Christmas In July!

Merry Christmas....a little early! Last week I taught a craft class at the Lowcountry Senior Center. We shared the holiday spirit as we made these shell filled and crushed shell embellished ornaments. It was a great afternoon!

I plan to teach more arts and crafts projects in the days ahead. As of June 30th Eddie and I closed our cellular phone store. The last few months have been consumed with store closing related details and I've had little or no time to be creative.

After a brief period to catch my breath I'll be teaching classes again. I'm in the process of exploring additional venues. My son, Michael, is also helping me launch a new web site that will feature ornaments like this one as well as ornaments personalized with your favorite photo inside. We'll also have an arts and crafts section for both classes and finished home accents. Finally, we'll have a fine arts section with oil paintings for sale. How does that sound?!

Let me know what you think, and what else you might like to see on our new web site!

Kathy



Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Setting Sun

Today's painting is of a sunset here at the beach. This is one of those simple pleasures that we take for granted. A simple pleasure that our armed forces have always fought to preserve for us. It's something that we all too often take for granted.

Please take time on this Memorial Day to remember those living and deceased who sacrificed so much so that we can enjoy a simple sunset in peace.

The 10x10 painting is on a gallery wrapped canvas and sides are painted a deep lavendar. It hangs very nicely without a frame. It's priced at $45 which includes shipping to the US.

Enjoy your day!

Kathy

To purchase via PayPal please contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Fall Garden Path

This 8x10 is done with the same flat brush technique as my last posting. The oranges and yellows of the foliage, as well as the greens of the shrubbery really lend themselves to this technique. I do need to work on the tree trunk in the foreground on the right as well as the path itself as it recedes. They're both in shadow in the reference photo, but I'm not happy with them as is. I'll post again after I rework it.

Have a nice weekend!
Kathy

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Country Lane

I've really enjoyed the flat brush exercises that Joyce has us doing. We mass in the large shapes with a filbert as a value underpainting. Next we use a flat brush to add choppy strokes of the appropriate colors and values. In the finishing touch we used a small round brush for the detail work.

I enjoy this style and they work up so fast. I'll post another tomorrow.

Kathy

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Roses and Brass

This little 5x7 was inspired by the amazing work of Elizabeth Pruitt. I took a workshop with Elizabeth a few months ago and was just blown away. She is as nice as she is talented. I want to paint just like her one day.

I know that's a stretch. I'm only a beginner but I Dream Big, as my mom would say. That was mom's mantra when I was growing up. I passed it on to my children. I encouraged them to get out there and follow their dreams. And I tried to remember to do the same.

I remember when I wanted to fox hunt, but I hadn't left the class ring yet! My good friend Rod Swanson drove me and my horse over to Hitchcock Woods in Aiken, SC. The facility serves as a training course for the steeplechase. He made me jump every fence 3 times. I must have jumped 100 times that day. I hunted that season and eventually earned my colors as a member of the Middleton Place Hounds.

Painting is my new passion, and I hope to remember the lessons that I've learned not only about dreaming big, but also about having a plan in place to help make that dream a reality!

So Dream Big!!


Contact Kathy at kathysweeney@gmail.com

Stepping Out

This little painting was a challenge for me. The reference photo, taken by my son Michael, was of these gorgeous old oaks in the shade...with the sun poking through on some branches and shining on the distant marsh and tree line. It's hard, for me anyway, to convey the shade in the foreground and the sun in the background.

If we don't push ourselves to try new things then we never learn. It's not easy moving out of our comfort zone, is it? Yet, when we do manage to take that step we start to expand our comfort zone! Here's to stepping out!


Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Playing with Clay

I always loved a brand new container of Play Dough! I can still smell it! Well, two of my painting friends, Sandy McTier and Judy Nicewicz, were having so much fun and creating such gorgeous clay treasures that I had to dig in too!

Sarah was staying with us for a few days over Spring Break and I had some heart shaped Altoid tins ..... a recipe for fun!  We played with clay on her last visit so that was the first thing she wanted to do when she arrived.

We went to work and made these two tins...one for Eddie and one for Rebecca, Sarah's mom and my sweet daughter.

We love them...Eddie and Becca love them...and Sarah and I had a ball!

Happy Passover and Happy Easter!

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Apples Violet Underpainting Finished

I finished my Violet Underpainting class assignment a week ago but I left it at the studio to dry. I ended up leaving the fabric more violet than it actually is because I liked the purple/yellow complement. The value study exercises have really helped me.

Last Monday in class I started a new exercise. Each exercise is designed to have you use a different technique as you approach a painting. The goal is to have you explore different techniques, styles, and results as you develop your own style. The next exercise uses a combination of a value lay-in with a large filbert, applying color with a flat in short cross-hatching strokes, and finishing details with a round brush. I found a reference photo of a large MacKenzie-Childs planter made with broken pottery pieces and filled with lush greenery and flowers. Can't wait to get back to it tomorrow!

It's the perfect weather day to stay cozy in the house and get out the paints. When I was at the workshop with Elizabeth Pruitt I picked up a still life packet with brass and white roses. I can't wait to paint it today! AND I may even get out the clay! I have a small tin just begging to be covered!

Enjoy YOUR day!

Kathy

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Sarah and Nana's Great Adventure!

My seven year old granddaughter, Sarah Mae, came to visit over the weekend and together we made a Valentine's gift for her mom, my daughter, Rebecca. What a wonderful time we had! When she looked at me, hands busily rolling clay, and told me that she always had so much fun at my house I beamed with joy!

We used Studio by Sculpey clay to dress up an old vase with a pink flower and a "collar" of buds. Sarah was so proud and couldn't wait to give it to her mom. Rebecca loved it. All in all it was a great adventure!

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Violet Underpainting Step Two

I've been working...though not as much as I should...on the violet underpainting. In the first pass I painted the entire painting in violet in the correct values to reproduce the image from my source material. I posted that before the workshop.

In that reference the apples are sitting on the back of a sofa in a very sunny window with warm light. I know that the shadows will be cool so I've used alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue in the deepest shadows.

These apples shine more orange in this particular light than red. In Monday's class I'll finish this pass and then go back and probably punch up the highlights. More after that!

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Weekend Workshop With Elizabeth Pruitt

In spite of the very serious look on my face I had the most amazing weekend painting with Elizabeth Pruitt at the Charleston Chapter of Decorative Painters! The company was wonderful and the instruction eye opening! I'd like to do it again this weekend if I could!

If you haven't seen her work please check out Elizabeth's website:

http://www.elizabethpruitt.com/index.asp

It's a real treat when someone this talented can also teach. That doesn't happen all the time. Elizabeth has 3 classes at the SDP annual convention and I believe that she said they've opened up additional sessions. I only wish that I could go! If you're going, or thinking about it. don't miss the opportunity to paint with her!

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Violet Underpainting

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my painting teacher has implemented a class syllabus which begins with 3 mandatory paintings. This is the beginning stage of one of those paintings.

The reference photo, which I'll scan and post with the finished painting, is of three apples sitting on the back of a sofa in a very sunny window. Joyce has quite a few of these photos with either apples or pears. I painted another version of these apples last year using a palette knife.

I enjoy this approach of scrubbing in the values...finding the negative spaces between the apples to help define the apples. Next step, applying the color in the right value based on the values in the underpainting.

Have a good day!



Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Pears In A Sunny Window

It's been so great to get back to my class schedule after the holiday break. My teacher, Joyce Hall, has given us a wonderful curriculum for the year. It was designed to take the new student from the first class through a variety of exercises over an extended period of time. These twelve exercises are technique based and each requires us to paint two paintings, one sample from a folder of references and the second from a reference of our own, after we complete three mandatory paintings. So that would be 27 paintings in all.

The first required painting is the "onion painting" which I posted earlier. The next painting is the above Pear painting in which we're required to do a violet underpainting with a large filbert and complete with a flat starting with the dark areas and moving to the lightest. This photo makes that couch back where the pears are sitting look more purple than it actually is. I need to get my photo tent set up and use my tripod for better photos.

Next week I'll have the apple painting which is done as a violet underpainting with a large filbert and finishing dark to light with a filbert. That will complete the first three mandatory paintings and then I'll move on to the 12 exercises each to be done twice with a class reference and a personal reference.

I love having a plan for study all mapped out!

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com

Happy New Year

Can you believe that it's 2009? What happened to 2008? If you're like me it's a blur of memories...many good, but some not so good. Those are all the memories that contribute to the people we become, day by day, so we need to embrace them all.

I'm trying to get back to painting regularly after being very hit or miss since last Summer. Here is a larger painting for me...it's 16x20. I love the colors...especially the cool greens.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Kathy

Contact Kathy At kathysweeney@gmail.com