www.milesofcanvas.blogspot.com. I also woke up with some other great ideas that I can't wait to try!

Cup of Coffee Pastel Painting

One of the things we did in Sunday's workshop was to prepare our own surfaces with pumice and gesso. I had some left over so I used it up on some canson board. It created quite a rough surface which made this cup of coffee a bit more painterly. I do enjoy painitng on the rough surfaces!

This painting is pastel and measures 5x5. I am calling it 'Morning Cup'.

Marsh Sunrise

'Early to Rise' 5x7 pastel

I have been itching to paint something from my trip to South Carolina but I just had too much going on last week. I am hoping that this week will be quiet with plenty of time to finish my commissions and prepare for our Open Studio on December 5th. This was the view I woke up to on our last morning on Kiawah. A gorgeous sunrise. I ran out to the deck in my pajamas to join the other early risers. We all snapped photos and decided it was the perfect way to end our trip.

Cattails Plein Air Pastel Painting

'Edge of the Pond' 8x10 pastel

Here is another plein air painting I completed last week in South Carolina. It was drizzling when we visited the pond so instead of setting up our easels we sketched and took notes. I did a 2x3 color study of the cattails and took it all back to the house to work on the painting. I love getting up close and personal in the landscape. As much as I am attracted to wide open spaces I still manage to find something to zero in on like wildflowers or some cattails by the edge of the pond.

I had a fantastic time teaching two workshops this weekend. Thank you to all of my students. It was great to see you again and to meet new pastel lovers as well. I will post pictures and a report tomorrow.

Marsh Close-up Plein Air Painting

'Intimate Marsh' 5x7 pastel

I had just finished my 5th painting of the same marsh view. I was on a roll and had been painting for a couple of hours. It was just such a picture perfect view I felt no need to move on and find another subject. I did want to try another wayy to interpret the view so I decided to zoom in on this little slice of marsh and paint a more intimate view. The colors were truly this intense which was exciting after the the days of gray and rain that we had experienced.

Today I taught a workshop on underpaintings. I wish I had remembered to take photos. Everyon painted paintings using different supports and underpaintings. I am so pleased with everyone's work. It was a lot of fun! Tomorrow we paint on a gold support! I'll try to remember to take photos!

Moody Variations. Some November Challenge Paintings

I have 12 new challenge paintings to share. Here they are in collage format. Some of them have been featured on my blogs but I think it's fun to see them all together. These are some of my moody variations!

100 Variation Challenge #65

'Variation #65' 5x7 pastel

I finally had some time last night to get back to my 100 variation challenge paintings. I am over the hump so I don't want to stop now! I managed to paint five of them last night and I will be posting them over on my challenge blog Miles of Canvas. Take a look if you want to learn more about my challenge.

This weekend will be a busy one. I am giving two workshops and both are full. On Saturday, it will be my third workshop in my Pastel Exploration series and we will be exploring underpaintings. Sunday is a play day when we will experiment with gold leaf and pastel and learn about getting texture in our pastel paintings. This is the last of my workshops for 2009 but I have posted the winter/spring 2010 on my workshop blog.

Another Plein Air Marsh Painting

'Saturday's Marsh' 8x10 pastel

Out of all of the plein air paintings I did last week on my trip to the South Carolina coast I would have to pick this one as my personal favorite. I have a few reasons for this. I painted this from the deck of the house overlooking the marsh on Saturday afternoon. It was the 3rd day of the workshop and we had the afternoon for freetime. Jayne and Holly went to take photos, Susan and Lisa had errands and Betsy and I set up on the deck to paint. It was a beautiful warm afternoon after a dreary week weather-wise. I painted 6 paintings that afternoon but I feel this one captured my impression of the marsh the best without me getting too fussy with the details. It also sums up the fun I was having being a part of a great group of artists at a beautiful spot!

3rd Annual Open Studio Sale

Collage of some of the artist's work

If you are in the Atlanta area we'd love for you to visit our Open Studio sale on December 5th from 10-6. The sale will be held at my studio. This year we will have the art of 10 local artists for sale. We will have something for every budget from greeting cards to framed original paintings. We'd love to see you there! For more information or directions, please send me an email at kemstudios@yahoo.com

Low Country Palm Trees Plein Air

'Lowcountry Memory' 8x10 pastel

I painted these palm trees while at the Stan Sperlak workshop. It was a gray drizzly day and we weren't sure if the weather would hold out long enough to set up our easels. So Stan had us bring our sketchbooks on location and just sketch a scene and take notes. As I was sketching the sun came out breifly and the sky started to clear. I was about to set up when the clouds moved back in. I decided to take the sketch back to the house and work on this painting from my sketch and memory of the scene. It was a great exercise as I really had this scene imprinted in my head. I want to do this exercise more often. It really helps develop our powers of observation!

For more information or to purchase this painting email me at kemstudios@yahoo.com

Plein Air Marsh Painting South Carolina Lowcountry

'Quiet Marsh' 8x10 pastel

It's good to be back home after a fantastic adventure to the South Carolina Coast. My friends Jayne and Holly and I went to a mentoring workshop with Stan Sperlak. We had all studied with Stan before at his farm in NJ but this time we met on Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coast. There were only six students including us and we had been in a workshop last year with Susan, Lisa and Betsy. We were a very comfortable and compatible group which added to the experience. We stayed at Susan's beautiful home (thank you Susan for everything!) It had the most amazing view of the marsh. I could paint that scene everyday and never tire of it! Look below at the slideshow for a peek at the marsh) We did have our share of cold and wet weather but we all managed to get outside and paint despite the conditions. I finished about 15 paintings and will be sharing them over the rest of the week. This one was painted out on Susan's deck in the misty rain. It actually added some texture!

Painting Trip to the Lowcountry... a few photos

Home from the Workshop!

I am back home after a wonderful week on the South Carolina coast. Despite the interruptions of Tropical storm Ida, we managed to explore and paint and have a fantastic time. I will write up a full report with more photos tomorrow. It was strange not posting for a week but I had no internet access at either of our locations. I can't wait to share more about the trip! This is a 5x7 plein air study I did yesterday at the beach on Kiawah Island. We finally saw the sun after a dreary week and it was so nice!

Moody Skies Variation Painting #61

'Variation #61' 5x7 pastel

This may be the last post for a week. I am headed to the South Carolina coast for a workshop with one of my favorite pastel artists, Stan Sperlak. I am bringing my laptop but I am not sure about internet access at our lodging. If I can get online I will post! I hope to come back refreshed and inspired and filled with ideas to share. I leave you with variation #61 of my painting challenge. To read more about how this one was done visit my project blog http://www.milesofcanvas.blogspot.com/

Bird Nest Paintings SOLD

'Bird Nest #1 & 2' 5x7 pastel

sold to a collector in the UK

It is the week for bird nests! I sold an 8x10 robin's nest earlier this week so I decided to paint a couple of new nests. They were purchased today! The bottom nest was actually painted from life. I found the hatched eggs on the ground and then a few months later the abandoned nest fell to the ground. I have been keeping them on a shelf in my studio. I will definitely be exploring this nest further!

New Siamese Cat Painting

'Toblerone' 5x7 pastel

I took a break from painting landscapes to paint my cat Tobi. It has been months since I have painted a cat and I need to do it more often. Hmmmm maybe a thought for my next challenge!

Latest Queen Anne's Lace Painting

'Field of Lace'       8x10           pastel

I was interesting in trying to paint my usual subject of wildflowers on the new textured surfaces I made. This was painted on watercolor paper that I covered with a pumice/gesso mix. It gave a very rough texture that made painting the flowers interesting. After I put down my first layer, I spread acrylic matte medium with a palette knife which acted like a fixative. I think I could have sprayed it and gotten even more layers of pastel down. Click on the painting if you'd like to get a better look at the texture.

If you haven't visited my new painting project blog, I invite you to go check it out. I am up to variation #60!

http://www.milesofcanvas.blogspot.com/

140 Hours of Fame on Twitter

'A Winter Walk'     8x10           pastel on board

I'm excited to announce that this painting will be available for auction on the world's first online auction using Twitter through 140 hours of fame.com.  The auction begins on November 5th and is live for 140 hours until November 11th. To bid all you have to do is follow @140 hours on Twitter. See all the great art at http://www.140hours.com/  See the listing for my painting here.

To see the latest of my 100 variation painitngs visit my new blog at www.milesofcanvas.blogspot.com

Beach Dune at Sunset 4x6 Pastel Painting

Today was spent cleaning and organizing the studio so I am sharing a painting I did a few weeks ago. This was a 4x6 study for a commission.  I did manage to paint two variations today in between cleaning. I will be posting them later on my project blog  http://www.milesofcanvas.blogspot.com/  If you haven't had a chance to see the new blog, take a look and sign up for updates. I will be sharing more details of my techniques for each painting there.