The Last Pecans ... at last!

The Last Pecans ©2010 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
30 x 24 x 2 • acrylic on 2" cradled Gessobord
sides painted burnt umber • unframed
gloss varnish

SOLD

Here’s a large painting of my Dad walking back to the house after squeezing a couple more buckets full of pecans from the trees in the south pasture a few weeks ago.

I love working on larger boards, even though it takes a little longer. It’s easy to overwork a large painting, though. I keep having to remind myself to keep it loose!

This one has lots of color layers, especially in the foreground, where I used a combination of palette knife and brushes.

Here are some brushwork details:

OK, now back to work!

20 x 16 x 1 • acrylic on cradled Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Placitas, New Mexico

These black-eyed susans grow wild, along with the honeysuckle and morning glories, just about everywhere around here in the summer. I love ’em! For this painting I started out with a blending of images from two different locations; one less than a mile from our place,


and the other a few miles farther north. (I flipped the road around for my composition.)


My number one rule when I start a new painting is: Don’t skimp on the amount of time you spend on planning the composition. Sometimes I go a little overboard on this, but it’s really, really difficult to get a strong painting out of a weak composition. Some artists can do their composing as they go, but I am definitely NOT one of those artists. I really have to decide on my subject arrangement right at the beginning.

Which is not to say that I consider the initial arrangement set in stone or anything; I mean, you have to be flexible as you go. You never know when the painting might take on a life of its own and some element of the composition will practically demand to be changed.

Mostly what happens to me, though, is that the color and light change as I go, and I’ll accidentally do something and go, “oh no ... oh, cool ... I think I’ll keep that." I love it when that happens.

A few years ago I spent some time with the local art council teaching kids to paint after school, and I wrote down some of the things they would say about making art. One of my favorites: "I didn’t mean for that part to look like that, but I think it’s kind of cool, so I’m gonna let it stay that way.”

Here are some close-up details of today’s painting:

Vivid!

untitled painting in progress
18 x 24 x 1 • acrylic on cradled gessobord


So here’s the underpainting for my new one. It feels so great to get back to painting again!

Gotta run ... I’m trying a new catfish recipe tonight for dinner, and I better get cookin’.

I’ll let you know how it comes out.

Impressionist Expressions of Abstract Realism

Summer Stream (Yosemite) ©2005 Karen Mathison Schmidt
9 x 12 • acrylic on board
private collection • Kingman, Arizona

I was recently invited by Kimberly Conrad to join Daily Painters Abstract Gallery. Thanks, Kimberly!

Even though my work is representational, Kimberly says they are trying to show a variety of different art styles there, and I’m very honored to be included. Anyway, I think impressionist and expressionist painting involves elements of the abstract. I’ve heard it said of John Singer Sargent’s paintings that at 12 inches they’re impressionism, at 12 feet they’re realism.

Dare I take that a step further and say at 1/4 inch they’re abstract? Yes! (This is strictly my own personal thinking and has absolutely no basis in scientific research, public opinion poll or established art philosophy of any kind. It’s just me.)

Anyhoo.

The painting I’ve shown above is one from a few years back. 2005 to be exact. As you can see, that was before I changed my signature to include my newly married name. (I spent a long time on that decision, but I decided to change my signature to honor my husband, and I’m glad I did. It’s not like I was a worldwide famous artist or anything. Yet!) Also, this painting is from a period when I had banished black from my palette. But that’s a subject for a whole ’nother post.

I am working on a new larger painting which I’ll post progress on tomorrow, but right now I’m headed up to the hospital where my hubby is fighting a staph infection and facing surgery to remove it. We’re thanking God this morning that it looks like the surgery is not going to be as extensive as the surgeon had at first thought it might have to be. It’s all very complicated because of his diabetes and his weight. Right now Paul (I love this picture) is just hanging out watching tv with an IV of antibiotics pumping into his arm. I brought him his guitar last night, but I forgot the picks, so I’m taking those with me today ... then we can be hanging out watching tv with him playing the guitar while an IV pumps antibiotics into his arm, while we wait to find out when the surgery will be. Maybe I’ll take the Deluxe Scrabble Game up there, too.

Anyhoo.

All this just to let you know that posting may be sporadic for a few days.

Meanwhile, check out the daily painters at the Daily Painters Abstract Gallery. There’s some really cool stuff there.


One Hip Cat ©2006 Karen Mathison Schmidt
16x20 • oil on board • not for sale!

The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:5-8

Fresh off the easel ...

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.

Psalm 119:105

Reflection ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
11 x 14 x 1 • acrylic on 1" cradled Gessobord
sides painted dark umber
SOLD • private collection, Point Richmond, California

(see yesterday’s post for work-in-progress photos)

A while back I went with a photog friend of mine to the expansive gardens at Norton Art Gallery here in Shreveport, to take pictures and generally enjoy a perfect spring morning in these beautiful surroundings. When I rounded a curve in the path I was walking, I spotted this young woman seated on the steps near a decorative wrought iron bench beside the reflecting pool. Although there were quite a few people in the gardens that day - a couple of young women getting their bridal photos made, moms with kids, people exercise walking - she had found a secluded spot and was totally engrossed in her book, seemingly oblivious to all the rest of us.

When I was first planning the composition, I cropped this square, but then I decided that a tall orientation would better show the majesty of the garden surrounding this simple figure. The Japanese maple on the right, the girl’s top and her reflection in the pool gave me more opportunities to use my new favorite paint color, Old Holland New Masters Naphthol Red Medium ... yum!

Here are some close-up details:

Dark and Wild and Daring and Mysterious!

Dark Bayou ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
12 x 12 x 1 inch deep • acrylic on cradled Gessobord • sold unframed
SOLD • private collection, North Attleboro, Massachusetts

I love the tangled wildness of this one. At least I felt kind of wild and daring while I was painting it.

We’re fast approaching that time of year when the twilight just lingers and lingers long after the sun has actually dipped below the horizon. This is a bayou about a half mile from our place, at that time of day just before total darkness, when shadows are deep and rich and mysterious, and it feels good to know that just a few minutes’ walk will get my wild and daring self and our wild and daring dogs safely back to husband, home and hearth!

I used a lot of glazing on this one, and some palette knife action that made for some interesting texture. Here are a few close-up details ... wild!

Anticipating dogwoods in bloom ...

Dogwood ©2004 Karen Mathison Schmidt
24 x 18 • acrylic on masonite
NFS

Well, only 11 more days 'til spring is officially here. The dogwoods are not quite in full bloom yet, but I so look forward to them every year. I love the white ones. Here's a painting I did several years ago of one of my favorites, growing in the beautifully landscaped gardens of the Norton Art Gallery in town. This link may take a long time to come up, but it's worth it to see the panorama of azaleas, which will start blooming in just a week or two, I think!

The background of this painting (everything except the white blooms) is entirely made up of layers of transparent color glazes, which has the effect of making even the darkest areas look luminous.