Louisiana Edgewood Art Paintings by Louisiana artist Karen Mathison Schmidt

Painting progress ...

2012-01-31T19:19:00.002-06:00

“You can’t look at a sleeping cat and be tense.” -- JANE PAULEY

Someone to Watch Over Me • 6x6 • oil on Gessobord WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Almost finished with this one of Ray napping in cozy security while being guarded by the ever-watchful felines on one of my Laurel Burch kitty pillows ... my painting day was cut a little short today because of rain moving in, taking away my afternoon light, so I took the opportunity to do a little updating on my website.

We’ve been getting quite a bit of rain lately, and the pasture pond is overflowing. Makes for sloshy walking, but wonderful photo ops ...

Spending time with a friend ...

2012-01-30T21:47:00.000-06:00

Here’s Ray, hanging out with his little ceramic buddy. I promise I did not put the ceramic cat there beside the sleeping Ray just for this photo; they were like this when I walked in the room. :)

Just got back from Olive Garden, where we had dinner with my parents and brother in celebration of my Dad’s 80th birthday (Happy Birthday, Daddy!). I did get quite a bit of painting in today, but no photos downloaded yet, so I thought I’d share this link to a fun little video by one of my favorite folk artists, Tascha Parkinson ... her art always makes me smile!

Must have been the pizza ...

2012-01-28T22:03:00.000-06:00

Color! What a deep and mysterious language,
the language of dreams!

PAUL GAUGIN (1848-1903)

I was so full of painting energy today, I finished two underpaintings and had time left over to plan the composition for a large landscape.

Must have been the leftover Papa Murphy’s pizza I had for brunch. :)

WORK-IN-PROGRESS: Tabasco 8x10 (Commission)

WORK-IN-PROGRESS: Someone to Watch Over Me 6x6

Stopping in an interesting place ...

2012-01-27T21:42:00.000-06:00

Oak Tree and Daffodils • ©2012 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on archival, museum quality Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection • unframed

Click here to bid (auction ends February 3)

I racked my brain trying to come up with a less literal title for this, but finally decided to let the painting speak for itself. So, Oak Tree and Daffodils it is!

When I started this painting a couple of days ago, the daffodil leaves had just shot up everywhere, but no sign of blossoms. Today, after a couple of stormy, rainy days there are yellow buds just coming open everywhere ... in a couple more days these beauties will be busting out all over!

Here are the work-in-progress photos:

First, the underpainting in acrylic glazes of fuschia,

cadmium yellow light, phthalo blue.

Next, I start to add the oil colors, leaving generous gaps

for those bright undercolors to show through.

Here it is, almost finished ... I just need to add the foreground daffodil blossoms.

I love the effect of adding in a few random little suggestive dots indicating single flowers apart from the little groups ... I was having so much fun doing it I really had to make an effort to make them look totally random and not to overdo it.

And ... the finished painting. I was having so much fun with this one that I kind of had to remind myself to coast to a stop, keeping in mind that Paul Gardner quote, “A painting is never finished - it just stops in interesting places.”

Home again, home again ...

2012-01-23T19:48:00.001-06:00

Oak Tree and Daffodils WORK IN PROGRESS:

Even though they aren’t quite in bloom yet, I couldn’t wait to get started on some daffodil paintings. Here’s the underpainting for a little one I made a start on this afternoon.

Paul and I just got home this weekend from a trip to California: first Long Beach, where we stayed with my sister and family while Paul attended a guitar workshop with Paul Gilbert; then up to Fairfield and San Francisco, where we visited Paul’s parents, sister and niece, and an old friend whose band Paul used to play in; then back down to Long Beach and a couple more days with sis and family. A whirlwind trip full of fun, but good to get back to hearth and home (not to mention cats and dogs)!

On our last afternoon there, my sister and I visited Rancho Los Alamitos to wander around the historic gardens and take pictures. By the time we finished the guided tour of the ranch house, the light was fading fast, but we managed to snap a few before dusk.

The finished Andy painting, plus a little piece of inspiration

2012-01-03T20:27:00.000-06:00

SOLD

6 x 6 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival Gessobord
private collection • Poway, California

We’ve been having a few problems with our internet; the tech people seem to think that our dish may be just a touch out of alignment. The service guy is supposed to come out and check in the next couple of days or so. So hopefully I can post work-in-progress photos of this one mañana.

Meanwhile, 2012 is starting off with a woosh ... I’m finishing up one commission, I’ve got two more commissions for large-ish paintings lined up, and a possible third in the offing as well.

And ideas for my own choice of subject just keep on coming. I’ve been reading The Art Spirit by Robert Henri (which I read from cover to cover every couple of years or so), and he mentions more than a few times how our art isn’t created in a vacuum; it flows out of a life well-lived.

Here’s a little sample of the kind of inspiration that surrounds me every day:

Yesterday the thermostat on our central heat went out, so we’ve been using only our gas logs for heat until it could be fixed (which it was this afternoon ... hooray!) This morning Sophie, Blue and Buster were cozying up with Paul on the sofa ... maybe because they love Paul, maybe because there was a little electric space heater on the coffee table right in front of them, or maybe because Paul was munching on a piece of toast spread with grape jelly.

Anyway, I was really taken with the soft morning light coming in the window, how the green blanket complemented the dogs’ reddish coats, and the bright red plaid blanket draped over the back of the sofa (barely visible in the top right of this photo). I tiptoed out of the room and back in again with my trusty Canon complete with zoom lens, and, totally unnoticed, snapped a few pictures from across the room. I was holding my breath, willing the dogs to be perfectly still because of the low light and slow shutter speed (I imagined I was a stealthy National Geographic photographer capturing some kind of wildlife on camera) ... I owe a big thank you to the grape-jelly-covered toast for holding their rapt attention. This photo was a total gift; it’s not often that such a pleasing composition just happens.

Hallelujah!

Sometimes ...

2012-01-02T20:01:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I set up cozy little vignettes around the house ...

... in hopes that someone will come along and make the picture a little ...

... more ...

... interesting!

Now, THERE’S a painting waiting to happen!

Glad to oblige!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:49:00.000-06:00

The LORD’S lovingkindness indeed never ceases,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

LAMENTATIONS 3:22-24

Untitled WORK IN PROGRESS

Here’s how our Andy is ringing in the new year.

This is my progress so far on my first painting of this great big beautiful hunk o’ dog. I’ve had so much fun this afternoon working on this, I kept thinking, what took me so long?

Seriously. It’s about time!

A great big thank you to all of you for your fellowship and encouragement

throughout the year, and best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2012!

Happy Painting to all my fellow artists out there,

and as a very dear friend always used to say to me
(quoting a song from Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George):

Give us more to see!

Cheery colors on a dreary day

2011-12-22T16:56:00.001-06:00

“The whole world, as we experience it visually,

comes to us through the mystic realm of color.”

– HANS HOFMANN

“Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it.

I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one.

I am a painter.”

– PAUL KLEE

Today, a dreary day here in northwest Louisiana, is the shortest day of the year -- in fact, it’s barely 5:00 in the afternoon and already almost dark. The good news is that starting tomorrow we’ll have more and more daylight for a good six months!

*pause while I do the “now the days are going to be getting longer” dance*

Meanwhile, here are some shots of color to brighten your midwinter afternoon. As promised, these are more photos from my outing in the Norton Art Gallery gardens last Sunday afternoon.

So grab a cup of hot tea and take a color break ... Enjoy!

It was very quiet that day ... I only came across a handful of people enjoying the solitude

while everybody else was out enjoying the shopping.

Quelle inspiration!

I’ve already started on a couple of large paintings from these ... woo-hoo!

Joy to the World!

2011-12-18T16:28:00.001-06:00

Spent a wonderful afternoon taking pictures in the gardens behind Norton Art Gallery. I’ll share more photos later.

Gotta run ... tonight is our choir Christmas concert at church.

Later, taters!

From Roadie with Love

2011-12-16T10:53:00.000-06:00

Hey, Mama Kelly! Thank you for bringing me to live out in the country with Andy and Blue and Trixie and Sophie and Andy (did I already say Andy?) and Buster and Matilda!

I sure am having fun!

I still think about you sometimes, though.

Like today.

Happy Birthday, Mama Kelly!

Reparing a wool scarf: just one example of the multitudinous things I’ve been doing instead of painting

2011-12-09T22:16:00.001-06:00

This is my pretty Irish lambswool scarf.

This is my pretty Irish lambswool scarf with a big bite chewed out of it.

Bad Roadie.

Look how pretty it went with my red coat, too.

Bad, bad Roadie.

So, after getting some dressmaking advice from Mom, I hit three fabric stores today and found a bit of fleece that was oh-so-close to being a spot-on match for the green of the scarf.

While I was getting my fabric cut the saleswoman who was doing the cutting asked me what happened to the scarf. When I told how my 78-pound Catahoula-Lab mix puppy got hold of it and chewed it even though I kept it all folded up on a coat hook that had to be at least six feet up from the floor, she and the three ladies waiting in line behind me nodded like they knew exactly where I was coming from. One of them said, “Yes, they sure do get into things.” And I said, “They sure do.” Made me feel better to know they seemed to understand about the trials involved in raising a large-breed puppy. We are not alone.

When I got home I used one of my gessobords that was still wrapped in the plastic to put underneath this project in case there was a mess from the Liquid Stitch I was going to use, then I cut the chewed section out into a rectangle.

I then cut a slightly larger rectangle out of the fleece and used Liquid Stitch to glue the piece to the back side of my scarf.

I took a piece of the baker’s wax paper I use on my palette board and put it on top of the scarf, then added a stack of heavy art books. By that I mean art books that are heavy, not books that are about heavy art.

Tomorrow, after drying for 24 hours, the patch job will be finished and, hopefully, with a bit of strategic draping, the patch will hardly be noticeable.

Lucky Roadie.

Lucky, beautiful Roadie.

Good Roadie for chewing a piece of wood instead of a scarf
or a silk flower or a Braveheart DVD or a pillow or Paul’s good headphones.

Thank you, Roadie, for reminding us how temporary are the things of this world.

MATTHEW 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

A warm gift, warmly remembered

2011-12-08T21:02:00.001-06:00

Last night was freezing, and this morning we lit the pilot light for the gas logs in our bedroom fireplace and turned on the fire for the first time this season, trying to cozy up this drafty old house a bit. Although technically winter doesn’t begin for another couple of weeks it sure feels like it’s already here since we’ll be having below-freezing nights for the next few days or so.

I just pulled on some thick wool socks and cozy jammies and I’m getting ready snuggle up with Paul and a cup o’ hot chocolate (and I’m sure a dog or two, or three or five) ... we’ve been saving up our recorded “Jeopardy!”s and are going to have a mini-marathon (4 shows in a row). Just about my favorite TV-time thing to do. Later on we’ll turn on the electric blanket to warm up the sheets a bit before bedtime. That always reminds me of when my Mom and Dad gave us the blanket four years ago, before we had really had any work done on the house. We were living with 2 circuits of electricity, no heat except a couple of little space heaters, which we used in the living room and kitchen, and that meant a really, really cold bedroom at night in the middle of winter. It was so nice to jump into a warm, cozy bed courtesy of that electric blanket.

Here’s a blog entry I wrote back then:

Ode to an Electric Blanket

On long winter nights

when the whole world is frozen,

this gift keeps us warm

from our heads to our tozen.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Thanksgiving surprise

2011-12-03T09:16:00.001-06:00

We went to the beach for Thanksgiving. Navarre Beach, Florida, to be specific.

This was the house we rented for the week, along with aunts, uncles, my parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law, nephews, cousins and their kids. Fun!

This was the view out our back door. Navarre Beach is a very narrow strip of land just off the Florida Panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico. Our house was on the Santa Rose Sound side, but just a short walk from the Gulf side.

The day we arrived, the water in the sound was smooth as glass. Like a mirror. I’m glad I took these photos then, because the next day was windy, making for choppy water in the sound. We had beautiful views, delicious meals, fun time spent together, and one big surprise. Early in the wee hours Thanksgiving morning my youngest sister (who was expecting their fifth son) and my brother-in-law, who actually live in nearby Pensacola but were staying at the beach house we all rented, drove to the hospital (my aunt who’s a doctor went along on the 45-minute trip -- just in case!) because little Thomas, our newest nephew, decided that Thanksgiving day would be a good time to make his entrance into this world. So my sister and brother-in-law missed Thanksgiving dinner, but they had a real good excuse, I’d say.

Here’s three-year-old Eli, formerly the youngest of four brothers, now the next-to-youngest of five, waiting for his Dad to come back from the hospital for a short visit and a shower before returning to be with Erin and the new baby. Remember when you could fit on a windowsill?

Here are all the kids fueling up with a pancake breakfast Friday morning before trooping off to the hospital to greet the new arrival. We had a lot of grown-ups, too, but for some reason my camera always gravitates toward the kids.

In the picture below, it looks like five-year-old Joshua is trying to use

his telekinetic powers to make the maple syrup come to him.

Here are the kids in the waiting room at the hospital,

waiting for word that it’s okay for everyone to come in to visit the new baby.

Notice how they’re all being very nice and quiet and still.

Oh, wait. They’re kids.

And now, baby pics! Of course there are hundreds more, and at least one with every other person in the room holding little Thomas, but here’s just a couple of samples.

Thomas with youngest big brother Eli, and oldest big brother Zachary.

And Thomas with yours truly, and Grandpa (my Dad).

By the way, there was a dry-erase board in the room, too ...

... and whenever there’s a dry-erase board in the vicinity ...

... kids HAVE to draw on it. It’s kind of like a rule.

Everyone’s an artist!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T21:03:00.000-06:00

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

I'll be back to regular posting on Monday ... lots to show and tell!

Eleven Eleven Eleven: yes yes yes yes yes yes

2011-11-11T12:35:00.001-06:00

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Today is a day to honor our Veterans, two of which are my Dad and my Dad-in-Law. So happy Veterans Day to all of you; we’re grateful for your service and sacrifice.

Pictures in our back yard this morning ...

... and over the back fence:

Today is 11/11/11. In binary computer talk that’s yes yes yes yes yes yes. (Yep, I studied computer programming once upon a time, in days of yore. And yep, I am an artist who actually enjoys math. Hence the neverending skirmishes between my left brain and my right brain.)

Thanks to all of you who have been checking in on me for the last month or so since my last post. It’s been a busy month! I’ve been working with a client who ordered a large print of one of my paintings for a model hotel room in Baton Rouge, and may order a whole bunch more of them to put in guest rooms still under construction; the decision hasn’t been made yet, but a pretty exciting prospect, as far as my art goes.

Still trying to keep up with Roadie, our Catahoula puppy who is now one year old. We don’t know his actual birth date, but according to our veterinarian’s estimate, we decided his birthday was Halloween. Easy to remember. And for the last four weeks we’ve been helping out our next-door neighbors; he’s been working Mondays through Fridays at a construction job in Arkansas, and only able to come home on the weekends; she has a job at a doctor’s office in town; the school bus doesn’t come out this far, so I’ve been driving their girls (10 and 14 years) to their respective schools in the mornings and occasionally Paul or I bring them home in the afternoons. Fourteen-year-old Haley stays after school a lot for cheerleading activities, and her mom picks her up, so most of the time it’s just ten-year-old Morgin and I in the car for the 30-minute trip home. I think every artist should have a one-on-one talk with a ten-year-old from time to time. Pretty fun.

Our taking-to-school and picking-up time is at an end today ... their Dad is finishing up with his long-distance job today and will be home now to drive them. So no more excuses; time for me to get back to work!

It’s now officially three months and two days since I posted my last finished painting on my Just the Paintings blog. And -- even though it’s Friday and I usually prefer to make new starts on Mondays -- I figure, what better day to get back to the easel than yes yes yes yes yes yes!

So ... I’m going to ignore any canine shenanigans that may be going on in the back yard, the mountain of laundry (mostly caused by muddy doggy feet), the dusting that’s needed doing for at least two weeks so one more day won’t matter, and get myself back to painting, painting, painting!

Horse painting work in progress

2011-10-13T19:57:00.004-05:00

Full Tilt • 16 x 12 • acrylic WORK IN PROGRESS

This one has changed quite a bit since I posted the first version. Something about it was bugging me; the horse didn’t seem to have as much energy as I wanted, so I kept playing with the color. Then after really studying my reference photo and comparing it to my painting, I realized that the horse’s chest was too broad, and the angles of his front legs were wrong, especially his left front leg. It needed to be much more slanted. So I drew the legs over, using black paint for the outline, filling the leg shape with blue, which was the underpainting for the horse, then painted in the negative space around his legs with red (a mixture of naphthol red and vermilion), which is the underpainting color for the grassy areas ... et voilà, THAT’s the energy I was looking for! I got it back by correcting the angle of the legs.

Here’s the painting with the old legs superimposed on it, and then the corrected version, so you can see the difference.

Check back again tomorrow for more work on this!

Edgewood Old House RestorationHere’s to all you old-house geeks!

2011-10-09T21:13:00.001-05:00

It’s no secret. I am an old-house geek. I can’t get enough of old houses.

I love reading about them, looking at them, living in them. The history and character. The unplumb walls, the non-square corners, the creaking stairs, the worn floors, the age-crackled paint on the fireplace bricks.

I’ve worn out issue after issue of Old House Journal, Old House Interiors, Early Homes, Restoration Style, Period Living (this last one is a UK publication; I only thought our house was old; over there they refer to an 1870’s built house as “fairly new.”)

So, for all you fellow old-house lovers out there, here’s a post with lots of pictures of the upstairs: Last week I took these “after” pics of my fall studio and office clean-out, and I finally got them all off my camera and onto my blog. The walls and trim still need painting, and the floors need some work, and we don’t have working plumbing in the two bathrooms up here, but meanwhile, here’s my tour.

Enjoy!

Above is the view of the hall as you come to the top of the stairs. I can’t take full credit for the “HEY” on the wall; I saw it in a recent issue of Where Women Create (another favorite of mine, showing the workspaces of women in all walks of creative vocation). One of the studio pictures showed these large wooden letters spelling out H-E-Y and it made me smile. So I got these smaller ones at Hobby Lobby and put the word to greet you as you arrive at the top of the stairs. It still makes me smile every time I come up here.

Okay, now we’ve stepped out into the upstairs hall. I love the white painted built-in bookcase on the right. Now that everything is cleared out, it makes it much more noticeable.

In my unpacking of boxes, I rediscovered these Scottish watercolors that I got years ago at an antique shop, painted by an artist named John Evans, and I hung them here in the hall. There’s a fourth one in one of the bedrooms.

These are my two favorites: Loch Ness and Eileen Donan Castle.

Here’s the doorway to my studio. I have a pretty little desk that someone was throwing out that I’m going to refinish one day and put here under my Mary Engelbreit print instead of this folding table.

The quote on the print is from Marcel Proust:

The real voyage of discovery consists

not in discovering new landscapes

but in having new eyes.

Here’s my studio: plenty of room for students here. For last week’s workshop everyone was kind enough to bring their own chairs ... it was great!

Here we are back out in the hall, looking back toward the stairs.

Here’s a peek into my office through the door on the right.

Here are some of the books we’re keeping. On the bottom two shelves of the left-hand bookcase you can see stacks of my old house magazines. Yep. There are a lot of ’em. I look through them from time to time for “old house” ideas and inspiration.

Here’s an old chair that I threw a quilt over. One day we’re going to reupholster all this comfy old furniture that was in the house. I love the oak tree outside the window; it gives me the feeling I’m working in a tree house. Like the Swiss Family Robinson.

Over in the far corner you can see my big archival printer, which is covered by a rug, because You-Know-Who No. 1 and You-Know-Who No. 2 like to nap on top of it, whether there’s a cover or not. So the rug keeps the cat hair from getting in the printer when I’m not using it.

My desk is an old wrought iron patio table base, with a wooden desktop that my husband and I recovered from the curb whilst driving through our old neighborhood in town one day. I like it. I think it’s super cool.

Here’s the room across the hall from my studio.

You might recognize it from my Morning Light painting, with the sunlight spilling across the floor. I love that! Which is why I painted it.

There are two sets of French doors from this room out to the front balcony. One day this will be a guest room. For now it’s empty, and rife with possibilities.

I’ve decided to paint this room a really soft, cool yellow, which will complement the lavendar-ish fireplace tile. If you squint, concentrate and use your imagination, you can just see the little paint chip I have leaning against the wall, on top of the mantel.

And now, just so you know I’m not Wonder Woman, below are two photos of the fourth upstairs room, where, for the time being, we’re storing a bunch of stuff we still have to take to town and donate.

Plus all our Christmas decorations.

Plus all the throw pillows from downstairs that we’re keeping up here until Roadie has completely grown out of puppyhood and is no longer interested in dragging throw pillows all over the house. I have faith that that day will come. Soon.

I know it’s still a bunch of stuff, but just look how neat everything is stacked!

Not that I’m patting myself on the back or anything.

Well, maybe just a little.

Finally, in this corner are the last of the books that we still have to go through. My favorite thing in this photo is the box of Kleenex balanced on top of a stack of stuff on the mantel.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our little tour. And tomorrow, since I have three (yes, 3!) commissions stacked up, plus a horse painting to put the finishing touches on, not to mention an iris painting I started ’way back in the spring, it will be back to the easel for me!

Art trek

2011-10-03T11:05:00.001-05:00

Judy Felker is a blogger who wanders all over in internet-land seeking beautiful artworks in a wide variety of styles and different mediums. On her blog, Creative Wonder, she shares what she finds. I’m honored that she included some of my work in yesterday’s post!

Click here to hop over there and see all the breathtaking works she’s found! Just a friendly warning, though: this little adventure may take you in a lot of different directions, and may last a while, so you might want to freshen that cup of coffee before you take off!

Beautiful weather, great group, wonderful workshop!

2011-10-02T19:19:00.001-05:00

The workshop yesterday was wonderful; the weather was perfect, a beautiful day ... we had nineteen in attendance; a very lovely and attentive group. I decided at the last minute to make my painting a little larger, 16 x 12 inches, and so there was a little delay while I put my sketch onto the new board, but once I got going on the demo things went swimmingly. I was glad I made the painting larger, because it easier for everyone to see. It was a lot easier to talk and paint at the same time than I had thought it would be, too, and I enjoyed answering questions as I went. I didn't take any progress photos, but one of the ladies said she would send me hers, so I'll share those as soon as I get them. I also neglected to take a group photo, but hopefully someone got some pics of the group; I've put a shout out for anyone who has some of the group to send them to me so I can show them here.

Even though I didn’t complete the entire painting, I got far enough along that I got to show a lot of the different techniques and principles involved in my process. I plan to finish the painting over the next couple of days, then post it here. Here’s how the painting looked at the end of the afternoon’s session:

We gave out two door prizes, the announcement of which cause many an excited murmer amongst the group: a copy of Susan Sarback's Capturing Radiant Light and Color in Oils and Pastels (signed by Susan herself!) and a $20 Hobby Lobby gift card. All in all it was a fun, productive and info-packed afternoon. My favorite part was at the end when several of the ladies said, “This makes me want to go right home and start painting!” At that, I said, “Good! Then my goal has been accomplished!”

WHAT WORKSHOP???

2011-09-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

OK, OK, everybody just calm down.

Actually this first workshop started out as one planned and organized by Shreveport artist Robin Clauson, for her current students, where I would teach as a guest artist. Which is why I didn't really advertise it in any big way. A few weeks ago we decided we would have it here in my studio ... fun! If this one goes well (which I feel sure it will!) we will put together some more which will be open to anyone, and then I will be sure to let all my blog readers and everyone on the email list from my website know all the details!

On a side note, lately I've not been cruising the art blogs as much as I usually do, and I just found out that at the beginning of this month Carol Marine’s house and studio near Austin burned down due to an out-of-control forest fire! Wow, I can’t even imagine what that must feel like. Everyone in her family was safe, but still, to lose all your home stuff and work stuff in one fell swoop ...It’s pretty uplifting to read on her blog how family, friends, students and blog followers rallied around them, giving emotional and financial support, and now -- talk about making lemononade out of lemons-- this weekend they’re moving to beautiful Eugene, Oregon, where, for some time I gather, they have been wanting to move to live and work.

You go, Carol!

Excitement!

2011-09-20T11:24:00.000-05:00

Hey, we have 22 people signed up for my workshop next week ... woo-hoo!

Ray’s so excited he can hardly stand it.

Stop and smell the spider lilies

2011-09-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

I’m still plugging away at my studio spruce-up; I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and “after” pics are coming soon. Meanwhile, the spider lilies are in full bloom ... a sure sign that fall is upon us!

I love this overlapping of seasons, with the summer-blooming crepe myrtle lingering to meet the fall-blooming spider lilies.

We should all take a page out of Roadie and Blue’s book, taking time out of their busy schedules (so many squirrels to be chased, so many tennis balls to be fetched, so many holes to be dug, so many bones to be chewed, so many naps to be taken ... whew! a pooch’s work is never done) to stop and smell the spider lilies.

Beautiful weather and fall cleaning ...

2011-09-07T16:24:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, after weeks of drought and temps in the 100’s, a cool front came through bringing a couple of days of much-needed and prayed-for steady rain (here’s how badly we needed the rain: Saturday, our first full day of rain, I went to town for a day off from “puppy duty,” to do some browsing in my favorite shops and stores, get my hair cut and pick up some groceries, and everyone was walking around without their umbrellas, dashing from car to store, from store to car and saying, “Isn’t this wonderful!” and “Isn’t this great!”)

Now the sun is out, but the cooler weather is lingering ... just heavenly! Rest assured that I am not under the delusion that we’ve seen the last of the hot weather for this year (this is Louisiana, remember) but for now we have all the windows open, there’s a cool breeze blowing the curtains around, and I’m embracing the blessing of our unusual-for-this-early-in-September fall weather!

Now that I’m finished with the poster project I was working on, I’m deep into clearing out, sorting through, organizing and generally sprucing up my work space. This project has kind of expanded to include not only my studio, but the whole upstairs. We basically live on the first floor of this old house, and the upstairs has been serving as mostly just storage and my working area since we started fixing the house up ... until now!

In my last post I showed you some pics of my studio. Keeping in mind that with most organizing projects, things have to look worse before they get better, here are, not my "After" photos, but my “looking-worse-before-things-get-better” photos.

This is what my studio looks like now.

This is the room next to my studio, where I’m unpacking boxes that haven’t been opened since we moved in four years ago, and sorting things into four categories: Keep, Toss, Recycle, and Donate.

Toss is a really fun category, because then I get to throw something off the balcony into the big orange dumpster.

And here, out in the hall, is where I’m going through approximately one gazillion books, organizing and deciding with Paul which 12% we want to keep and which 88% we want to give away. Whew!Hey, here’s a funny thing I discovered: 12% of one gazillion is still one gazillion.

And here’s something I just noticed, too. In the four photos in this post of the inside upstairs of our house, not one has a cat in it. Amazing!

A Louisiana wildflower garden plus planning for fall

2011-08-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

Summer is fast coming to a close (except for all this 100-plus-degree weather!) and even though I haven’t been posting new paintings lately, I’m busy gearing up for fall.

I finally got a Facebook page up for my art, and I uploaded the images for my Landscape Paintings and Animal Paintings albums ... you can click on the “Like” button over to the right at the top of this blog to become a “fan” of my art there.

This week I’m finishing up some graphic design work for a poster, flyers and program for a women’s outreach event at our church in October, then I’ll get started on some major cleaning out (think “Spring Cleaning,” only in September) in preparation for a painting workshop I’ll be leading here on October 1.

The workshop is actually being organized and hosted by Robin Clawson, an artist here in Shreveport who teaches classes on an ongoing basis, who asked me if I would like to be a guest artist for a Saturday workshop. When we were hammering out the details yesterday we realized we hadn’t discussed location, so I said, why not here in my studio? So that’s what we’re going to do and I’m SO EXCITED! A lot of you have asked me when I’m going to start teaching workshops; this first workshop is mainly for Robin’s current students, but it will let me get my feet wet, so to speak, and soon I plan to start teaching workshops open to anyone.

So. Right now my studio/office looks like this ...

... complete with Ray, wondering what in the world I’m doing over here in the corner.

I realize it doesn’t look TOO messy in these pictures; that’s because it’s a spacious room with the mess all pushed over to the corners. Just wait ’til I show you the “after” photos!

A hard morning’s work ...

2011-08-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

Here’s Roadie, almost 10 months old, still very much a puppy (a 65-pound puppy), napping on Andy’s bed, exhausted from a morning chock-full of puppy projects ...

... like this ...

... and this (notice how he made a little house with a chimney

out of paper towels ... what a creative pooch!) ...

... and this ...

... and this.

After a morning as full of productive creativity as this,

it’s no wonder he needs a nap!

I think I need one, too.

The teeny dogs next door

2011-08-17T22:09:00.003-05:00

Our next-door neighbors have been away for a few days, taking their kids to the beach for a last hoorah of the summer before school starts tomorrow, and while they were gone we’ve been going over several times a day to take care of these cutie-patooties.

This is Miley, the miniature dachshund, who is a little over two years old and weighs maybe eight pounds. Just about every day she comes over to our back fence and gives our big dogs a good talking to, reminding them that they better just stay in their own yard if they know what’s good for ’em.

Here are Peanut and Champ, also miniature dachshunds, six months old and both just as full of beans as they can be. They’re waiting for their after-going-out-in-the-yard treat.

Champ is a long-haired mini, just beautiful. Here he is out in the yard, letting the wind blow in his hair:

I wonder what’s going on in his little bean-filled head.

And here’s little old Ramona, the chihuahua, about thirteen years old. Hard to get a close-up without my zoom lens. She values her privacy.

On the art front, my sister finally talked me into getting on Facebook, so I’ve been reading articles on how artists can promote their art on a Facebook page that is separate from their personal pages. Still trying to figure all that out, but I’m getting there!

I’ll put a link when I have it ready.

Later!

Introducing Rocky Road, aka ROADIE!

2011-08-09T21:37:00.004-05:00

Meet the reason I’ve been pulled away from my painting for a few days; his name is Rocky Road, and we call him Roadie.

Roadie came as a stray a while back to a friend who lives in town. He came looking for a handout but what he found was a true dog lover who did her best to find his owners or a new home for him. My friend Kelly and her husband called him Bailey Blue, and gave him a home while they sent out flyers and took him to their vet to see if he had a microchip (no!), sent out e-mail blasts to friends and family, and even put him on Craig's list. They already have a senior lab mix named Shelby who has arthritis and two artificial knees and she would tire easily and get grumpy when Bailey Blue wanted to play and play and play and play. So a couple of weeks ago Kelly called me and started off our conversation with, “Y’all are dog lovers ... right? ...”

Even though I kind of suspected what was coming next, I (noble individual that I am) did not hang up on her. (LOL, Kelly, if you’re reading this.)

What she proposed is that maybe Paul and I could provide a foster home for the stray while she continued to look for a permanent home. So, even knowing that once we met the little rascal we’d fall head over heels in love and never let him go, I said yes, but we already have a Bailey and a Blue, so we’d have to come up with a different name for the newbie.

So on her day off from work, Kelly brought him over and helped me introduce him to our pack, one by one. I let everybody out in the back yard, except big Andy, who I took on a leash out to front yard where Kelly was standing a good distance away from the house with the newcomer. They met very cordially, touched noses gingerly, and did the usual canine I.D. checks, then we walked into the house together. After a few minutes Andy started getting agitated that there were strangers in the house, so I made him go out in the back, and I brought in Trixie, who is the alpha female (after me, of course) of our growing pack.She LOVES company, and didn’t know who to be more excited about, Kelly or the dog. After a few minutes I put Trixie back out and I let in, one at a time, Buster and Matilda, who were very curious, but very timid and kept their distance, Sophie the Drama Queen, who barked and barked at the newcomer from a safe distance until I let her back outside and finally our big Blue, who, sure that it was my Mom and Dad who were here, barreled down the hall and into the parlor to get hugs. When he realized that no, this was not Grandma and Grandpa but A TOTAL STRANGER, and not only that but A TOTAL STRANGER WITH A STRANGE DOG, he went and hid behind the sofa.

After a while, Kelly said a tearful good-bye to Roadie (as we came to call him on about the 3rd day, after trying a few names that didn’t quite fit) and I let all the dogs in, one by one, ending with Andy, whom I kept beside me on a leash while we all sat in the parlor with Roadie. He was excellent at making friends, advancing little by little, but lying down or rolling over on his back whenever any of the dogs acted afraid or skittish of him. Eventually, after about half an hour or so, everyone started napping in various places around the parlor. Even Andy relaxed enough for me to feel comfortable letting him off the leash.

Later that day, supper went very smoothly, with Roadie’s eating place established at the end of the hall between kitchen and back porch, while Trixie and Andy were in their usual places in the kitchen and the redbones in their places on the back porch. That evening Trixie was the first to break the game-playing ice, and she and Roadie had a good wrestle on the den rug. And now, finally, we have a dog who will actually fetch a ball more than two times in a row. Here’s Roadie after an early morning game, relaxing at one of our “dog cooling stations.” These days, even as early as 7:30 a.m. it’s already close to 85°F!

And, just as I expected, after a couple of days my husband suggested we call Kelly and tell her to stop looking for a home for Roadie because he was “one of us now.” Now, after a little over a week, Roadie is fitting right in like he’s been here the whole time. We went for his first visit to our vet yesterday, and though I thought he might be an Australian Shepherd mix, the doc says that if he’s not a pure bred Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog (formerly known as a Catahoula Cur), he’s close to it. His head shape, coloring, body type, tail and eyes are all typical of this rare breed, and he’s probably about nine months old.

Roadie’s First Free-For-All

Here are some pictures of the first time Roadie joined in on a family free-for-all in our back yard, about a week ago.

The match is initiated by little Matilda, who issues an invitation to Andy.

Soon Trixie, Blue and Buster joined the action.

Here come Roadie and Sophie!

Roadie makes a surprise lunge at Blue as Blue advances on Andy! Excitement abounds!

Matilda goes for one of Blue’s hind legs! The crowd goes wild!

Wow! What action!

Matilda is holding her own amongst the big dogs ... what a trooper!

Suddenly the free-for-all separates into two camps:

Sophie and Matilda vs. Blue, and Roadie vs. Andy!

And then, as quickly as it began, the game is over, Trixie heads out to the yard with Roadie on her heels (Trixie and Roadie have become BFFs); Matilda heads for a drink of water.

So ... what do you think of the new kid?

Well, I don’t know where he learned his stuff,
but you have to admit he’s got some killer moves!

Napscape finished!

2011-08-05T11:31:00.002-05:00

Napscape © 2011 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
10 x 30 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival 2" cradled Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Poway, California

Here is the finished painting ... yay! For a larger image you can click here to view the painting on my website. This one was kind of a milestone for me: the first time I’ve sold a painting while it was still in progress! Woo-hoo! One of my collectors spotted the progress photos on my blog and e-mailed me to make sure she was first in line to purchase it when it was done. As soon as the varnish dries it will be winging its way across the country to its new home.

I’ve been taking some time away from painting for the last few days to integrate a new canine member into our family. This is dog number seven. Yep, seven. Only one more and we’ll have a team big enough to pull Santa’s sleigh in case Donner, Blitzen and the gang decide to retire. Good thing we have plenty of love and plenty of room! Look for more details in my next post later on today.

Meanwhile, here are some close-up details of today’s painting:

Summer fashion

2011-07-23T20:27:00.000-05:00

Here’s Andy.

He’s built for cold weather ...

... see?

Here he is one chilly morning last February,

playing keep-away with Trixie.

Go, Andy, go!

Now, in the middle of summer, this is just about as fast as he gets.

Until yesterday, that is.

He just went to the vet for his summer haircut, which will help him stay cooler through the hundred-degree days of August and September ahead.

Here he is, sporting his fresh summer ’do.

But don’t worry, his coat will have plenty of time

to grow out nice and full by the time cool October arrives.

Now he looks like some rare, exotic breed.

Or like he’s sculpted out of fine Italian marble.

Or like someone was playing

“Pin-the-tail-on-the-skinny-white-dog.”

Hey, Andy ... how are you liking your new look?

Fine! Just fine!

Plodding forward ... plus Sophie and the snake.

2011-07-21T22:38:00.001-05:00

Napscape work in progress detail:

Today, Elizabeth McCrindle, Scottish equine and landscape artist extraordinaire, posted this quote on her blog:

“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” ~ Winnie the Pooh

My response: Yes, frequently ... in fact lately, once a day at least!

Maybe that’s one reason my progress on this painting this week has been excrutiatingly S-L-O-W, but I’m sure my pace will pick up. I mean, it can’t get much slower, unless I stop altogether, which I definitely will NOT do. Besides, I have a potential buyer already waiting in the wings, so I’m DETERMINED to finish by the weekend, “if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creeks don’t rise.”

Plus, I already have ideas and sketches drawn out for three new large-ish paintings which I’m pretty excited about. One is a subject I’ve tackled only once before, but I’m more than ready to go in that direction now. I feel like this Napscape painting is sort of a milestone for me, confidence-wise.

There’s a photo of the entire painting thus far -- PLUS an extra added bonus: the account of Sophie’s snake adventure -- after these photos of the work-in-progress for this section (I was having fits trying to adjust the color of the photos to be consistent with the actual colors in the painting. The blues and turquoises -- especially the underpainting color -- looked different depending on the time of day the photo was taken. But if you just kind of ignore that these photos still give a good idea of the forward progress of the painting):

Here you can see in addition to painting the blanket I also adjusted the shape of Blue’s tail area.

In case you’re trying to figure out the difference between the previous two photos, it’s the little strip of blanket under Blue’s head.

Here, in addition to working more on the quilt and blanket, I corrected the shape of Blue’s snout. This part of my reference photo was really dark and shadowy, but the morning I was working on this part I knew that there was a near-90-percent chance Blue would be napping somewhere, so I tiptoed downstairs to see. Sure enough, I found the real-life Blue asleep on the sunporch settee, and studied his head shape for a minute or two before heading back upstairs. This is a better, truer representation of his straight snout.

Here’s the whole painting so far. I’m getting so CLOSE to being finished ... meanwhile, here’s

The Adventure of Sophie and the Snake

We had a bit of excitement this week when our Sophie was bitten on the ankle by a snake Saturday morning.

I didn’t see the snake up close, so I don’t know what kind it was; probably a copperhead, pretty common around here ... it was all I could do to get all the dogs in the house once I realized that it was indeed a snake they were all barking at in the corner of the yard. And I knew that after I got everyone in, that snake would high-tail it out to the pasture. They don’t like to stay around where dogs are.

After we all got back in the house, we noticed Sophie was limping, but no swelling of any kind, and we couldn’t see a bite mark anywhere, so we figured maybe she got stepped on by one of the bigger dogs. But I called our vet and took her in, just to be on the safe side. The waiting room was plum full when we got there, but soon Sophie’s leg started swelling, and then the fang marks became visible, right on the top of her ankle, so they took her back to the treatment area right away and started the standard snake bite treatment: steroid shot, antibiotics, cleaning the bite area, etc.

While I was waiting, I starting chatting with the woman I was sitting next to in the waiting area, a fellow dog lover who has ... wait for it ... EIGHT dogs! AND three cats.

Man. And I thought our clan was huge. She and her husband have rescued corgies and beagles. Not as big as our dogs, but EIGHT! Whew!

After a while Sophie was cleared to go home, with some antibiotics and pain meds. When they brought her out her whole right front leg was swollen up. It looked like a stuffed Teddy bear leg. She was still able to walk, though she was limping, and she was really happy to go home. We went by Chic-fil-A on the way home and got her some chicken nuggets to help her make it through her ordeal. Poor Sophie.

I didn’t even think about taking a picture of her with her leg swollen up, and it was back to normal by Sunday night, so no stuffed Teddy bear leg pics. But as you can see here, she has recuperated nicely and is back to her beautiful Sophie self, none the worse for wear, always on the lookout for more adventures.

Love Mercy

2011-07-16T21:34:00.001-05:00

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

MICAH 6:8

I had just finished up watering the plants on the front patio a couple of evenings ago, walked around the side of the house to turn off the water, and when I came back around to the front of the porch, my breath was taken away by this view of the pasture under the rising, not-quite-full moon.

Hallelujah.

The continuing adventures of Napscape

2011-07-14T11:05:00.001-05:00

Napscape work-in-progress detail:

Just a quick post to show the latest work-in-progress photos,

then back to painting!

I started off by painting the section of quilt behind Blue,

then moved to his head.

And here’s how the whole painting looks so far:

Later, taters!

Napscape ... the saga continues ...

2011-07-12T00:23:00.000-05:00

Napscape WORK-IN-PROGRESS detail:

Tired of this painting yet? Not me! Every section is like its own little painting, and putting it all together is getting more and more fun. I’ve really had to be patient with this one, and there have been a couple of days the bursitis in my right shoulder was really acting up (a little painful, a LOT annoying!) so I would only paint for a couple of hours at a stretch and then come back a little while later.

If you’re curious, I have been logging my hours and as of the end of today’s session I’m right at 22 hours actual painting time on this. Not TOO bad a pace when you consider that what I’ve done so far is sort of equivalent to approximately five or six little 6x6 paintings. And the more work I put in on it, the faster it seems to go.

Here are my progress photos since the last post on this:

Here’s where I was when I left off last time.

Now I’m starting with the part of the quilt draped over the back of the sofa, remembering this part is in shadow, so the colors will appear grayer and not as saturated as the colors of the quilt falling over the front of the sofa, which is in light.

I paint all the beige colored squares first. They’re not all the same exact color of course, but all in beiges and grays, with some subtle highlights added to indicate the way the fabric puffs up around the stitches. Look how light the paint appears on the dark underpainting ...

... compared to how much darker it appears on my palette. Hard to believe those neutrals on my palette are the same as the ones on the painting.

Now, one by one, I paint the patterned quilt squares in between the neutral squares, painting loosely to let the purple of the underpainting show through in places, and again adding highlights to give the quilted fabric some depth.

At this point I started with a fresh palette of paint, and I began painting the part of the quilt hanging over the front edge of the sofa. This section is in slightly lighter and brighter colors. Notice the “lost edge” at the left edge of the quilt, toward the bottom. This was where the light color on front of the sofa arm sort of blended into the piping on the edge of the quilt. Look for “lost and found” edges of objects where they go in and out of shadow or bright light wherever you can to add interest.

As I paint this little section from left to right, again I let the underpainting show through in some places.

Here’s another lost edge, where the light hitting the soft green blanket at the right of the picture causes it to blend in with the light color of the quilt at that spot.

Here’s the entire painting at this point. Next I think I’ll do the arm of the sofa and Blue the hound dog. Then I’ll finish up with the rest of the quilt in the foreground.

Here’s how my palette looks at this point, and below are some close-up details, so you can see how the underpainting is showing through in places.

Check in again for the continuing adventures of Napscape!

Arrangement in gray and white

2011-07-07T20:44:00.001-05:00

Using the same setting and time of morning as my recent painting Dreaming in Color II, I was attempting to set up an interesting arrangement for the Daily Paintworks “Paint What You Paint With” Challenge. Hmmm ... I like this ... the light shining through the jar onto the desk top, the reflection of the paints in the glass --

Whatcha doin’ ?

Me: Excuse me, but I’m trying to make an arrangement here.

And it doesn’t include you.

I’m sorry, but a still-life arrangement without me

is like a day without sunshine.

Hey, why don’t you move that mug over here?

Ahhh, that’s better.

Now isn’t this more captivating than just a bunch of plain ol’ paints?

Me: I already did a painting with you and the paints.
Are you done?

Not quite ... wait a second, I’m getting an idea ... here we go ... get ready ...

THREE-D, COMIN’ ATCHA!

Now, THAT’S what I call interesting.

Hold on, I think someone’s calling me. The voice is familiar ...

I know I’ve heard it before ... I think it just might be ...

I mean, it sounds a lot like ... um ... oh, yeah ...

... the Sandman ... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ...

And we’re painting ... and we’re painting ...

2011-07-05T23:16:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a fun 4th ... and now, back to work!

Napscape work-in-progress detail:

If you put a round red rubber nose on my face and big flappy shoes on my feet I could be in the circus, because I’m juggling a lot of projects right now. Well, about three or four projects, anyway. Above, you can see where I had to stop on the dog painting today; and here are the work-in-progress photos so far:

Here’s where we left off on my last work-in-progress post.

Next, I continued working on the soft blanket under Sophie’s head and chest, using greens, turquoise, Payne’s gray and titanium white, some mars black and sometimes some yellows. I tried to keep it pretty loose, letting the red underpainting show through in places.

Now I move to the part of the blanket under her back leg ...

... and then I finish Sophie off (figuratively speaking!)

In this close-up detail, and the one below, you can see

how I let the underpainting show through in places.

Here’s how my palette looked at this point. The reason there are two dabs of some colors is that I had to squeeze out a fresh dab today when the dab from Saturday was too dry. I should also point out that Saturday I started with a fresh palette after painting most of Sophie, so most of the mixing you see here was for the blanket.

And now, I start to work on the darker turquoise blanket showing under the pillow. First, the deep shadowy parts ...

... and then the highlighted parts.

Now I’m starting to work on the pillow. It’s a little too tight, I think, so tomorrow I’ll work on loosening it up just a bit.

And here’s how the whole thing looks so far!

A little more progress ...

2011-07-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

Napscape WORK-IN-PROGRESS detail:

Busy week! I finally got around to some much needed gardening chores, re-potting some poor plants that have been existing for weeks in the pots that they came in from the garden center, plus this is the time of year the entire clan, canine and feline, are due for their boosters and annual checkups. This involves several visits to the vet. Blue and Trixie went last month, but in the last eight days or so we took Bailey and Ray one day, Buster and Sophie one day, Andy and Matilda on another. Whew! Now everyone is up to date and sporting shiny new tags on their collars. All except Matilda, that is, who hasn’t let me put her collar back on her yet. I think I’m going to have to do it while she’s cuddled up next to me on the sofa, sleeping.

Speaking of dogs sleeping on the sofa (notice the smooth segué) here’s the latest work-in-progress on the new dog painting.

This pillow in the painting is actually sitting on the sofa in the parlor, and when I was vacuuing in there yesterday it caught my eye, and I was thinking how much I like the design on it, then later when I sat down to continue on the painting, I decided that I had cut too many corners on depicting the design on the pillow, and when I tried to make it more true to the actual pillow design I kept getting confused ...

... so I put a white glaze over the pillow so I could start over drawing the design. Then I redid the underpainting using my drawing as a guide, first filling in with Prussian blue ...

... and then applying a rose glaze over that.

I then start in the oil colors on Sophie’s blanket, which is a very soft, light green. This is where I stopped today, but I think progress will go much faster now that our annual animal check-ups are out of the way!

Rising to the Daily Paintworks “Old Mill” Challenge

2011-06-30T21:16:00.001-05:00

SOLD

Mill River Glow © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival Gessobord
private collection • Saint Paul, Minnesota

I took a little break today from the Napscape sleeping dogs painting to participate in this week’s challenge on Daily Paintworks: an old abandoned mill. I decided to change the light in the photo to indicate my favorite time of day ... dusk or dawn? I’ll leave that to you!

Dogs dogs dogs

2011-06-27T23:56:00.001-05:00

Napscape WORK IN PROGRESS detail:

There are work-in-progress photos below,plus a few words about technique, but first I thought you might enjoy a few dog pics I took today:

Here’s XL-sized Blue trying to fit into an M-sized chair. Hey, I just noticed that this is the pillow that’s in today’s painting!

And here we see that XXL-sized Andy has made a wise choice of napping venue: the quilt-covered sofa in the painting. It sleeps two redbone hounds or one Andy. He’ll be able to dream big here.

That is, if the paparazzi will PLEASE leave him alone.

While I was taking pictures of Blue and Andy, Trixie trotted over to worm her way into the action.

Be sure to get my best side.

Smile, Trixie, smile!

What do you mean? I AM smiling.

And now, here are my work-in-progress photos for today’s painting:

Here’s where I left off on Saturday; the detailed value sketch in indigo acrylic.

I develop the underpainting using glazes of acrylic. Here’s the first layer of glazes. Recently I was asked how I choose what colors to use in the underpainting. Well ... um ... that’s a really good question. Sometimes it’s pretty arbitrary, but usually I’ll divide a painting in my mind into 3 to 5 main areas of color, keeping the areas very general, not detailed at all. For the parts of the subject that are in full light, I’ll block in colors in the underpainting that are complements of the colors in the finished painting; and for the parts that are shadowy I’ll use colors that are similar to what the finished colors will be, only darker, cooler versions of those colors. Sometimes you could give yourself a headache trying to figure out exactly how to follow these rules, so don’t worry at all about getting the exact complement, or what the main color of a section in the finished painting is going to be, especially a picture that is full of detail. I just use these guidelines in a very general way, to help me get started.

For this painting I had in mind four main areas: 1) the part of the quilt covering the back of the sofe, behind the dogs; 2)the blanket and pillow; 3)the dogs themselves; and 4) the foreground section of the quilt, which is in more light than the shadowy background part of the quilt.

The main finished color of the dogs will be red-orange-ish, so I use a yellow glaze on top of a phthalo blue glaze, and then another phthalo blue glaze on top of the yellow, to end up with a dark turquoise. The quilt will end up being multi-colored, so I arbitrarily chose phthalo blue for the underpainting, with a very washed out yellow glaze. It’s hard to tell in the photos, but the front of the quilt is a little bluer than the dogs and the dogs a touch more turquoise.

The pillow and blankets, plus the wall behind the sofa at the right end of the painting, will be shades of teal and green, so I chose shades of red for the underpainting in those areas. I started with a quinacrodone rose, and added a yellow in some places to make it a little warmer red. The pillow I kept rose colored.

The part of the quilt covering the back of the sofa is more in shadow than everything else, so I wanted that part of underpainting to be cool-ish in color. I started with a phthalo blue glaze, topped by a glaze of quinacrodone rose, so that it ends up purple.

Once the acrylic underpainting is completely dry, I start adding the oil colors. This is just my preference, but I like to start with a part of the painting which might require more concentration to get just right than other parts of painting might require. Soooo ... in this painting, that would be Sophie’s face.

With oil painting, I like to keep the colors slightly separate at first; the longer drying time allows me to blend colors after I finish Sophie’s entire face.

I make a conscious decision where to blend and where to keep separate, because once you blend, you can’t unblend. Keeping the colors separate and blending later after I’ve had a while to look helps me to keep from overworking the paint. Another thing to keep in mind is: you can always scrape away paint with a painting knife to allow the underpainting to show through in certain places. Or wipe away paint for a stained or glazed effect.

Tune in tomorrow for more progress!

A new dog painting in progress ...

2011-06-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

A new work-in-progress:

This one is going to be fun; it’s a good size, 10 x 30 inches, and it has quite a bit of detail ... Sophie and Blue napping on the sofa, ensconced in blankets, quilts and pillows. I finished the bones of the underpainting today, done in indigo acrylic.

I hope you like the title as much as I do ...

... wait for it ...

... Napscape !

An underlying joy

2011-06-25T23:04:00.001-05:00

Let me start by saying to all my friends and family: I’m fine! Everything is going well with us, and we thank God every day for His provision and blessings. I just felt inspired and led to do this painting; someone out there may may be looking for this right now.

Though My Heart Is Torn © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 inches • oil on museum quality, archival Gessobord

Because we live in a fallen world, we are going to go through rough times in our lives. Nobody’s life is good all the time, but in those stormy seasons when it feels as though our hearts are being ripped apart, if we have a relationship with God through Jesus, and trust in His faithfulness to us, believing His promises and knowing that His love for us is unfailing, we will be undergirded by an unexplainable joy and peace that knows no bounds, even in the midst of life’s fiercest storms. I can’t explain how this is ... it’s a beautiful mystery to me ... but I do know that it is.

The idea for this abstract painting came while I was driving home the other day and the Casting Crowns song “I Will Praise You in This Storm” came on the radio. I’ve put all the lyrics at the end of this post, but the words that really caught my attention:

“... and every tear I’ve cried You hold in Your hand
You never left my side and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm.”

I started imagining then how I would depict this idea, and yesterday after I had been working for several hours on a larger dog painting with quite a bit of detail, I took a break from that one and started working on this. Once I got going on the actual painting, because of the spontaneity of my abstract technique, it kept changing while I was working on it, but I liked it because the picture was starting to look way more emotional and full of spirit than I had imagined it.

One thing I’ve tried to learn by doing these abstracts: when something cool unexpectedly happens, most of the time it’s best to go with it ... and whenever another piece of the painting falls into place, leave it!

Here are some details:

Praise You in This Storm
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now
That You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say Amen, and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls I raise my hands
And praise the God who gives and takes away

And I'll praise You in this storm and I will lift my hands
For You are who You are no matter where I am
And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand
You never left my side and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry, You raised me up again
But my strength is almost gone
How can I carry on if I can't find You

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
And as You mercy falls I raise my hands
And praise the God who gives and takes away

And I'll praise You in this storm and I will lift my hands
For You are who You are no matter where I am
And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand
You never left my side and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

And I'll praise You in this storm and I will lift my hands
For You are who You are no matter where I am
And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand
You never left my side and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

Back Yard Pics

2011-06-25T00:34:00.000-05:00

A late blog tonight ... I just got home about an hour ago from an impromptu “girls’ night out”; we met at church to attend a concert by the Louisiana Baptist All State high school choir (wonderful!), who are getting ready to depart for a week-long concert & mission tour. Afterward four of us went to the Starbucks coffee shop in Barnes & Noble bookstore for some treats and conversation ... talking about everything from work to blogging, to spouses to dogs to cats, to dogs vs. cats, to morning persons married to night owls, etc. ... lots of laughter and lots of fun; I enjoyed myself immensely, came home to an enthusiastic greeting from dogs and husband, a not quite as enthusiastic “oh, were you gone somewhere?” from the cats, and wanted to give just a little update before I join Paul to watch today’s Jeopardy and then hit the hay.

Today I worked on a new dog painting, plus another little abstract, but they’re not quite ready to show yet, so here are some photos from the back yard this afternoon.

We had quite a bit of rain day before yesterday, and it weighed down this blossom laden branch on one of our big crepe myrtles. I like the way it makes a kind of archway of flowers to walk under.

And here’s Matilda, gazing out to the pasture, daydreaming about her next escape, no doubt.

What? Me, escape?

Don’t make me laugh!

Experimenting with texture

2011-06-22T21:01:00.002-05:00

SOLD

By Moonlight © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
7 x 5 • oil on museum quality, archival Gessobord

private collection • Houston, Texas

This little landscape just sort of emerged while I was experimenting with color and texture. Especially texture.

It seems that every time I try an abstract, a river happens. Hmmmm ...

I used a painting knife most of the time, painted a layer and scraped it off several times in different places, building up layers of color. On the lower right part I wrinkled up a piece of plastic wrap and stuck it to the painting and then removed it, just to see what kind of texture it would make. Interesting. Then I patted the plastic into some of the paint on my palette and stuck it to the painting again and again removed it. More interesting.

Not my usual technique, but every now and then you just have to play around so you can get going again!

I wish it wasn’t getting dark already ... I’m not ready to stop ...

Well, I guess I’ll start tomorrow with renewed energy; I’ll need it for my next painting, featuring Blue and Sophie, entitled A Long Nap.

Tune in tomorrow to see progress!

Cool reflections

2011-06-19T23:34:00.000-05:00

Our dining table is made of reclaimed wood and antique ceiling tile, and is covered by a sheet of glass. So when the angle of the afternoon sun coming in the dining room window is just right, the tabletop is almost like a mirror. I passed by the doorway to the dining room this afternoon and saw this cool reflection of the oak trees, so I added some little bottles that I keep on the kitchen windowsill, and took this photo. (The blue bowl over to the right is actually sitting on top of an old radiator beyond the table, right in front of the window.)

Maybe I’ll try to paint this ... MAYBE.

Feel free to try it yourself if you like. If you do, and you post it on your blog, send me the link and I’ll post it. I’d love to see what you come up with!

Happy Father’s Day! plus something from the rose garden ...

2011-06-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Father’s Day, all you dads out there (and especially mine)!

Rosy Path ©2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection

CLICK HERE TO BID
Auction ends June 26

Something loose and fun to shake myself out of getting too tight with the brushstrokes! After the last several paintings which were a little larger and more detail-oriented, I wanted to do something really loose and almost abstract. Plus I had a faint headache this afternoon, so I wanted something I could really relax with, and this sunny garden sidewalk at the American Rose Center here in northwest Louisiana was just the thing.

Here are the work-in-progress photos:

I dived right in blocking in the main areas with purple, yellow and burnt sienna.

I wanted to position the roses before I started filling in the foliage. I wanted the flowers to be random and since it’s really hard for a human being to position objects randomly (our brains automatically want them to be evenly spaced, or symmetrical, or with a pattern of some kind) I used my reference photo and placed the roses pretty much how they were in the garden that day.

Then I started filling in foliage and the shadow of the roses on the sidewalk.

The white concrete sidewalks at the Rose Center really make the roses themselves pop with color.

Here in the final painting you can see that I softened the edges of the shadows just a bit by adding a lighter gray. Also, I added some confetti specks of light, bright color (but not too much) here and there to add a little more of a sunny feel of the composition.

Bailey in a precarious situation ...

2011-06-18T22:05:00.001-05:00

SOLD

This Side Up © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches • oil on 3/4" cradled artist panel

private collection • Jacksonville, Florida

Here’s the finished painting.

Good night, all!

another glimpse ...

2011-06-17T21:55:00.001-05:00

This Side Up work-in-progress detail:

Well, burning the candle at both ends finally caught up with me yesterday. I guess I’m not as young as I used to be.

*sigh*

Anyway, I’d been feeling a little under the weather, so I kind of played hookey and took yesterday off. This morning I packaged up some paintings and sent them off to their new homes, did some updates on my blog and website, and then this afternoon I finally got back to the easel and had a productive afternoon of painting. I finished the book stack, and part of the chair, and the cardboard box. I see from looking at the detail above that the left side of the top book isn’t quite right. I’ll need to fix that tomorrow!

The way I’m working on this one seems a little different to me than usual. I’m sort of meandering along and finishing each little part before moving on to the next. It reminds me of something I read in a Dean Koontz interview about the way he writes. Very different from the way a writer would usually work. He said that instead of finishing a rough draft of the entire work and then going back and making revisions and edits, he works on a book one page at a time, editing, revising, correcting and perfecting that one page before moving on to the next. I found that very interesting.

Anyway, this afternoon I started with the top book in the stack, moved down to the next and then the next, finishing each before moving on to the next. When I got to the bottom of the stack I just kind of naturally moved left to the chair and then up to the arm and finally the cardboard box, again finishing each little part before moving on to the next. Working on it this way today was very relaxing to me somehow.

Here’s a close-up view of the books; you can see how I’m letting the underpainting show through in places.

I really think I’ll be able to make short work of the rest of the painting tomorrow, and have the whole thing to show. I have been taking work-in-progress photos, too, but I’m going to save them to post all at once.

Painting progress

2011-06-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

This Side Up work-in-progress detail

Today I varnished paintings, packaged paintings for shipping, answered email, updated my eBay store and my website ... THEN continued work on this painting. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love painting Bailey. A tabby’s face has such interesting markings.

Here’s the work-in-progress so far:

A phthalo blue glaze in the areas which will be darkest in the finished painting ...

... a fuschia glaze over the phthalo and in the mid-range areas ...

... and a yellow glaze in the lightest areas, and over the fuschia areas, bringing them to more of an orange-y color. Here you can get an overall sense of what the values in the finished painting will be: how much dark, medium and light. I love the subject being backlit by the light coming in the window.

After the acrylic underpainting is dry, I switch to my oil paints, and start with Bailey’s face, beginning with her eyes. Since the light is coming from behind her, I have to remember that her eyes and the lighter markings on her face will still have to be grayer (not as bright and pure) as if I were painting her with her face lit. And keeping the color on her face a little darker and not as contrast-y (I just made that up, but I think you can probably figure out what I mean -- you’re a smart bunch of cookies) will make the highlights around her edges and around the edges of the flowers seem more dramatic. There are times in life when you really don’t want drama, but in this case it’s good. Dramatic lighting makes the painting MUCH more interesting.

Below is the final version of Bailey’s face for this one. You can see how I softened her mouth lines just a bit, so she doesn’t look quite as grumpy. Below that are details from two other Bailey paintings where her face was in full light, so you can compare the colors and see the difference.

Tomorrow I plan to finish this and have a completed painting ready to show you.

Hasta mañana, amigos!

Bit by bit ... putting it together ...

2011-06-14T22:46:00.002-05:00

This Side Up work-in-progress

Here’s my sketch in indigo acrylic, the first step in my painting for this week’s "Balance" Challenge on Daily Paintworks.

Having been a graphic designer and illustrator for my job for almost 30 years, I really like the “assignment” feel of these challenges. Especially this one. I’m treating it like an illustration assignment. Here’s a little bit of how my thought process went on this one:

First I wandered about the house a bit, looking at stuff. What could I stack up that would be interesting and different from what everybody else was doing? Hmmmm. I thought of pillows. I thought maybe a stack of books with a cup of coffee on top. Paul said he could balance some books on his head if I wanted. Hmmm. Books ... books ... I was really starting to like the books idea.

Then, as I was passing by one of the bookcases in the upstairs hall I remembered that weeks and weeks ago when I was organizing bookcases up there, Bailey had climbed into a box that was sitting precariously on top of a stack of books on one of our MIT library chairs. No, we didn’t steal the chairs from the MIT library; Paul’s dad bought them decades ago at a sale when the library was getting new furniture. Then he gave them to Paul. Now they’re Paul’s and mine and I love ’em.

ANYHOO, back to our story. I remembered that on that occasion I had taken a couple of pictures of Bailey in the box on the stack of books on the chair. Soooo ... to the computer!

After browsing for just a few minutes in my folder labeled “cats,” I found the subfolder called “cats and books.” I’m so organized. Only virtually, though. My real-world office/studio is a mess right now. And so, I found the photo:

Hooray! But the lighting was pretty boring, so I decided to re-create the situation in a prettier setting, with more interesting light and a more colorful stack of books. Soooo ... to the dining room!

I put together this set-up and, using a print-out of the original photo as a guide for the angle, took several photos. I wanted to get the angle of the chair and the box as close to the original as possible, because Bailey was sure not going to cooperate and pose in the box again, so I was going to copy her from the original photo and add her to this photo for a reference. I chose the books mainly for color, but they happened to be books I like, so that’s a bonus.

Douglas Martin’s The Telling Line, a collection of essays on book illustrators; Life in the English Country House (I love stuff about bygone days in England); Breathless by Dean Koontz, which is very good and suspenseful and funny and, best of all, as is Dean Koontz’ frequent custom, one of the key characters is a dog -- plus it’s orange, perfect to complement the bluish books in the stack; my Bible from my college days, Spoon River Anthology, an American classic; and Murder Ink, a mystery reader’s companion (I love a good mystery ... it exercises the little grey cells).

Everything was all set to put together, but when I put Bailey in the photo, the lighting was totally wrong on her. I had to look for a photo of her where the light was coming from behind her. Soooo ... back to the photo archives. Folder: Cats, subfolder: Bailey.

Aha! (By the way, don’t you just love how the pencil container behind her is positioned just right so it looks like she’s wearing a little crown with pencils and scissors on top of her head? Try to imagine it -- it’ll make you laugh.) This photo is just the thing! Except she’s lying down.

Here we go! But she’s really blurry. And she’s facing the wrong way.

So I used just her head from the baskets photo, added it to this body (it didn’t really matter if her body was blurry, at least the light was right), flopped the photo so she’d be in the correct position for the composition, and, using my original Bailey-in-a-box photo for reference, sized her and cropped her to look like she was sitting in the box ...

... et voila! I didn’t tweak the lighting on her body, so I know it looks obviously Photoshopped in this photo, but that’s ok; it’s still a fine reference photo for the illustration I have in mind!

Every Blessing ... revisited

2011-06-13T22:44:00.003-05:00

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say:
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

– MATT REDMAN, Blessed Be the Name

Every Blessing © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
30 x 40 x 2 inches • oil on 2" cradled Gessobord
sides painted dark umber
gloss varnish for UV protection

$850

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE from my eBay store

I posted this one some time ago, and I had it in my studio where I could see it every day. After a while I decided it wasn’t really finished after all, so I took it out of circulation, but just kept kind of studying it off and on. Well, today I finally tackled it, changing it just a little, adding some texture, brightening some of the colors and changing some tree shapes, and NOW it feels much more complete to me.

I also planned out the composition for my painting for the Daily Paintworks “Balance” Challenge. Just wait ’til you see!

Until then, here are some photos I took today which may just come in handy if there’s ever a “COMFY” Challenge.

Boy, I’m telling you, our pets have such a hard life.

Rising to the Daily Paintworks Gift Challenge

2011-06-11T22:23:00.003-05:00

Pleasant Surprises © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 • oil on Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection

$65

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE from my eBay store

I really wanted to participate in last week’s “Gift” Challenge posted by Carol Marine on Daily Paintworks but I wasn’t coming up with any ideas until Thursday, my Mom’s birthday. Over dinner she was describing the bouquets she received from my aunt and uncle, and from my sister, and suddenly a light bulb went on over my head. I went over Friday morning to take reference photos of her arrangements by the light streaming in through my parents’ living room window. The pearl being June’s birthstone, the white roses had little pearls on wires stuck in amongst them, providing a little extra “bling” to an already beautiful display. Mom just grabbed a gift box out of the closet and stuck a bow on it for a gift prop, et voila! An arrangement tailor-made for the Gift Challenge!

Now I just have to come up with a subject for the Balance Challenge and hopefully I can get that submitted BEFORE the week is up. :)

I’ll post work-in-progress photos mañana.

Good night!

Matilda and Mickey ... finito!

2011-06-10T22:02:00.003-05:00

SOLD

Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby! © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
8 x 8 inches • oil on cradled Gessobord

private collection • Stamford, Connecticut

Here’s our Matilda with her roly-poly Mickey on one of his first outings into the yard, just like one of the big dogs. I love hound dog puppies with all their rolls upon rolls of skin and little silky, floppy ears. This was a fun painting; I used brushes on the dogs, and a painting knife on the foreground, adding layer on layer of color for the grasses.

Here are some brushwork and palette knife details:

And here are the work-in-progress pics:

First, the initial sketch in indigo acrylic, then acrylic glazes in red, magenta, green and yellow.

For unpainting the mostly orange-ish brown hounds, I decided on a complementary pthalo blue glaze, with a green glaze over it, making it turquoise-colored.

Now I start adding the oil paints; first, Matilda’s details.

I love how her mouth is just slightly open; it looks like she’s smiling. :)

In this one you can see how I smoothed out Matilda’s ear to make it look more velvety. Then I start adding Mickey’s details. I skipped a few photos in between the last photo and this one, but you can look on yesterday’s post to see all those in-between steps.

From the very beginning of painting with the oil paints, I keep the brushstrokes a little separate, allowing that blue underpainting to show through in places. You can see this especially in the close-up view of Matilda’s head (back near the top of this post).

Since the oils have a long drying time, I can go back later and blend in certain places for smooth transitions. Blending in some places and leaving the color separate in some places gives a lot of interest and gives me that illustration-y look I’m going for.

Now the dogs are done, so I start playing with the background, applying paint with a painting knife. I want a spontaneous feel in the grassy foreground, but I’m careful with the knife around the edges of the dogs because I want their outlines to remain clean.

At this point the background was giving me fits, so I wiped away almost all of it. (Being very careful wiping around those hounds!) I knew what I wanted, but for some reason I was having a hard time getting there. Then, I was concentrating so hard on trying to get the effect just right, I totally forgot to take progress pics in between.

Finally, I got it where I wanted it. Spontaneous grassy foreground, and a smooth, kind of glowing, velvety background around the doggie faces. With some suggestion of garden in the far background at the top of the painting.

Whew!

OK, on to the next challenge!

More work-in-progress, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-06-10T00:35:00.001-05:00

More work-in-progress on the mama dog & puppy painting:

It was a short painting day today; this morning I spent some time doing some housekeeping on my website, and I stopped earlier in the afternoon than usual so I could get ready to go out to dinner tonight for my Mom’s birthday.

I did make some good progress on the puppy in the painting ... and I think I was smiling the whole time. Every now and then as the little puppy face was emerging I just laughed out loud; he’s just such a cutie pie! It was kind of difficult getting all his folds upon folds of skin just right ... I think it’s getting there.

Here are my work-in-progress photos from today’s session:

There’s our little sleepy-eyed Mickey, slowly emerging from the blue background.

Here I can’t quite decide whether he looks more like an Ewok, or like he’s wearing blue little kid pajamas with a hood.

Here’s where I stopped today, and headed out with Paul to go out to dinner with my brother and my parents in celebration of Mom’s EIGHTIETH! Yep, the big 8-0. You would never know it if I hadn’t told you.

Here are Mom and Dad outside the restaurant. Dad will be hitting 80 in January. Somebody once said he looks like Santa Claus in his off season. My husband says he looks like Hemingway.

Anyway, I hope Paul and I look this good in about 26 years.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Time for a puppy painting ...

2011-06-08T21:04:00.000-05:00

Baby Mine puppy painting WORK-IN-PROGRESS:

You should have known after yesterday’s puppy pics that I wouldn’t be able to resist painting a puppy. My official goal for the finished painting is to elicit a heartfelt “Awwwww!” from the viewer. We’ll see.

I love painting our hounds. A Redbone Coonhound painting means it’s time to pull out every single one of my browns and earth tones, reds and oranges for the palette:

Of course, I always like to throw a few curve balls of green, blue and purple into the mix, just to keep everyone on their toes!

Sorting through photos ... pecans & puppies

2011-06-07T22:39:00.001-05:00

I Brake for Pecans © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
7 x 5 inches • oil painting on Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection and easy cleaning

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE from my eBay store

See work-in-progress photos after the puppy pics below.

I was sorting through some pictures on my computer this morning, and I came across this one I took last fall. It was a beautiful cool day, and I had taken Trixie, our border collie mix, for a long walk down our road; on the way back we rounded a curve and saw this gentleman picking up pecans by the roadside. I loved the way he stood in silhouette in the shade of the trees, and the way the sun glinted off his red truck. It may have taken me a while to get around to it, but I just KNEW this would be a painting some day! My favorite part: the railroad crossing sign in the distance.

While I was going through photos this morning I also happened upon all the puppy pics I took three years ago when Matilda had her puppies:

Here are Mickey (who was adopted by our house painter), Blue and Sophie having a romp in the "puppy pool."

Matilda having a bit of a cuddle with Sophie.

And all three just chill-laxin’ after a play session. Sophie is on the far left, Blue is the one on the far right, dreaming of being a big dog one day.

Looks like his dream came true!

And now, work-in-progress photos for today’s painting:

I started with a red acrylic background for this one. I’m becoming quite fond of starting with a red background, especially for summer scenes. When I started adding the oil paints, I started with the most detailed part, the truck and the man, because that was the most intimidating part to me, and I wanted to dive right in and get that part out of the way.

Some spontaneity kicked in when I added the grasses and little white flowers in the foreground. Hey, why not?

I used blues and purples for the shady part underneath the far oak trees.

I defined the shapes of the trees by painting in the negative space of the sky. I had intended to make the trees mostly green, but when I got this far, I really liked the way the red underpainting looked in the crowns of the trees, so I went ahead and painted those parts mostly in reds.

In the final version, below, I painted out the power pole on the left ... I apologize to anyone who had become attached to it ... I felt it just wasn’t adding anything to the composition. I also lightened up the road a little and made the divider stripes and little deeper yellow.

And now, I have to go ... I have a movie date with my husband; I’m meeting him in the living room in ten minutes, where he promises to have fresh popcorn ready and waiting. I don’t know what we’re seeing, but he says he’s sure I’ll like it!

Good night, all!

stick a fork in it -- it’s done!

2011-06-06T23:38:00.005-05:00

SOLD

Dreaming in Color II © Karen Mathison Schmidt
16 x 12 • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord

private collection • Conyers, Georgia

I decided to name this one after the painting I did a couple of years ago with Bailey sleeping atop a stack of paint tubes still in their boxes.

Still one of my all time favorites.

Those cats ... they’re so creative.

More poppies!

2011-06-06T23:29:00.002-05:00

Poppies and Pansies © Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 • oil on 1/8" Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Leonding, Austria

Here’s another view of the sidewalk poppies in the botanical gardens of Norton Art Gallery here in Shreveport. These yellow and red poppies are being kept company by a little crowd of bright purple pansies. So cheerful!

Here are a few work-in-progress photos:

Simple gifts

2011-06-05T21:21:00.001-05:00

detail of a work-in-progress:

Well, the paint tubes are almost finished ... just have one more to go. I was thinking today how much I like the way the tubes are arranged. If I had made a conscious decision to a still life with paint tubes, I could have messed with arranging the tubes for an hour and not come up with an arrangement I like as well as this, which is how they were when I walked in the room yesterday and found this ready-made Still Life with Cat already set up and just waiting for me. I love little surprises like that.

Like happening in on Sophie this afternoon napping in our bed with Vermeer-like light coming in softly at the window.

Or this black-and-yellow butterfly that just happened to flit over a container of pansies on the front porch and hover over a pansy of the same color scheme just as I HAPPENED to be walking across the front patio WITH my camera in my hands, already turned on with the auto-focus engaged.

Hallelujah!

Work in progress, plus goofball Ray

2011-06-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Dreaming in Color II WORK IN PROGRESS

On any given morning it may happen that I go up to my office/studio already knowing in my head what I’m going to work on, only to be greeted by some cuteness that’s just BEGGING to be painted. Such was the case this morning as I entered the room and found Ray bathed in morning light, napping on my desk among paint tubes, with his head propped on my ultra-colorful Laurel Burch dog mug that I keep my palette knives in. It goes without saying that this was a painting just waiting to happen.

I didn’t quite get it finished today ... I still have to add all the paint tubes ... but here are the work-in-progress photos so far:

And here’s Ray, on the floor beside my easel, watching me work:

What a goofball!

Not quite sunflowers ...

2011-06-03T20:52:00.001-05:00

Well, there were quite a LOT of sunflowers on our little road trip today, but hardly any were in bloom yet, so the plan is to go back in a week or so and get sunflower pics. We had fun anyway, and got a lot of good photos ...

... of a country road ...

... or two ...

... with some soybeans and corn ...

... some more soybeans ...

... an abandoned farm building ...

... the levee road ...

... the lovely little town of Belcher, Louisiana

(I know, I know, it’s a funny name) ...

... but very pretty, nonetheless ...

... with some historical buildings, including this,

the First Presbyterian Church of Belcher

(ok, stop snickering every time I say Belcher) ...

... and a beautiful little garden of ...

... umm ...

... whatever these are ...

... and something you don’t see every day,

a red barn with bright yellow doors.

After we left Belcher (I said, don’t laugh!), on our way back home ...

... we stopped at this field fairly brimming with thistle.

I wish I had taken our video camera with me ...

... so I could show all the little fluffy thistle feathers

(or whatever you call them) that were floating on the breeze

the whole time we were walking around taking photos here.

All in all, a fun outing.

Tomorrow ... back to the easel!

Sunflower Safari

2011-06-02T22:17:00.006-05:00

Poppy Garden © Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 • oil on 1/8" Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection and easy cleaning

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Auction ends June 5

Poppies! I love how their stems are so skinny it seems they couldn’t possibly be strong enough to support such lusciously full blooms. They’re just happy little sidewalk heralds announcing to passersby that summer’s right around the corner. I love ’em!

Tomorrow I’m going sunflower hunting in Gilliam, Louisiana, with my friend Sandra and her sister. Gilliam’s Sunflower Festival is going to be on Saturday, so we’re hoping we’ll find lots of sunflowers to photograph tomorrow. When we went last year we drove around and couldn’t find ANY! Finally we stopped and asked someone, “Where are all the sunflowers?”

“Right over there,” he answered, pointing to a smallish patch of sunflowers down the road in front of the local granary.

“That’s all?” we asked.

“Pretty much.”

So we got back in the car, laughing, scooted down the road to said sunflower patch and spent a leisurely hour or so taking a couple hundred pics of this one little crowd of sunflowers. It was pretty fun, anyway, but we’re hoping tomorrow’s trek will take us to acres and acres of sunflowers.

Although, seeing as how there’s a lot more money in corn than sunflowers these days, I expect we’ll find only a few sunflowers tucked in here and there amongst acres and acres of corn.

We’ll see!

Original Morning Light art for published illustrationnow available for purchase

2011-06-01T21:19:00.002-05:00

Morning Light © 2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
16 x 20 • acrylic on 3/4" cradled Gessobord
sides painted dark umber
can be beautifully displayed with or without a frame
gloss varnish for UV protection and easy cleaning

$1,250

Click here to purchase from my eBay store.

I’m happy to say I was selected to be one of several contributing artists in a book on painting techniques by UK author/artist Gill Barron. Several of my finished paintings are used as illustrations; I’ve decided to make my ORIGINAL “Morning Light” still life/interior painting, which is one of two multi-page step-by-step projects I have in the book, available for purchase in my eBay store.

The step-by-step demo for this painting, along with a full-page image of the finished piece, appear in the book, entitled Acrylic Secrets: 300 Tips and Techniques for Painting the Easy Way, distributed by Reader’s Digest world-wide. You can find a link to the book on Amazon in the sidebar to the right.

Stealth Cows

2011-05-31T22:57:00.002-05:00

What’s Your Beef? © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection and easy cleaning

CLICK HERE TO BID
Auction ends June 5

The difference between horses and cows is: when you walk toward them with the camera, horses walk toward you, thinking “Hey, this creature might have a carrot or an apple or something else crunchy and yummy in her pocket.” When you walk toward the cows, however, they think ... well, think is a pretty strong word, so ... well ... who knows what they’re “thinking” but they invariably turn and trot in the opposite direction.

Twice in the past few weeks this has happened to me: I’ll walk out on the front porch and see that the pasture is chock full o’ cows (and I’m talkin’ a BUNCH of cows), all pastoral and picturesque-like, so I quietly run back in the house to fetch my camera, which takes me maybe a minute and ten seconds, tops. I get back out to the yard only to find the pasture udderly (pun TOTALLY intended) devoid of bovine presence. Completely cowless:

Who knew cows could evacuate so fast? All this to say that it’s mighty difficult to get a close-up reference shot of a cow without a pretty powerful zoom lens, and even then you have to kind of sneak up on ’em. That’s what I had to do to get this reference photo. Today when I looked out the window and saw them, before they suspected a thing, I walked out into the yard very quietly, focused my camera on these two grazing out in the pasture, and called out, “hey, you cows!” Not a very imaginative phrase to call out, I know, but it did the trick. They looked up, I snapped the photo, they stared at me for about 8 more seconds, then turned and trotted off in the opposite direction and in less than a minute were nowhere to be seen.

I really like the chunkiness of cows when I’m painting them. And their heads are kind of lumpy looking. And have you ever noticed how big their ears are compared to their heads? I wanted to keep this painting loose and chunky, like the cows.

Here are the work-in-progress photos, starting with a red underpainting:

At this point, the mouths were completely wrong (I think because I’ve been doing so many cat paintings lately ... they looked like cat mouths!) so I decided to wipe them and start over.

They were much more cow-esque the second time around!

Lesson one: Impressionism means impressionism.Lesson two: Embrace the wildness!

2011-05-31T13:53:00.004-05:00

Evening Reflections © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
11 x 14 x 3/4 inches • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection • sides painted dark umber
can be beautifully displayed with or without a frame

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Auction ends June 4

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day holiday yesterday. We had a quiet time around the house, and so I had a good, long stretch of time at the easel. Wonderful!

I don’t know if it was the leisurely big breakfast, or maybe the four-plus cups of coffee, but I managed to finish this one (which I had already made a start on) and another little one of the pear tree yesterday.

This painting is a late spring, just-before-sunset landscape painting of the pond just down the road from us. I used a painting knife on the foreground grasses, and brushwork on the tree and sky ... lots of color layers and fun texture ... and somewhat different from the way I started out to make this painting!

Here were the work-in-progress photos as of the beginning of yesterday’s work:

First, the acrylic underpainting, consisting of the initial sketch in indigo, and glazes of color in the different areas. Then, more glazes: yellow in the sky, red and fuschia over the horizon trees and their reflection, and the foreground grasses:

Now I started adding the oil colors, starting with the sky and its reflection:

I kept adding oil colors; what I didn't realize at this point was I was getting far too attached to my initial sketch, not allowing for any spontaneity at all ...

... so by the time I ended up with this, at the end of the day ...

... I did not like the way it was turning out AT ALL! As a result, I was in kind of a grumpy mood at dinner time. I said, “Well, it’s over. I’m a TERRIBLE artist. I’m going to have to figure out something ELSE to do.” At which point Paul just started laughing, and kidded me out of my crummy mood.

So the next day before I sat down at the easel, I took two of my art books, which I often use to get “unstuck,” off the shelf: California Impressionism by William H. Gerdts and Will South, and Painting the Impressionist Landscape by Lois Griffel. I browsed through these for about half an hour while I finished my morning coffee, studying the paintings in detail and coming to the realization that I had been trying to be too controlling in my approach, instead of balancing that control with some spontaneity, a MUST when trying to capture the untamed wildness of the landscape around here.

I don’t have any work-in-progress photos from today, because once I picked up the painting knife I just went to work and got lost in the process. I did stop once for a lunch break, at which time I studied what I had done so far and made a few changes in my head. Paul always laughs at me when I do this ... just staring trance-like at the painting propped up on the mantle while munching on my sandwich. Then after we finished our lunch I couldn’t wait to get right back to it until I finished an hour or so later. It was kind of funny, a whirlwind of painting right there at the end, and then, quite suddenly, I stopped and looked at the painting, put my knives and brushes down, wiped my hands, threw my arms up in the air like a rodeo contestant just finishing up roping a calf, and said aloud: "DONE!”

Which made me laugh.

Then, because I wasn’t quite ready to stop for the day ... those creative juices were still flowing ... I did another little one, of a couple of ripe pears on the pear tree out back (no, it’s not quite harvest time; I used a reference photo of last year’s pears.)

Anyway, my two lessons that I already knew but were reinforced during the execution of this painting are:

1) The root word of impressionism is impression. Keep it LOOSE! Let the viewer’s brain complete the work of seeing.

2) Especially when it comes to attempting to depict the rural landscape of Louisiana, don't try to tame the untameable (we already get enough of that trying to keep our yard in shape)!

Oh, by the way, below is a photo of the actual scene of this painting. As you can see, although we do have plenty of irises growing wild around here, there are no waterside lilies beside this pond in real life; those just sort of appeared during the painting process, like a little gift, and I went with it.

Now who would want to tame this?

Looking forward to pickin’ time ...

2011-05-30T22:21:00.000-05:00

In a Pear Tree © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 inches • oil on Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection

Click here to bid
Auction ends June 4

The pear tree in our back yard will be heavy laden with these ripe golden pears by summer’s end. They’re always so sweet and juicy; I can hardly wait ’til pickin’ time!

This afternoon when I finished the pond landscape I was working on, I wasn’t quite ready to wrap things up, painting-wise, so I did this little one, using the same color palette as the landscape. Fun to do some quick, loose brushwork after working on the color layering of the landscape.

Sorry, no work-in-progress photos on this, but I will divulge that I started with a bright red underpainting. You probably could have guessed that by looking closely at the edges of the pears and leaves!

Ever singing, march we onward

2011-05-28T21:52:00.004-05:00

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!

Joyful, Joyful © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • oil on 1/8" Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Georgetown, South Carolina

Late spring is the heyday for these red Asian lilies around here. I love these that are growing in big pots on our front patio, blooming to beat the band before their time on center stage is up and it’s time for them to take a back seat to the daisies, roses and marigolds that thrive in the summer months.

The title of today’s painting was inspired by the first verse of one of my all-time favorite hymns, which the author wrote to be set to the melody of Ode to Joy, from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Here’s the complete hymn:

(Click here to hear a contemporary version by Casting Crowns)

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

- HENRY VAN DYKE, 1852-1933

The Well-Read Cat

2011-05-27T09:43:00.006-05:00

5 x 7 • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Jacksonville, Florida

Here’s Ray, relaxing amongst a few of his favorite volumes: A Tale of Two Kitties, To Eat a Mockingbird, The Sound and the Furry, The Cat Is a Lonely Hunter, Tuna Lighthouse, and, of course, his favorite of all time ... *ahem* ... The Great Catsby.

(If these punny titles evoked a good-natured groan from you, my goal has been achieved. Maybe you all can come up with some more feline-friendly titles in the comments section.)

Hey, I just learned that Ray, although he is a bicolor cat, is technically not a tuxedo cat. He’s what is called a “cap-and-saddle” cat; his dark color is a cap on his head and a saddle across his back and tail. Well, I guess you DO learn something new every day. At least I do. Not only does Ray have a saddle, he has chaps, too, as you can see in this photo. He’s ready to ride!

And now, some work-in-progress photos:

First, the sketch in purple & burnt sienna acrylic, followed by an overall glaze of indigo blue.

Now, a yellow glaze on his eyes and the bookcase:

After the underapainting is dry, I start adding the oil colors. I know this is backwards or upside-down from the way we artists have been taught, but in a portrait, whether person or pet, I always start with the eyes, and get that detail completely done right off the bat, because if you get the eyes right, that’s a big chunk of the work already done. And this might sound kind of weird, but with the eyes bringing the painting to life at the start, it’s more fun for me to work on the rest of it.

Notice also that the eyes are almost never just mirror images of each other. Everyone’s right eye is different, even if only slightly, from their left. And because the eyeball is wet, it’s always going to have several different color reflections in it, and sometimes more than one highlight.

Now I paint the bookcase, leaving some of the greenish underpainting showing through to suggest the grain of the wood:

In the finished painting, below, you can see I’ve added a suggestion of highlights on the top front edge of each shelf, I painted the books and added color in the surface of the top shelf to suggest the reflection of the books. In the previous photo, notice how incomplete his face looks without any suggestion of whiskers or ear hair.

Now there’s the Ray I know and love!

Work-in-progress photosplus Bailey and the Pears,a comedy in three acts

2011-05-27T00:20:00.003-05:00

I almost forgot I was going to show the work-in-progress photos for this Pears on Stairs painting. Pears on Stairs ... sounds kinda like a Dr. Seuss book!

First I did a pencil sketch right on the Gessobord:

Next, I went over the sketch in purple acrylic,

and added some yellow in the pears ...

and more yellow in the lightest areas of the stairs.

Now, I add a red glaze over the whole painting,

turning the yellow areas orange-y.

Cool.

After the underpainting is dry,

I start adding the oil colors on Bailey’s head:

... and now start adding in the lightest areas of the stairs:

I add detail to the pears and start developing

the reflections in the surface of the stair:

I think the painting is just about finished ...

... but wait, something’s missing.

I add whiskers, and NOW it’s finished!

And now, an extra added bonus:

Bailey and the Pears, a comedy in three acts

ACT I: DISCOVERY

ACT II: CONFRONTATION

Oops!

ACT III: TRIUMPH

Any of you other yahoos wanna mess with me?

No?

Okay then. That’s what I thought.

I guess they know when they’ve met their match.