Digging through the archives of my mind ...

Recently I was cleaning out one of the few closets we have in this old house, and discovered a box labeled “Office Stuff” that I never got around to unpacking. It contained various and sundry office items that I haven’t really missed over the last four years, plus some old sketches and some CD’s with pictures of paintings that I sold back when we lived in Long Beach, circa 2004-05. This drawing was one I did in a little sketch book I had way back when (the drawing has a tiny little “86” beside my signature ... that was ... let’s see ... *gasp!* -- 25 years ago!)

I sketched this woman while visiting an art festival in Houston. She was one of several artists who were doing pastel portraits there. Her hat caught my eye, and I really like the air of concentration about her pose. So I sketched her with a little pencil I had with me, and later I went back and darkened some of the lines with pen. I have no idea who she was but there was always something about this little drawing that I liked ... maybe the hat, maybe the folds of her skirt, maybe her attitude; I had torn the page out of my sketch book and put it in a little frame which I kept on a shelf in my home office.

I had forgotten all about this little piece, but when I found it the other day it was like opening a surprise little Christmas present. What fun! Now she’s unpacked and sitting on a table in the parlor, looking quite festive in her little red frame.

Isn’t it funny how looking at a piece of art we did years -- nay, decades! -- ago, we can sometimes still remember all the little surrounding details of the time we spent making that drawing, or that painting, or that collage, or that scrapbook page?

This roses painting was one I did about six years ago, when we lived in Long Beach, California, and now it lives in Puyallup, Washington. It was one of the first ones I did when I started getting serious about selling my art again, and it’s still one of my favorites. I had my easel set up in the cozy little living room of our tiny little duplex (because that’s where the best light was), on a warm afternoon with all the windows open. Bailey was stretched out on the coffee table. The doorway leading to the kitchen was on my left, and I remember painting this to the strains of Mariachi music wafting in on the breeze from a radio our next-door neighbors had sitting in their kitchen window. Not too loud, not intrusive, just right. But definitely Mariachi.

And now it’s time for me to get to work making another painting, which will remind me of this beautiful day with Ray snoozing on my desk, the sounds of the dogs barking at a squirrel in the distance, red day lilies blooming on the patio and my Gospel Folk music playing in the background. Thank You, God, for all these everyday blessings.

Have fun making memories with YOUR art today!

Feelin’ wild!

Windswept ©2011 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, San Antonio, Texas

I love watching the horses running out in the pasture across the road from us. I felt kind of wild today, and I wanted this painting to have a sense of freedom, so I just let loose with the color choices. My husband suggested the titles, Bad Hair Day, A Horse of a Different Color, Wild Thing or Auntie Em! Auntie Em! That last one, of course, is an allusion to the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz. I told him I would take all of these under advisement.

In the end I guess I got out all my wildness for today during the painting process, because when it came time to choose a title I went with a pretty tame one: Windswept.

Overnight Sensation

Irresistible Joy
6 x 6 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Puyallup, Washington

This morning when I went out to feed Mustachio the Cat (if you look closely you’ll get why we named him thus) I saw that the Asian lilies out in front had busted out in blooms practically overnight. So my choice of painting subject today was narrowed down to two: Mustachio or the lilies. As you can see, I went the floral route. Tomorrow will be Mustachio’s turn.

Four or five years ago I painted a large one of red day lilies entitled Inexpressible Joy. These days it lives in the home of an art lover in Puyallup, Washington, together with about a dozen more of my paintings (as well as the paintings of other artists, I’m sure!)

I almost named today’s painting Inexpressible Joy II, thinking I would start a series of red lilies akin to the Neighborhood Watch series in which I feature various pets gazing out windows. But at the last minute I changed it to Irresistible Joy. Maybe the next one will be Irrepressible Joy ... and then maybe indescribable ... then uncontainable ... then ... um ... well, I’ll think of something!

Sophie, Painting Star

SOLD

Sophie in the Garden of Delights   © 2011 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
8 x 8 inches  • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord
private collection • Poulsbo, Washington

A couple of posts ago I showed you the first painting I ever did of Sophie, when she was just a pup, and chock full o’ beans.



And the last time I had her in a painting, she was asleep in the middle of a four-dog pile-up:

That’s her, there in the middle.



In today’s new painting, she’s awake, solo, still full o’ beans, and thrilled to be the star of her own painting once again!

Shhhhhh .... no autographs, please. The star needs her beauty sleep!

more work-in-progress photos and notes on the doggie painting ...

Here’s where I stopped on this one today:

With a garden quilt hanging off the edge of the sofa, and a garden rug, I think I’m going to call this one Sophie in the Garden of Delights.

What a cutie!

Here are my work-in-progress photos so far:

First, the sketch in black acrylic. I put more detail than usual in this beginning stage, because I wanted to make sure the rug was interesting; it’s almost half the painting.

Next, acrylic glazes: green for the quilt, blue for Sophie (she’s predominantly orange-ish in real life, so I used the complementary color blue for her underpainting), and red for the rug.

Another layer of acrylic glazes: magenta over sophie and the rug, medium yellow over the quilt, turning it more green.

When the underpainting is dry, I can start with the oils. No rhyme or reason to where I started. I just dove in. On Sophie, I tried to discipline myself to make only one or two brushstrokes at a time, and then wiping and reloading the brush. Before I would make a stroke I made a conscious, deliberate decision where it would be, the direction it would be and the size and approximate shape it would be. This makes for cleaner color on the painting. You would think that painting this way takes out the spontaneity, but au contraire, mon frere – really it helps me keep the feeling loose. And the longer drying time of the oils lets me go in later and blend in select places.

Oh, by the way, doesn’t it look here like she’s wearing purple evening gloves? Hmmm ... maybe I should give her a diamond collar.

Nah.

Here’s a close-up of Sophie’s face at this point. Already a cutie!

I kept playing with the lines defining her eyes, until I got just the right Sophie expression. When I showed my husband the painting so far, he said I made her look way wiser than she really is. Well, maybe he’s right, and to tell the truth she really is full of beans most of the time, but every now and then she does give us this look that says, “You may think I’m silly, but who knows; I just may be a lot deeper than I let on.”

OK, now she’s not wearing the purple evening gloves any more. Notice that on the quilt and the rug, I’m letting the darker underpainting show through in places, giving the designs a slight outline, and adding to the illustration-y feel of the painting. I know, I know, some may not like that illustration-y feel, but I do! In some places, I added more outline, varying the thickness, like in a pen and ink drawing. And you don’t want to overdo the outlining. Adding it thicker in some places and not at all in others keeps things interesting!

And here’s where I was when I stopped today. I’m kind of excited to see what happens with the rug tomorrow!

Good night, all!

Tomato Trionow on auction!

Tomato Trio ©2010 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
4 x 4 • acrylic on Gessobord
©2010 Karen Mathison Schmidt
gloss varnish for UV protection and easy cleaning

Click here to bid

I’ve been keeping this one for myself since I painted it, because it’s just so cute and cheery it makes me smile, but I just decided to list it for auction on eBay.

As you can probably tell, I’ve decided to get serious about building up a presence on eBay, mainly for the worldwide audience. Some of eBay’s rules for sellers have changed since I first started selling my art there several years ago; it’s no longer an option for me to choose to pay more for my listings to jump to the top of the page they would normally be on in any given search by a buyer. This option will only be available to me after I achieve a feedback score of 100 or more, with 100% positive rating, then I have a chance to become a “Top-Rated Seller.”

So I’ve decided to plug away listing original art to build up a following there again ... and I may have to let a few pieces go at lower prices than usual for a while in order to achieve this goal ... but I’m confident that it will be totally worth it in the long run ... only time will tell!

Impressionist Oil Painting Kitty Cat Artby Louisiana Artist K M Schmidt

Just wanted to let everyone know I’ve just put this one of Ray on auction on eBay starting at $200 ... what a deal! And I always offer free shipping in the USA, of course.


You Blinked, I Win © 2010 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
14 x 11 • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord

SOLD
private collection • Leonding, Austria