New Painting!

"The White Barn", 10 x 13 1/2, watercolor on paper

It felt like the time was right to paint this barn--stately with its red-centered tractor wheel and overgrown purple sage. This barn actually exists at Gospel Flats farm in Bolinas, California. It's a spot I've come back to for many of my paintings, as it's so rich with inspiration at every corner. Everything screams to be painted!

Kate's Updates: New painting!

"Tools of the Trade" 15 x 16, watercolor on paper

The latest in my funky, West Marin-barn-farm-bucolic series. These implements were hung artfully on a barn door at Gospel Flat Farm in Bolinas, Marin County--the same locale that inspired my "Lucky Bobbers" painting. Once again, I used a lot of sepia, pthalo blue, prussian blue and my toothbrush (for rubbing away the color on the wood paneling).
I absolutely love this kind of tableau and I suspect I will find more such farm-funkiness this Spring and Summer as we begin another Art on the Farm year!

Kate's Updates: New painting!

Hung Out to Dry, watercolor on paper, 22 x 15

I just finished this painting today, and as usual, I'm not sure what to think of it! But I am very happy that it's done as this subject has been on my mind for a while.

These boots were hanging on an old barn door in a West Marin farm (Gospel Flats). This place was a treasure trove of funky, funny and odd juxtapositions of objects and animals, that every niche seemed to be filled with a would-be painting! What I love was the added touch of weirdness of the small, rusty scythe and the goat bell strewn with spider webs. For that I used the Zoltan Szabo technique of scraping a razor blade over the dry paper to make that spider web pop. I also used lots of dry brushing and toothbrush scraping to get that weathered look in the wood and the boot rubber.
Just a note: these boots were all actually a deep, army green, but I changed the palette a bit just to make it more interesting.

Kate's Art: More Chickens!

"Gospel Chickens"...newest watercolor for Art on the Farm!

"Gospel Chickens", 9" x 12", watercolor on clayboard, $300.00

I loved these chickens! There were globs of them everywhere---under apple and pear trees, inside coops, on top of coops, on their own chicken-sized mountain. They were fairly relaxed and were quite amenable to having their picture taken. They actually cooed.
It was a beautiful late afternoon at Gospel Flat Farm in Bolinas, and full of animals, plants, machinery and lovely laundry that I will paint next. (I love laundry pinned with clothespins or just draped over a line. I guess it's my love of John Singer Sargent...)