New Painting!

"Quince Blossoms", 5x5, watercolor on Claybord©.

Another little flower painting to add to the growing number of 5 x 5s of just flowers! It's a lot of fun and quite relaxing to do. I realize this is not the season for Quince, but I perused some old photos I had of these gorgeous blossoms and had to paint one.

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!

Half Dome, Late Afternoon, 15 x 17 3/4, watercolor on paper

This painting was "commissioned" by the Marin Poetry Center for their forthcoming poetry anthology. The theme for the anthology is "mountains" ....and being in a Yosemite frame of mind, I chose this famous icon to paint.

I was very nervous about painting this: What is my approach? Will the drama of the branches be too much or not enough? Would I get too fussy with the details? Will the color palette be too boring?

I actually prayed to God for help! I needed Divine intervention. I started the painting one afternoon and finished it a day later. (Good music in the background helped and yes, I believe God did take a hand in this)!

I also tried a technique I've never done before--using a razor blade! To add sparkle to some of the pine needles and the water darkening the face of Half Dome, I scraped a razor point very quickly across the dried paint. I have to thank the master, Zoltan Szabo for that advice.

Kate's Updates! New Painting!

Dogwood Blossoms, Yosemite, 19 x 15, watercolor on paper

I can't get enough of Yosemite...this painting was inspired by a particular Pacific Dogwood we saw while waiting in traffic (!) in the Park. I got out of my car and photographed these blossoms. I loved the irregularities and imperfections of the petals and yet how stunning they were against the deep purple of the woods.

Kate's Updates! New Painting!

 

 

"Branch Patterns II", watercolor, 15 x 22

"Branch Patterns II" is the latest installment in my tree series. I am definitely obsessed! This painting, however, is a bit unsettling to me as I'm not sure if it's done or, did I do too much? It was done very quickly (as you can probably tell), which is the approach I'm most aiming for, but I'm just not sure if this is the last I'll see of it in this state. Regardless, I'm  moving on for now. There are so many more trees to paint!

Kate's Updates! New Painting!

Yosemite Spring,  15 x 22, watercolor

Just finished another "tree painting". This time, a cedar with dogwood blossoms, right outside Yosemite Park. My husband and I were actually waiting for a logging train ride to start and I spotted this handsome tree in the sun, made more beautiful with the pristine dogwood petals against the bark.

Kate's Updates! New Painting!

Yosemite Moss, watercolor 15 x 22

This painting is the first in what I hope to be a series of tree-inspired pieces from Yosemite. What captivated me, and I hope this comes across here, was the moss and the delicate, etched branches against the dark background. I spent many days photographing only the branch-work and bark textures of all the wonderful sequoias, cedars and pine found in this park.