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!

 

 

"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!: Yosemite Renaissance XXVI

Yosemite Moss, watercolor on paper, 15 x 22

Lately, I've been spiritually compelled to paint trees, specifically the cedars, sequoias and pines I saw in Yosemite. "Yosemite Moss", a painting I posted on my blog earlier, is the first of what will be many paintings celebrating these "ecstatic beings" (as I like to think of them). And this painting was just chosen by the judges of the Yosemite Renaissance XXVI competition to be in the annual exhibition! Thirty-nine artists were selected out of 210 contestants, so needless to say, I feel pretty lucky.
Next step is to get it framed with Plexiglass for shipment by early February. On February 25, the doors open at the Yosemite Museum Gallery for this year's show. Awards will be announced at the opening reception, 5:30-7:30PM and come May, the exhibit will travel! I don't know where, but I love the thought of all this Yosemite beauty as a movable feast for the eyes.

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.

Kate's Updates!.....I'm on Etsy!

Hand-Crafted Holiday Cards on sale at Etsy! www.katepeper.etsy.com

Original Watercolor Designs: "Holly", "Christmas Woods" and "Winter Woods".Original Chanukah Designs: "Chanukah 1", "Chanukah 2", "Chanukah 3" and "Dreidals".