Original “Birdwatching” painting now available for purchase

SOLD

Birdwatching © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
18 x 24 • acrylic on 3/4" cradled Gessobord

private collection • Stamford, Connecticut

I’m honored to be one of several contributing artists in a book on painting techniques by UK author/artist Gill Barron. Several of my finished paintings are used as illustrations; I’ve decided to make my ORIGINAL “Birdwatching” tabby cat painting, which is one of two multi-page step-by-step projects I have in the book, available for purchase in my eBay store.

The step-by-step demo for this painting, along with a full-page image of the finished piece, appear in the book, entitled Acrylic Secrets: 300 Tips and Techniques for Painting the Easy Way, distributed by Reader’s Digest world-wide. You can find a link to the book on Amazon in the sidebar to the right.

I just received an email a couple of days ago from an artist in Barcelona, Spain, who contacted me after she saw my illustrations in the book, which she had checked out of her local library ... just one of the many friendly people I have met through my art. What fun!

A new Neighborhood Watch painting ...

Neighborhood Watch IV: Bailey Sees All ©2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Leonding, Austria

Here’s Bailey, awash in morning sunlight, keeping tabs on goings-on outside as she plans her day. I guess this is her version of coffee and a donut with the morning newspaper.

When I started this painting today, I consciously decided to try to depict the scene with as simple shapes and few brushstrokes as possible, while still capturing the feeling of the moment, and especially the morning light.

The main thing that drew me to take this photo was Bailey’s pose. There’s something about the shape of a sitting cat, the combination of curves and angles, that really appeals to me.

Hey, one thing I’ve been noticing is that after the completion of the underpainting, if I’m continuing the painting in oils I tend to want to work from light to dark, adding the lighter, whiter colors first and working my way to dark, whereas when I use acrylics I do just the opposite. I’m not sure why, I’ll have to ruminate on that some.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for ... the work-in-progress photos!

First the sketch in acrylic: purple and burnt sienna:

I then put a yellow glaze over Bailey and all the lightest areas of the painting, then an overall glaze of my favorite red: Old Holland New Masters Naphthol Red Medium. ( I must have skipped this photo!) Next, after the underpainting is dry, I start adding the oil colors. My preference is lightest areas first.

In the final photo, below, you can see I purposely kept the brushstrokes on the wall super loose because I wanted more of that intense red underpainting to show through.

When I think the painting is almost finished, I study it to see where I want to put finishing touches. Just a few, being careful not to overdo it. In this case I added just a touch of pure yellow at the bottom of the window frame, some lighter green toward the bottom of the chair slats, and a few touches of intense white along Bailey’s front, and on the very tips of her ears. 

“OK,” I tell myself, “stop! Zee painting, she is finished.” (This last must be said out loud, with an overdone French accent.) 

*smile*

Senior-rita Trixie

The Scenic Route ©2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
11 x 14 inches • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Captain Cook, Hawaii

After I finished this new country road painting, I was going to get started on a new one, featuring these irises I photographed at the American Rose Center. But I had to stop and take Trixie to the vet because she suddenly seemed to be having a hard time walking, and didn’t want to hop up onto the sofa in the parlor, her favorite napping place.

We found out it’s nothing serious ... she’s having some back pain because she just pulled something in her lower back, probably while playing with Andy this morning, wheeling and darting and showing off all her herding moves. She just has to take it easy for a few days.

I hated to break it to her, but Trixie’s just not as young as she used to be. The vet noticed in her charts that she just turned seven, which makes her a senior dog now.

Trixie says that makes all our other dogs mere sophomores.

Rising to the Cat & Caboodle Challenge

Wide-Eyed Wonder Kitty © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt

5 x 7 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Stamford, Connecticut

This painting was my response to this week’s Daily Paintworks Cat and Caboodle Challenge submitted by Dreama Tolle Perry. Thanks to Dreama for providing a subject with such a sweet face!

Here are some of my work-in-progress photos:

First, the initial sketch in purple acrylic -- I think she has too much of a smile, but I’ll fix that later.

A glaze of  turquoise in the background area ...

... then, a yellow glaze over the cat ...

...and a red glaze over the cat, except for the eyes!

After the acrylic underpainting is completely dry, I start adding the oils, 

starting with the eyes and working my way outward.

Here I’ve started toning down her smile a bit:

Here I’ve started adding in the background, loosely, 

so the green underpainting shows through in places:

In the final painting you can see I did away with the yellow-gold circles 

in the sofa fabric. I thought they were too busy; 

they took too much attention away from this sweet kitty face.

And you can see also how I toned down her smile, 

giving her more of an air of concentration.

Gotta dance!

Today when I got up I couldn’t wait to get started on this next country road painting. Above is a photo of the actual road which inspired my last piece and this next one. I spent a lovely early morning painting, and got the underpainting finished before breakfast. After a leisurely breakfast with Paul, I cleaned up a bit and went to town to have lunch with two girlfriends I haven’t visited with for a while, and then we went back to the home of one of them and started playing her Wii ... the Broadway Dance game. What a workout, and what a blast! There we were, the three of us middle age ladies in a dance line, trying our best to keep up with all the right moves, and laughing our heads off. Two hours went by before we knew it, and it was time for me to go home.

I had so much fun, now I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to get a Wii.

And sorry, no pictures of me dancing, but here’s a cool picture of my water bowl after I swirled my paint brush in it for the first time this morning. This is how the paint settled at the bottom of the flat-bottomed bowl:

It looks to me like either something you’d find in outer space or at the bottom of the deep blue sea. Cool, huh?

Love me a country road ...

Sunday Drive  © 2011 by Karen Mathison Schmidt

12 x 12 • oil on 3/4" cradled Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Greenland, New Hampshire

Driving home from town, we sometimes take this smaller road that parallels the highway. It takes us under a canopy of trees which almost meet overhead in places, with that fantastical dappled sunlight I love ... it may take a few minutes longer for the detour, but it’s totally worth it.

I did manage to take some work-in-progress photos today before I got sucked into “the zone.”

I started by painting the entire Gessobord with a neutral light green acrylic ... almost beige, then I sketched the composition in purple acrylic:

I finished up the acrylic underpainting with red, orange and purple:

After a few minutes to let the acrylic underpainting dry completely (just about the time it takes me to change my palette from acrylic paints to oils) I started adding the oil colors:

OK, here’s where I entered “The Zone,” so there are a few steps missing in here, and then ...

the painting, she is finished!

Retirement Rocks!

Free Indeed • ©2011 by Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Hamden, Connecticut

Here’s Ed, knee deep in wild grasses in the pasture across the road. He’s retired, and loving it ... now he gets to frolic with the butterflies all day long. Who says getting put out to pasture is a bad thing?


I had a little fun with the foreground on this one. I used iridescent copper in the grasses, with some calligraphic markings made with my paintbrush handle. Don’t try to make them mean anything ... they’re pure gibberish, just for fun. If you look closely, you’ll also see iridescent gold in that horsey tail. Hard to see in the photo, but oh so cool in person.

Here are some brushwork details: