Falling Back

October Evening © 2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
30 x 24 x 2 • acrylic on 2" cradled Gessobord


sides painted dark brown
gloss varnish for protection
& easy cleaning
unframed

$520 • PURCHASE this Louisiana landscape painting

I love this view of the north pasture, where a smallish pond has overflowed its banks because of the heavy rains we had all through October.

The daylight hours are getting a litter shorter every day now, and since I don’t like to paint by artificial light that leaves less time to paint. Added to the fact that this is a larger than usual painting, it took a little longer to finish, but oh, so fun to do! Lots of layered color glazes, and different textures. I used quick little brushstrokes and a lot of transparent glazing medium mixed with each of the colors (vermilion, cadmium yellow light, brilliant blue, fuschia, white -- layered on separately) to try to capture the radiance of the sky; and a painting knife for the heavy texture of the foreground grasses.

Here are some brushwork details, followed by the work-in-progress photos:

WORK-IN-PROGRESS photos:






In yesterday’s post you can see more detail on how I developed the foreground:

... and here again is the final painting:

Learn to be still ...

Morning Light by Karen Mathison Schmidt
16 x 20 • acrylic on cradled Gessobord

I’ve been working on a painting which is a surprise gift for someone who may or may not see this blog, so I can’t post it yet. But here’s one I finished in January for Acrylic Secrets. My step by step process for this painting is in the book.

From May of last year until about, um, November or so, on any given weekday we had various combinations of carpenters, roofers, electricians, plumbers, window installers and painters at our house starting at 7:00 a.m. Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturdays and holidays.

Whew!

And that was only for the exterior. And the places inside where there was water damage from a leaky roof.

One morning right after we had the new windows put in I was passing the doorway of this room upstairs where I had arranged a little place for my morning prayer and Bible reading, and I was struck by the beauty of the light streaming in, and how it was dancing around all the objects and spreading all across the floor in those interesting negative-space shapes. I had been searching and searching for a subject for my "interior/still life" project for the book, and here it was, a little oasis of stillness in the midst of all the renovation mess and chaos.

Whenever I look at this picture (which is now down in my parlor) it makes me think of how, as I strive to walk with Him daily, God gives me His peace, even in the midst of uncertainty and stress. A peace which truly “surpasses all comprehension.” What a precious gift!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

– Philippians 4:3-7

The book is here, the book is here!

Well, it’s not exactly here yet, but according to Amazon it has a release date of October 1. You can preorder here.

And even though I’m not the author; merely a contributing artist (I have two step-by-step projects in the book, as well as several other finished paintings) I’m quite excited about it.

It’s a new book by UK author/artist Gill Barron, the fairly famous Painter of Everything -- she’s well on her way to painting everything in the entire world, and doing a beautiful job of it, too.

Gill wanted the title of this book to be: Acrylic Secrets:
300 Tips & Techniques for Making Better Paintings.
But one of the downsides of working with a gigantic publisher like Reader’s Digest is that they usually get their way, so the title is: Acrylic Secrets: 300 Tips and Techniques for Painting the Easy Way.

The book was published in the UK and will be distributed in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

Congratulations, Gill!

And might I add: Woo-hoo!

Happy 4th of July!

Sunnyside Up ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Leonding, Austria

Another one from the sunflower patches in Gilliam, Louisiana. I usually don’t like depicting outdoor subjects at midday, in full sun ... like most artists, photographers and film makers, I prefer the “magic hours” of early morning, late afternoon or dusk, when the natural light and shadows are more dramatic and fleeting. But the color of these sunflowers against that summer sky was just irresistible!

This afternoon we’re going over to my parents’ for hamburgers and such. I had to break the news to the dogs this morning that we won’t be doing sparklers this year because of the drought. The pasture is really dry, and we certainly don’t want everything going up in smoke!

I gave them all a couple of extra Milkbones at lunch time to make up for it.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July, everyone!


Brushwork details:






Work-in-progress photos:

Enough is as good as a feast

Sunflower ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Arroyo Grande, California

Last Thursday I drove with my friends Sandra and Ramona to Gilliam, Louisiana (north of Shreveport ... if you get to Arkansas, you’ve gone too far), where the Sunflower Festival was to be held on that weekend. We were anticipating seeing acres and acres of sunflowers, as Sandra had remembered from a couple of years ago when driving through that area, so I had made sure to charge up my camera battery and pack some extra memory cards, and Sandra had even brought her laptop along in case we needed to download photos to make more room in our cameras.

Well, there must be more income in corn than sunflowers these days, because what we found was acres and acres of corn, with a few smallish patches of sunflowers tucked here and there. Oh, well, it was fun anyway, just spending the afternoon with good friends. Sandra and I spent almost an hour taking photos of one little patch of sunflowers, while Ramona just tried to stay cool in the shade and enjoy the view.

It’s probably just as well that there weren’t acres and acres of these sunny beauties, or else we might still be there!

Here are my work in progress photos:

The first sketch, in purple and vermilion:



Blocking in some shadow areas with purple, then a fuschia glaze over the entire painting:



Starting to add opaque color to the petals:




Filling in the sky with a mixture of cobalt and pthalo blues with some white, painting with energy, but loosely so that the fuschia underpainting shows through in places:



And here are some close-up details:

Ye Old Homestead

Homestead ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt

18 x 24 x 1 • acrylic on 1" cradled Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Trophy Club, Texas

We pass this house every time we drive into town. We used to think it was abandoned, but someone is keeping the little lawn mowed, then we found out it’s owned by the family that lives just across the highway from it. I think they use it for an office for their farm operation. I love the way it looks – a house with a little yard surrounded by giant pecan trees, right out there in the middle of the hayfields.

My idea for this one was for the focal point, the house, to be the most detailed part of the painting, with the foreground, the tall grasses that grow out by the highway, to be very impressionistic, almost abstract. I used brushes and painting knives on this, and layer upon layer of color to develop the wildness and texture of the foreground.

Here are some details:

A visual prayer

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

Isaiah 30:15

Dawn ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, North Attleboro, Massachusetts

I can’t believe I get to live here. I may talk bad about the hot, humid summer and the yucky bugs and snakes, but early in the morning when I’m out walking with the dogs and we get to see things like this ... well, it’s sort of like a visual prayer ... the earth quietly praising God ... I’m just so blessed to be a part of it all.

Oh, and I’ve discovered another favorite color: Old Delft Blue. Deep and rich, and slightly on the purple side. But not too much. Just enough.

Oops, I only took 3 work in progress photos! When I went to download them from my camera, I thought, is that all I took?

Well, here they are:

The initial sketch in a mixture of black and that Old Delft Blue



Blocking in the color areas.



Here I added a fuschia glaze to the sky and started adding color layers to define the land and the water. This is where I slipped into the zone and totally forgot to take any more progress pics. I’ll try to do better next time!


Oh, and somewhere along the line I changed the trees from May trees to February trees. Artist’s perogative.

Here are some close-up details: