Kate's Updates: New painting!

Cooper's Pirate Ship! watercolor on paper, 15 1/4 x 11 3/4

I haven't done an illustration for a very long time--at least, not in the traditional way with watercolor and brush. This was a challenge for me! I looked online for pirate ship models and scoured my Beatrix Potter books for bunny images. Then, I sat down and tried to think, "What would a three-year old, pirate loving boy like?"

The boy in question, Cooper Foster, is my great-nephew and he just turned three. Unfortunately for me, he lives with his mom and brother in Minnesota where I don't get to visit often. I'm hoping he and his mom will love to have this hanging in his bedroom.

Kate's Updates: New painting!

"Trees of the Field", 30 x 22, watercolor on paper

This is the largest painting I've done to date and I almost dumped it!

I was asked by my church, BayMarin Church, to participate in a series of lectures and artistic presentations based on NT Wright's book, Simply Christian. This painting was to reflect the pastor's talk on the chapters in the book about the Bible and what it means to us. A little caveat is that I was to take something from the artist's work from the previous week and incorporate it into my painting.
The week's previous artist chose to do a landscape based on "Common Ground" as he interpreted it.

I interpreted his landscape as the Old Testament--fertile, beautiful and big in its scope (his painting was 60 inches!). I thought I'd try and represent the New Testament as something that has its "roots" in the Old, but with with the acceptance of Christ, we can now experience the world in its full flower. The path through the middle represents the clear road through this life with our Saviour.
Although the title of this painting is from the Old Testament (Isaiah 55:12), I thought it harkened to this union we can have with Christ: You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

Kate's Updates: New painting -In-Progress

Old Fishing Lures, Part Two

This is the latest piece I'm working on, inspired by the watercolor show at the Marin Art & Garden Club.
The California Watercolor Association put on the 42nd show and it's brilliant: the pieces are a far cry from the usual flowers and pastels one normally associates with watercolor. The winning piece, Let Your Fingers Do the Walking, is painted on Yupo, a synthetic paper, utilizing collage (see first page of the Association's web page).
Unfortunately, the mask I used was a bit too old and it rubbed off the top layer of paper, making lifting and glazing a wee bit more difficult! I still have some mask on the uppermost painted lure, so we'll see what happens when I lift that out. This piece is fun but challenging with all the pieces and planning I am doing.

Kate's Updates!: Yosemite Renaissance XXVI

"Yosemite Moss", watercolor on paper, 15 x 22

So exciting! I came home from a dog walk today and found a letter from Yosemite Renaissance telling me my painting, Yosemite Moss was an award winner ! This was one of those things I forgot about as the show went up in February and is now on a traveling exhibition around the South Peninsula. I never even knew I "was a winner" until today. Love when life throws a little bone to you like that.