Things that make you go, “Awwwww!”

Concerns WORK-IN-PROGRESS

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

Sophie’s face is one of those things. Everyone who meets her for the first time almost involuntarily has to say, “Awwwwww!” because her expression is always full of concern, and she’s so aggressively affectionate. Here she is all grown up; hard to believe she and Blue will be senior dogs (seven years old) next year. Seems like just yesterday that Sophie was just a Puppy of Concerns.

Okay, all together now: 

“Awwwww!”

Midnight painting gone fauve

SOLD

Coffee, Tea or Me  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" GessobordTM

private collection • Salem, Oregon

Another alla prima painting; I’ve been trying to train myself not to be so nit-picky by giving myself a goal of finishing all in one sitting – well, not counting taking time out for dinner, that is. This means also learning to see more clearly, to simplify and make quicker color decisions. This one was mega fun, with all Bailey’s beautiful markings. Some of you who have been following me for a while will remember that Bailey is no longer with us, but I’ve got hundreds of photos of her that are a remembrance and continuing inspiration for fauvalistic paintings like this one!

I’ve also been continuing work on the larger daffodil painting … I’ll be showing that one again when it’s finished.

Later, taters!

A midnight painting

SOLD

A Study in Ray and Purple  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 • oil on 1/8" GessobordTM

private collection • Seminole, Florida 

Here’s Ray in his favorite spot with MY favorite sweater. This is another alla prima study (after studying the paintings of Richard Schmid); I’m going to try to do more of these small studies every week, in addition to the larger paintings I’m working on. 

We were away from home most of the day today but after we got home I wasn’t tired at all so I decided to see if I could paint this one in one sitting, which I did. And now I have stayed up WAY too late, so good-night, all!

Daffodils on parade

I found I could say things with color and shapes 

that I couldn’t say any other way – 

things I had no words for.”

GEORGIA O’KEEFE

SOLD

Debs  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" GessobordTM
private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

After working on the big painting today I felt like I needed to paint something quick and loose to wind down a little, so as this beautiful warm spring day was coming to an end (and thunderstorms started moving in!) I did this one by rearranging some blossoms from the large painting into a little composition of their own. Starting with a gessobord painted with phthalo blue acrylic, I dove right in without a sketch AND without my glasses, just to see what would happen.

Fun happened. This painting happened. Hallelujah.

Back to the easel!

Well, I really only intended to take a couple of days for some spring cleaning, but once I got started one thing led to another and it ended up being two weeks!

Once I did some real world sprucing up around the house (our bedroom and living room look absolutely FAB-ulous by the way, and I can actually see the floorboards in the laundry room again), that inspired me to do a little virtual freshening up of my eBay store, blog header art, and website.

As much as I love doing graphic design, I started missing the smell of oil paints, stand oil and turpenoid (no kidding: unlike turpentine, I find the citrusy scent of nontoxic Turpenoid Natural actually kind of pleasant), so this afternoon I was glad to get back to the easel for an hour or two to continue the daffodil painting. What a joy!

New friends …

One of the things I love best about what I do is getting acquainted with new friends from all over who are creating their own art.

Like Mary Jane Peabody of Wilmot, New Hampshire, who makes beautiful handcrafted rugs, each a one-of-a-kind piece of art. On her website she says, “Making rugs to me is about transformation - from wool and linen to something new which carries my own creative spirit in its pieces.” You can see her online gallery here.

From time to time Mary Jane likes to feature the work of other artists in her blog. In today’s post she shared some of mine. Thanks so much, Mary Jane!

In another recent blog post, “A Great Challenge,” Mary Jane shared that she and her eleven-member rug hooking group are starting a new “challenge,” in which each member brings in a half-yard of wool of their choice, then they all take a piece of each home and create a rug using all the pieces. The photo above shows the eleven pieces to be used in the challenge.

When I saw her blog post about it, I told Mary Jane that I would like to join the challenge, too, only in paint! I’m hatching an idea for a composition using all these colors and patterns; it IS a challenge, but it’s really got my creative juices going!

Emerging daffodils

WORK IN PROGRESS

Debutantes WORK-IN-PROGRESS detail

12 x 36 inches • oil on 2" deep cradled GessobordTM

Here’s the daffodil painting so far. Mmmmm, love those purples!

And here’s my palette:

Almost looks like an abstract daffodil painting itself!

Happy Painting!