Faithful in every way.

Thirty minutes ago it was right at freezing outside, with the wind chill making it feel like 25°, and I was walking around the front yard with a teeny lantern, looking for an even teenier bottle of Old Holland Picture Varnish. Now I’m extremely grateful to be back inside with a steaming hot cup of cocoa, and for having the feeling creeping back into my toes.

Why was I walking around the yard at 11:00 at night in the freezing cold looking for picture varnish?

Okay, back up to 4:00 this afternoon. I was expecting a small box of art supplies to be delivered today, and in checking the tracking number on the FedEx website, I read that the package had been delivered and left at the front door. Hooray! I thought, as I headed downstairs to retrieve it. I opened the front door. No package there.

Maybe they left it next door, was my next thought, because neither of our houses which are right next to each other way out here in the country has a house number on it, and if it wasn’t our regular driver then our delivery may have gotten dropped off at our neighbors’, which is closer to the road. So I trekked over to their front porch in search of wayward art supplies.

Hmm. Not there, either.

Well, maybe they left it at the kitchen door.

So I walked back around to the back of our house and there encountered Roadie, having the best time, playing with some pieces of cardboard.

Hey, Roads!

 Whatcha got there?

 Uh-oh.

And no sign of the former contents in sight.

So I walked back around to the front and sure enough …

 … there under the oak tree on the pasture side of the house were the scattered items of my supply order.

I gathered them up and brought them in, and it wasn’t until I was going over the packing slip tonight after I got home from choir rehearsal that I realized the picture varnish that was in the package was still missing. And that little bottle, ounce for ounce, was NOT cheap.

Man.

So I bundled up again and headed out into the blackness with my teensy weency little lantern to see if I could find it and bring it in from the soon-to-be-below-freezing weather. I had to hold the lantern real close to the ground because it wasn’t giving out a whole lot of light, and I walked back and forth and back and forth under that oak tree but to no avail.

Then I decided to start in the middle of my search area and walk around in ever widening circles.

Nothing but leaves and twigs.

Finally, when I couldn’t feel my toes anymore and my face was so cold from the stinging wind that I couldn’t move my facial muscles I thought, well, I better go in. But because I truly believe that God cares about even my smallest concern, I prayed out loud: “Lord, You made all the stars and You call them by name. You know where that varnish is, and I think the only way I’m going to find it tonight is if You show it to me.”

As I turned around to make my way back to the house, I swung the lantern in a wide arc way out to the side, away from the place I had been looking based on where I had found all the other things in the package. Something caught and reflected the beam of light from the lantern, and that something turned out to be bubble wrap.

Which was wrapped around my little missing bottle of varnish.

Hallelujah.

Cat painting in progress

A dreary wintery rainy day -- just the kind of day that makes me want to curl up with a French vanilla coffee and a cozy mystery of the Agatha Christie kind. 

But a French vanilla coffee and a sleeping cat painting is the next best thing, and way more productive.

So I took this one down from the fireplace mantel where it’s been sitting since Christmas eve, set it on the easel, and sat looking at it for a while, sipping my hot coffee. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to go about depicting the texture of the cane chair back. I enlarged my reference photo on my computer to study the texture in extreme close-up. I walked across the room and studied the actual chair. I turned around and sat in the chair, sipping my coffee, closing my eyes and imagining that cane pattern. I walked back over to the easel and stared at the painting, sipping my coffee. I reminded myself that it’s impressionism, not photorealism, so I just need to suggest the pattern and the viewer will fill in the details from experience and know it’s a cane back chair without even giving it a second thought. I’m thinking that’s about when the caffeine started kicking in, because I suddenly knew just how to begin, and I jumped right in. Once I got going my painting time went so smoothly I could hardly believe it when I saw that it was time to stop. I feel like I’m getting the hang of this alla prima thing, and I’m incorporating it into the way I like to build up the color layers loosely over the deeply saturated colors of the underpainting. By the way, the blanket in the painting is a soft multicolored plaid with fringe, so tomorrow should be fun!

Untitled WORK-IN-PROGRESS

24 x 12 inches • oil on 2" deep cradled Gessobord

Another fauvalicious painting

Praise the Lord, my soul!

Praise the Lord, my soul!

All that is within me, the deepest of my being

Praise the Lord, my soul!

Everything that breathes,

All that eyes can see,

Giving testimony to His greatness only,

Bless the Lord, the Maker of all,

Only He is worthy!

With the angels we must fall to our knees.

Even the rocks cry out His name,

All creation sings His praise!

words & music by Dick and Melodie Tunney -- © 1993

SOLD

Around the Bend  © Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

10 x 8 inches • oil on GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

Here’s another of my paintings using the alla prima method. This is winding country road which runs alongside a bayou just up the road from us. Even though we’re not quite there yet, season-wise, I’ve chosen to paint the trees in all their springtime splendor. 

One thing I’m discovering about painting this way (wet-in-wet) is that in order to keep the colors from getting muddy I have to apply the paint thicker and do only one or two strokes at a time before wiping my brush. At first this slowed me down a bit, but once I got a rhythm going this one moved right along, and I LOVE the buttery feel of the thick paint going on!

Practicing Alla Prima

SOLD

Party of Five  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

private collection • Seminole, Florida

After doing some work on a larger daffodil painting this morning, I did this one this afternoon, based on a portion of the larger painting, with a little rearrangement. 

For the past three weeks I’ve been studying the paintings of contemporary master American artist Richard Schmid, and his alla prima (which essentially means “at first attempt”) method of painting, in which the goal is to finish the top layers before the first layers are dry. These paintings are usually completed in one or two sessions. And that means quickly capturing the essence of the scene and the details of the focal point, then quickly filling in the rest, so the non-essential elements are less finished, and sometimes left out altogether. I’m using these small paintings as little alla prima workouts, training myself to make quicker decisions about color and about what details are necessary to get the effect I want in the finished painting. (These are not technically alla prima, since I do let the vivid acrylic underpainting dry before starting with the oils. But I am trying to do them in one sitting!)

When I got to the end of today’s practice session, I felt like I had been holding my breath the whole time, and when I finished my signature I finally let it out. Whew! 

I can hardly wait to get back to the larger painting in the morning, and apply some of what I learned this afternoon in my alla prima workout.

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorites of Richard Schmid’s paintings:

Captain John’s House

 The Churchyard

 Nancy in Scotland

News and Tea

 Snow House

Glen Croe Farmhouse

 Vermont Spring

 Trumpet Man

Zorro

I find it very appealing that Mr. Schmid painted a cat. 

A cat named Zorro. Very cool.

Moustachio, cat of 1,000 expressions

Well, not really. He really has pretty much only one expression. 

And this is it.

 See? Here he is on the back porch on a beautiful afternoon just a couple of days ago, 

and here he is in a painting I did of him a couple of years ago. 

Same pose, including the back left foot sticking out just a little to the side and tail lying out behind him a little to the left. I think I mentioned it at the time, but one of the things that made me want to do that painting was that the table legs echoed so perfectly the shape of Moustachio’s legs. Sometimes it’s little visual quirks like that that get me going.

I’m still toying with the idea of doing a series called “Around the World with Moustachio,” with him in this exact same pose in each painting, but in a different setting. Moustachio at the Eiffel Tower, Moustachio along the Thames, Moustachio and the Great Pyramids, Moustachio on Easter Island, etc. 

It could be great fun.

Let there be daffodils!

SOLD

Sweet Distraction  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

private collection • Seminole, Florida

The daffodils aren’t blooming quite yet, but I just couldn’t wait to paint some!

Fauve-a-licious!

SOLD

Midwinter Hope  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

12 x 9 inches • oil on 3/4" cradled GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana