What floats your boat?

Rocks are inspiring, intriguing and mysterious. They sit around in the studio, I pick them up and listen to the sound of them hitting each other as I juggle a few in the palm of my hand. My fingers rub the smooth surface and wonder how I can make them part of the next painting.

I love the look of buttons in a jar. Some are big and flat, some are little and thick. 4 holes or 2 did they live on a shirt or a jacket? Did the little shiny white one live alone on the back of a little girl's dress?

The line up of spools waiting for their contents to be unwound and reshaped into who knows what.....

My brushes with evidence of washes past call to me. Some of the ferrels are getting rusty but it constrasts so nicely with the blue that doesn't want to let go.

The soft flowing paint that I pushed around with a knife now sits raised and stiff revealing itself after the grit of sandpaper brings back the ridges of color.




*Well, I tried to get creative with the layout and it didn't work, hence the weird spacing.

What's 24X24 And Purple?

What IS 24X24 and purple all over? A 24 by 24 gallery wrapped canvas with purple acrylic on it, of course! Actually it's really even more purple than the photo shows. It has mostly purple with some blue and this shows more blue.

What is it going to be? I'm not telling. You're going to have to watch this blog to find out.

Peace and Love to all,

Kelli

A Diamond Day

I thought I'd continue on the theme of nature photos just for the heck of it. Amazing Hubby and I went out one day with our cameras. We rode out to the west coast and just wandered around, shooting whatever.....

I spotted this heron sitting way up high in a tree and since I had my long lens on the camera I thought I'd try to capture him. I was tickled with what I got. I'm a painter, not a photographer so to be able to catch him taking off like this was great fun - gotta love technology.

That wing span is amazing! There were more shots in this sequence but I didn't want the post to drag on forever. I just picked a few of my favorites. This last shot is dark on the underside but for the others I loved being able to see the details of his feathers. Like my friend Jolene says - some days are diamonds. That's how I felt about that day.

Hope you're having fun and staying cool,

Peace,

Carlynne

Lovely Fish

These koi live in a pond in the Sherman Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA. The absolutely gorgeous photos were taken by Jim Webster, my sister Shelley's significant other. When my mother visits them in California as she did recently, they take her to all kinds of wonderful places, museums, gardens, national parks, as they do me, when I am there. I greatly appreciate both of them and I am the very happy beneficiary of the photos that Jim is so skilled at taking.

Several of my previous paintings have come from his photos. In fact the painting on the dedication page of our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop is from one of Jim's photos (and he is the owner of the original painting). He is the one who first introduced me to digital photography and gave me my very first digital camera. It is impossible to go back to film now.

Jim has an artist's sensibility for composing photos. He is just as likely to take a picture of moss and lichen as he is a flower. He is able to see the abstract designs that nature makes even though he is not a painter. When most people are on vacation, they take photos of the relatives in front of the Grand Canyon. Jim and I tell the relatives to get out of the way, so we can get a good shot.

Koi have been a popular subject for artists for years, possibly hundreds of years, and so have become very prosaic, but it's easy to see why they are a favorite. In these photos, the fish, which are fabulous by themselves, compete with abstract patterns of reflections on the water for attention. These photos will turn up in my paintings and maybe very soon. Thanks Jim.

Peace and creativity to all,

Kelli

No point to this post

There's really no point to this post except the lusciousness of paint! Some people think that's weird but I don't really care. I'm having fun today working in the studio and when I squeezed paint out onto the canvas it was just so beautiful I had to take a photo or two. Saturday afternoon painting and listening John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt..... it's a good day. :)

hope you're having a good weekend,

Peace,

Carlynne

It's all about the pictures

The 2 above are pieces in progress. I actually have 4 of these I'm working on this weekend. I haven't spent much time in the studio lately so this weekend is dedicated to painting. Today's post is all about the pictures. I think I used up all my words on the other blog. I started another blog because I felt the need to keep this one more about the art. The other one is about adoption and my experience as a first mother. So, if you want to see where all the words are they're here

Prairie Path

7x5

Oil Pastel

This one will go up in the Etsy shop soon.

Mosaic 8

8x8

Acrylic

Mosaic 7

8x8

Acrylic

These 2 acrylic abstracts were listed on Etsy today.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Peace,

Carlynne