A Long Winter’s Nap times four

Oh, well.

I didn’t REALLY want to sit on the sofa anyway.

          

Woosh!

That’s the sound I imagine when I think of how fast time is going by. November already!

This past summer my husband Paul and I embarked on a new adventure known to quite a few of you as “Downsizing,” getting rid of unneeded and little used possessions and moving out of a way-too-big-for-us living space. Now we are nearing our goal of passing along our rambling circa 1872 plantation home to a new family excited and eager to begin taking over the project of renewing and restoring this beautiful old house.

“Where are you going?” you may ask, “And what about the dogs and cats?”

We will be moving very soon just a few minutes farther away from Shreveport, to a little house on 35 acres (mostly woods, with plenty of running around room for the dogs) with a pond I’m sure Roadie will love, and a little used “jeep road” that runs down through the woods to the next property.

And even though we’re downsizing, we still have a heart for old houses; so our new little project is circa 1910-20 or so, and needs a LOT of work, but it’s small, so very do-able for us. It was a fun challenge to plan how to utilize to the fullest every square inch of the under-1000-square-foot farmhouse, but I’m pretty excited about the big room with north-facing windows we’ve designated as my studio/workshop space -- AKA the “cat suite” where Jo and Pontoufle will take up residence and continue in their duties as studio cats. The other big front room will be Paul’s office/music studio and will also serve as our “winding down” space, or family room, complete with fireplace. Then we have our bedroom and bath, kitchen, and laundry room. What we will end up with is basically all the rooms we use in our house now, without all the extraneous unused space. Oh, and Moustachio will also continue in his position as King of the Front Porch and All He Surveys.

The one room we won’t have that I think I’ll really miss is the sunporch, but I really am looking forward to the coziness of our new place. I’ve already been taking lots of  “before” pics, and will continue documenting with photos as we move in and work on the house.

In addition to painting walls, I’ll be doing plenty of painting pictures, too, so keep checking in!

Blast from the past or, It’s springtime somewhere!

A quote for all my friends south of the equator, where spring is in full swing:

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

“Winter is dead.”

– A. A. MILNE, When We Were Very Young

SOLD

Debutantes © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

12 x 36 x 2 inches • oil on museum quality, archival GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

This is one of the paintings I had on display at the Red River Revel a couple of weeks ago, a picture of the daffodils gracing our front yard last spring. As we were preparing to hang it, I accidentally dropped it, damaging the top left and bottom left corners EVER so slightly.

Man.

Oh well, accidents will happen. And you can hardly notice the damage, which could be easily and completely hidden by framing.

But still, I’m putting it in my eBay store at half price -- what a deal!

I'm back … with a new cat painting, even!

SOLD

On the Edge  © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

8 x 8 x 3/4 inches • oil on Museum Series cradled GessobordTM

private collection • Alger, Michigan

The Red River Revel arts festival last week was wonderful and I’ll be sharing photos soon. Meanwhile, here’s a new painting of Jo I did today. I used a palette of vibrant and earthy fall colors for this fun painting, and working on it with all the windows open to this afternoon’s cool autumn breeze was an absolute joy.

Sunset walk and a scary dog

As Roadie, Trixie and I set out for a walk after supper, I thought that we might have started too late for me to get any good pictures, because the light was too low.

 Hmmm.

 Maybe I thought wrong.

Love our southern red dirt. When I was a kid we lived for several years in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where my Dad was stationed. The earth up there was black as coal. I remember whenever we went on family vacations down south, when we started seeing the red dirt we knew we were getting close to Grandma’s house!

Roadie loves to go swimming in this little watering hole out in the pasture.

 Hey Mom, wanna see my imitation of the Loch Ness monster?

Okay, are ya watchin’? Here I go!

Ooooo, scary, kids!

Who’s on first?

Untitled WORK-IN-PROGRESS • 6 x 24 • oil on cradled GessobordTM

This one is an exercise in spontaneity. Is that an oxymoron? 

I mean, is it possible to actually practice spontaneity? or does it just happen? 

Is it possible to plan to be spontaneous in your choices? or does the very fact that you say ahead of time: “I’m going to try to be more spontaneous with my decisions in this painting” rule out spontaneity altogether right at the outset?

Hmm.

Man. Thinking about this is blowing my mind a little. I think it’s time for a little winding down time with my husband and a good old movie.

Happy spontaneity practicing!

Because it was there

Studio Chair  © Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" archival, museum quality GessobordTM

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Here’s my obligatory Still Life with Art Supplies. Including tubes of paint, a paint-smudged wiping rag, and my Chicago Art Institute souvenir mug filled with paint brushes. All seemingly casually arranged on one of my favorite antique green painted wooden chairs.

Okay, now that I got THAT out of my system, I can get back to the landscapes I’ve been working on!

Oh, hey, here’s another painting from days gone by in which this very same chair makes an appearance, although not quite so prominently:

Neighborhood Watch IV: Bailey Sees All  ©2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

Limited Edition prints of this one are available here on my website.

Happy Painting!