Heeeeeeere’s Jo! (again)

Basketful o’ Jo  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on museum series GessobordTM

She’s finished!

>>> AND NOW A WARNING <<<

The following is a blatant marketing attempt. 

Wouldn’t a Limited Edition print look oh, so CUTE in your kitchen? Hmmmm?

What a coincidence! I just happen to have some available!

LIMITED EDITION 

on Ultrasmooth heavy museum-quality fine art paper, 12 x 12 inches

signed & numbered by the artist

$55

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

from my eBay store

Also available in 8 x 8 inches ($37.50)

and

16 x 16 inches ($100)

Live a quiet life & work with your hands

I THESSALONIANS 4:11

Basketful O’ Jo (revisited) WORK-IN-PROGRESS

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

After doing some more work on the large daffodil painting, I started working my way down from top to bottom on this one; I had just staked out my highlights on the basket when today’s light started fading. Along towards twilight when the natural light was too dim to see colors clearly, I flipped on the light switch and moved on to sketches for two new paintings so I’ll be ready to go on those as soon as this joyful one is finished.

A beautifully quiet day, filled with work I love to do.

Speaking of working with our hands, I recently discovered the work of lettering artist Dana Tanamachi (the image on the left is one of her posters available here). 

On her website, Dana is introduced as “a Texas-bred, Brooklyn-based graphic designer and letterer who enjoys living a quiet life and working with her hands.” 

She does a lot of work with chalk -- these time-lapse videos of her working that she has on her website are really cool.

I love the “FLOURISH” video she has on her home page. My favorite part is when she’s sitting in the chair contemplating the wall she is about to work on, and then she stands up and touches her hand to the blank wall. I LOVE that! I sometimes do that with a blank board that I’m about to paint. Just run the palm of my hand across it ever so lightly. I don’t know why. 

I love that precious moment right after the determination that it’s time to begin, and just before the first mark is made on the surface. Anything can happen.

And it usually does.

Painting déja vu

Basketful O’ Jo (revisited) WORK-IN-PROGRESS

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

Remember this one from December? It was purchased as a Christmas gift for the buyer’s wife, but in the short trip from here to Richardson, Texas, it was damaged. He went ahead and gave it for Christmas, then returned it to me for repair.

In all the years I’ve been shipping paintings, I’ve never had a problem with them being damaged in transit until this past year, when I had two paintings returned to me for repair. The first one I was able to fix like new, no problem, and its new owner is very happy with it. This one, however, is being very stubborn about being glued to a second board for support, and just won’t stick, in spite of my trying several different adhesives -- maybe because of the cold or the humidity. Anyway, the very understanding new owner and I have agreed on my repainting the subject.

Once I knew I would be painting a new Basketful O’ Jo, I had the choice of:

A) trying to copy my first painting, or
B) putting that one out of sight and just starting again from my reference photo.

I thought option B would be the better choice. Mostly I was kind of curious to see how much difference there would turn out to be between the old painting and the new. One basic thing I’ve done differently is the underpainting: the first time I did the entire underpainting in glazes of phthalo blue and Prussian blue; and for this second painting I used vivid Naphthol red for the area which will be the green wall on the left and the bunch of flowers nestled in the basket behind Jo. I still used the phthalo blue everywhere else, adding just a touch of green to Jo and a glaze of the red to the door, making it a luscious purple. I can hardly wait to see how my Santa Fé blue door looks over that!

When I came to my stopping point today I put the paintings side by side and I must say I like the new one much better so far. (Whew!)

I’m still not quite finished with Jo’s face, and it may be my imagination, but I think she looks a touch less grumpy at having her nap interrupted.

Daffodil time!

A house with daffodils is a house lit up, 

whether or no the sun be shining outside.

A. A. MILNE

Debutantes WORK-IN-PROGRESS • 12 x 36 inches • oil on GessobordTM

Still working on  the Fringe Benefits cat painting work-in-progress slide show. Meanwhile, here’s a sneak peek at my new daffodil painting in progress.

Love those sunny blooms against that purple underpainting!

Daffodil time is just about my favorite time of year. I really enjoy this last stretch of winter when fewer and fewer frosty days are scattered among more and more springlike days, and before mosquitoes take over for the summer. Over the last few years it’s become kind of a tradition that the first jonquil bouquet of the season goes to my friend Connie, so this one went to her last night. Sweet!

Finished!

Fringe Benefits  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt, Artist

24 x 12  x 2 inches • oil on archival, museum quality 2" deep cradled GessobordTM

painting will be finished with a gloss varnish for UV protection

sides painted dark umber • cradling allows for hanging flush against the wall

can be beautifully displayed with or without a frame

$625 + shipping

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

from my eBay store

Approaching the finish line ...

A painting is never finished. 

It simply stops in an interesting place.

PAUL GARDNER

Untitled WORK-IN-PROGRESS

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

Well, I’m still working on preparing step-by-step photos of this one to show with explanation of what I did in each one, and I’m also working on putting together a slide show with music. I haven’t ever done that before but it’s turning out to be really fun.

At least here’s the last photo so far -- only a bit more painting time needed to finish, then I’ll have to come up with a title!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It’s been a LOVELY Valentine’s Day here at Edgewood, including date night with my hubby. Both his and my love language is pizza so guess what we had for dinner.

And our other love language is chocolate chip cookies, so guess what we had for dessert.

The dogs and cats had a lovely day as well, with plenty of romping and napping in the sunshine. They’re all sacked out for the night now, but before he would go to bed Roadie wanted to finish making this valentine for his foster mom, who took him in and took the best care of him while she searched and searched for a forever home for him.
Which turned out to be here with us. And we are really happy about that.
Thank you, Kelly, for bringing us Roadie!