Category Archives: Commentary

Peonies and the Rite of Spring

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Every spring, I eagerly, no, greedily! count the buds on the peony. I cluck over them like a mother hen, and make sure the ants are on the buds doing their job.

I’m not sure what they’re job is, but I believe it’s a symbiotic relationship where the ant gets the nectar, and the bud gets it’s outer shell released and let’s the flower spring free.

This peony is an old-fashioned with none of those super strong stems, so as happens around spring time, the flowers weigh down the stems and give me an excuse to cut them. Wouldn’t want them dragging their pristine petals in the mud!

I photograph them fresh, old and withered. Their scent is sweet from first opening until the very end. I only have them for a few days, but they stay safe in my memory all year.

What flower is your epitomy of spring?

I lost my Orvis fly-tying glue

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It’s somewhere.  I distinctly remember relocating it several times during the post-holiday recovery so as “not to lose it”.  But, alas, it’s gone.  Knowing me, I put that small precious bottle someplace that made sense.  I did NOT, however, put it with my glues.   Might be why I can’t find it.

In the meantime, enjoy this visual.  It’s the cover of my book.  It consists of a set of 6 linocut hand-pulled prints and a story of a fish and summer in the Carolinas.   I’ve printed enough to make 6 books and I’m selling them for $115 each.   If you’d like one, send me a note, or give me a call.

Color and Control, Yes you can!!!!

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I hope the weekend was good for you all and that your hearts and minds are full with the winter beauty around us. I have finally filled up the 1 Terabyte drive in my iMac, and am doomed to doing some disk maintenance.

The good thing about it is that I have plenty of time to think and ponder and re-acquaint myself with my old images and stuff.

I have mentioned color charts in the past, and I’m attaching 2 charts that are of Paynes Gray by itself and mixed with my other palette colors. This is equally applicable to watercolor, except that to get the lighter values, you add water to dilute the pure pigment as opposed to adding white. Every other step is the same.

All of us can do with a bit of charting. Having the paints, and knowing how to use them are not the same thing. A way to improve your painting quickly is to know what your colors look like when mixed with each other.

The first chart is in color. The second version is a black and white photograph. It’s easy to see where the values aren’t equal and where my skill needs a bit of practice.

The mixes that jump out are Paynes with CYL, AC, XOR and VG in the middle value row.

CYL: Cad Yellow Light
AC: Alizarin Crimson
XOR: Transparen Oxide Red
VG: Viridian Green.


 

Pencil Sketches and Portraits

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So sometimes I have to ask myself if I’m up to a certain activity. I think I get comfortable in my own routine. My rut, so to speak. I like to paint my dogs and my bird. I’ll paint the flowers and I love a sky. Trees – not as much. Urban? yep. People? Not really.

It’s not because I don’t like people, I yearn to be a sought-after portrait artist. So why not people? The landscape of the person is so particular. It needs to read as THAT PERSON. Pretty unnerving to think about.

This is a pencil sketch in preparation for a painting. It’s from a photograph, and it’s the one the client wants. I generally don’t put teeth in a face, they force a specific emotional response, but in this case, the smile is not displeasing to me. The smootch says everything that needs to be said, and the smile is an acknowledgement of affection.

I think I’m going to like this assignment.

oil; ; $ Sold

Interested parties may contact me here: Kittie@KittiesArt.com