Jo and the Jo-ettes

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Entourage © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on Museum Series GessobordTM

private collection • Atlanta, Georgia

Here’s Jo, ensconced with a bright floral blanket and her (and my) favorite Laurel Burch kitty pillow. I used iridescent copper acrylic in parts of the underpainting, and let some of those areas on Jo’s fur and the background kitties show through the oil paints. Fun!

Here are my step-by-step progress photos. Check back for commentary Monday morning.

And for all you mothers out there …

Happy Mother’s Day!

A new Jo painting in progress ...

untitled work-in-progress • 6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

I’m letting the Dilly painting dry for a bit before I add some glazed colors. Meanwhile, here’s a new painting in progress: Jo posing in front of one of my Laurel Burch kitty pillows. You can’t tell from this photo, but this one has some iridescent copper accents in the underpainting, which I’ll let show through in the final version.

Happy painting!

Joyful surprises

WORK-IN-PROGRESS:

Dilly (commission) work-in-progress

8 x 10 inches • oil on GessobordTM

Here’s where I stopped on the Dilly painting today. 

See how the folds of the blanket in the foreground sorta kinda echo the flourishes on the pillows behind him? I would love to be able to say that I planned it that way, but in actuality I’m just now noticing it. I LOVE it when stuff like that happens!

I can hardly wait until tomorrow so I can continue …

Good night, all!

Inspiration

Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.

PABLO PICASSO

An artist must first of all respond to his subject, 

he must be filled with emotion toward that subject 

and then he must make his technique so sincere, 

so translucent that it may be forgotten, 

the value of the subject shining through it.

ROBERT HENRI

Just a reminder: The auction for this redbone coonhound painting ends tonight!

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King of Hearts © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" Gessobord
private collection • Poway, California

Just look at that face. Don’t you want to take him home? Hmmmm?

Sleeping dogs

 This morning when I went in to make the bed, this is what I found.

A little while later, after the bed was made …

 … I found this. Our dogs lead such a tough life.

Anyway, it put me right in the mood to tiptoe upstairs 

with my coffee and continue on the Dilly painting:

Shhhhh ….

Sweet dreams!

A new commission in progress ...

Dilly • WORK-IN-PROGRESS detail • 8 x 10 inches • oil on cradled GessobordTM

Here’s where I stopped on adorable Dilly today. Dilly lives in Solihull, England, and his proper name is Dylan, but his family call him Dilly.

As a matter of fact, I know very few dogs who are called by their proper name. Our Trixie, Andy, Roadie, Matilda, Sophie and Blue are perfect examples of this. Around here we call them Trixie-Gooz, Panda Man, Roads (or Rodeo), Tilda-Whirl, Sophalita, and Blue Man Chu. The only one of our dogs who mostly goes by his proper name is Buster, because, well, his proper name is already a nickname, on account of he used to bust out of the backyard gate every chance he could get when he was a youngster.

Anyway, back to Dilly. He has white fur with sunny highlights, fluffy feet and is an absolute joy to paint. Here are my work-in-progress photos so far.

I went over my initial sketch in burnt umber acrylic, then added a glaze of burnt umber to Dilly and phthalo blue to his comfy surroundings.

 Next I added a black glaze to the surroundings and a glaze of pink madder to Dilly ...

 … and then a layer of caput mortuum violet glaze to Dilly.

 Now, after the underpainting is completely dry (I went and did something else for twenty minutes or so) I start with the oil paints on Dilly’s face.

I’m sticking with mainly blues and oranges for this composition; here are the colors I chose for my palette:
Mars black
Old Delft blue
French ultramarine
Cerulean blue
Sheveningen green deep (similar to phthalo green)
Naples yellow
Sheveningen yellow medium (similar to cadmium yellow light)
Shev yellow deep (similar to cadmium yellow deep)
Cadmium yellow extra deep
Cadmium red orange
Vermilion
Brillian rose
Quinacrodone magenta
Mars orange red
Burnt sienna
Burnt umber
Mars black
Titanium white

There’s Dilly, slowly emerging from the underpainting ...

 … and here are his fluffy paws. My favorite part so far is his reddish nose, with that little dab of a highlight right on the tip.When you’re painting an animal with white fur, look extra hard for all those different colors which is the light colored fur reflecting the light bouncing off surrounding objects.

Happy Painting!

Monet’s Poppies revisited ...

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. 

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

SCOTT ADAMS

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 If Monet’s Poppies Were in My Garden  

© 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

16 x 20 • oil on cradled GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

I just realized I hadn’t yet posted the final version of this one which I did last fall.

So here it is -- prints available soon!