Monday, December 31, 2012

Day 176


Self-Portrait in Winter, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy
NFS

This is the first self-portrait I've painted. I've thought of doing one several times over the years, but now in light of all of the "mugshots" I've been painting, I decided it was high time to give it a shot. I used brushwork for the face, and palette knife for the hair, background and the coat. I really like the combination of smooth brushstrokes with the textured knife work.

It was a rather strange experience - like looking into a mirror for 6 hours. It makes me realize I should be open to painting more self-portraits, because we know our own face better than anyone else's, and we always see ourselves differently than other people see us, and wouldn't that be interesting to explore..? Hmmm...

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and thanks for following along - it's been a helluva year to say the least! I started my painting-a-day project in April, and to date have painted 176 daily paintings, plus 21 additional paintings (mainly commissions and larger works) this year. As my style developed, I felt confident enough to enter, and go on to win, the small works show at the Edward Hopper house in New York - a huge honor! I studied for a week with the incredible Karin Jurick at Hilton Head Island, and had a painting accepted into the Randy Higbee Gallery small works show in Costa Mesa, California this december, where my entry was purchased by one of their collectors. To top it all off, 66 of my paintings have sold in 2012. I feel incredibly blessed.

To my friends, family, and supporters, your encouragement and kind words have meant the world, and help keep me going on days when the workload feels overwhelming. Your understanding of how focused I’ve had to be this year is much appreciated. It’s been a very stressful year in some ways, but it’s also been the best year of my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, and I wish for a year of beauty, creativity, inspiration and joy for us all in 2013.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Day 175


Mugshot: Cindy, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Next up in the lineup of the Hilton Head Gang mugshots is Cindy. I really enjoyed the little touches in this painting - the texture of the background and her hair, her pink sweater, the purples and pinks in her skin, and of course, her gold necklace. I like the strong brushwork on her face. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying painting these little "mugshots!"

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Day 174


Mugshot: Keleigh, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This may be my favorite "mugshot" so far. I've enjoyed painting the Hilton Head Gang mugshots so much that I've asked a few of my friends if I could paint them so I can keep practicing painting faces. I'm not kidding when I say I learn SO much with each and every one of these little paintings. Keleigh is a sweetheart, and I intentionally picked a photo that was not her normal smiling face, because that's what make these "mugshots" so much fun. I love how the crazy skin colors blend together as your eye travels around the painting...

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Day 173


Sally, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

I grew up with dairy goats and painted this as a gift for my sister, because it looked just like her goat named Sally. (Mine was named Susie, in case you were wondering...) I found this "Sally" goat when I visited Doe's and Diva's dairy last summer. Goats are fun to paint, I really need to do more of them. 

Monday, December 24, 2012

Day 172


Winter Solstice Shadows, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

I was pressed for time on friday, so I grabbed a panel, my palette knife, a few colors and set a timer for 15 minutes and stood at the window looking out into my yard and tried to quickly capture the colors of the tree shadows on snow in the bright sunlight. 

I'll be taking tomorrow off for the holiday. Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Day 171


Mugshot: Lulu, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Next up in the Hilton Head Gang mugshots is Lulu. In real life Lulu is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, so it was fun to paint such a grouchy looking picture of her. Lulu lives in Switzerland, and is a fantastic artist. You can check out her blog here: http://regulascheifele.blogspot.com/ 



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Day 170


Palette Knife Color Notan 4, 
4 x 4 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This little palette knife study suggested a still life to me, so I added a tomato-looking thing and a few other circular objects. I'm actually pretty excited that I've got the hang of making round objects with the knife now. This one took a little longer than the last three - maybe twenty five minutes or so total. I also really like the way I can get such clean colors with the knife. Lots of possibilities with this tool.



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Day 169


Palette Knife Color Notan 3, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Today's painting is another little notan, where I'm just playing around with light and dark patterns and color with no real objective other than to make something pleasing, and to practice painting with the knife. In case you missed it, I'm doing a few of these little studies this week for my daily paintings because of time constraints, as so far they only take about fifteen minutes each. 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Day 168



Palette Knife Color Notan 2, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

I think I'm going to do a few more of these little color notan studies this week, because I have some commissions I need to work on right now and the fact that these little abstracts don't take much time is a big help. I like this one better than yesterdays. Actually I like it quite a bit, but don't worry - I have no plans to become an abstract painter. These are just experiments, and another way to practice my knife handling. 

On another note, I've listed the mini-landscapes from days 157 - 160 in my Etsy store, for only 60.00 each, including the little display easel. They would make a nice gift (or maybe a gift to yourself.)






Monday, December 17, 2012

Day 167


Palette Knife Color Notan 1, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas

I only had a few minutes today to do my daily painting, and decided to just work out an abstract design with the palette knife, simply playing around with no expectations. It was a somewhat meditative and nice and quick little exercise. To really save time, I could have taken the easy way out and simply painted the canvas black and said I was "exploring the blackness," but I couldn't bring myself to do it. (Haha!)


Friday, December 14, 2012

Day 166


Chumley, 10 x 8 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This is my artist friend Clair Hartmann's dog Chumley. We decided it would be fun to paint each others dogs, and it was! I can't wait to see her painting of Cloud in person. In the meantime, you can check out some of her work here.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Day 165


Boomer knife study, 6 x 6 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Day 3 of teaching myself how to paint with a palette knife, and I wanted to try something a little more ambitious than an apple or cup. This is my 19 year old cat Boomer, the original grumpy cat. As in the previous knife studies, I learned a great deal with this painting, and I'm really enjoying working with the knife. My goal is to get as comfortable with a knife as I am with the brushes, and while I'm not there yet, I'm closer than I was yesterday. My favorite part of this painting are the stripes on top of her head.

Here are a few in progress shots. This, as with the other two knife paintings, were started without a preliminary drawing on the canvas (a step I rarely skip. I'm not sure why I didn't start with a drawing, but I'll admit, I like the freshness of the results.) This was painted on a piece of canvas taped to a board.



Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Day 164


Sake Cup knife study, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Another session of teaching myself to paint with a palette knife, I decided to paint a sake cup my husband made recently. I'm pretty happy with the edges on this one, and the way the lovely thick paint on the light side of the cup gives it a 3D effect. I'm finding that knife painting means giving up a degree of control over what happens to the paint, but when you embrace it and let it do it's thing, really good things can result. (And not to go back into those areas once you have the paint down!) I'm getting more comfortable with the knife, and excited about the possibilities of combining knife and brushwork in future paintings. 



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Day 163


Apple - knife study, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

After yesterdays palette knife painting and seeing the possibilities, I wanted to experiment with the knife again today. I do use the knife in many of my paintings, but only here and there to add an area of texture or a razor sharp edge. Up until this week I had never tried to actually paint with it. After yesterday, I realized there is a lot to learn about paint handling with a knife, and since I learn best by experimenting, I plan to just jump in with both feet and see what I can figure out. I learned a little more about blending and creating edges with the knife in this study today, and I love the textural quality.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Day 162


Marshland, 6 x 6 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This painting is a first for me - it was painted entirely with a palette knife. I love the look of palette knife paintings and have wanted to try it, but until today had always reached for the brushes instead. (Thanks to my buddy Oscar Arroyo for giving me the push. It was a challenge I couldn't resist.) Overall, I'm quite pleased with this painting and plan to use the knife more to learn to get the most out of it. Before today I'd only used it to add accents here and there. I'd like to try an animal painting using only the knife. That could be interesting!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Day 161


Mugshot: Brenda, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Brenda is my favorite of my Hilton Head Gang Mugshots that I've painted so far, with her signature glasses and fabulous orange lipstick. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy these little paintings - I learn so much with each one! This should give you a visual of just how small these little mugshots are. I never knew I could fit so much onto such a small space:






Thursday, December 6, 2012

160


Study of Fish Corrals at Rota, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This little beach scene was painted from a photo I took in Rota, Spain in 2005. The fish corrals were built in ancient times, and are still standing today. At low tide, fish would become trapped, and the fishermen could gather them up relatively easily. Today they are a national monument. It's hard to imagine just how big these corrals are without seeing them in person. I found this photo on flikr, to give you an idea. 

I was trying to play with color and mood, as well as create some interesting texture with the palette knife.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Day 159


Iowa Hills, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Here's the third in my series of little 4 x 4 inch landscapes. I got the opportunity to see some Grant Wood paintings last weekend while in Davenport, and was inspired to do my take on the Iowa hills and trees, keeping the shapes as simple as my detail oriented brain would allow. This was painted from one of my photos of Preparation Canyon state park, in the Loess Hills of western Iowa.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Day 158


Red Rocks study, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

I had so much fun with yesterdays painting that I decided to do another little 4 x 4" landscape. What I like about this small size is that it forces me to be looser with my brushstrokes. (I don't use tiny brushes). This is my first southwest landscape, painted from a photo I took in Sedona several years ago. I really like the thick paint of the clouds.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Day 157



Lowcountry Marsh, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel
© 2012 Kathleen Coy

I decided to try a landscape on one of my little 4 x 4 inch panels because I couldn't spend much time on todays painting. I'm extremely happy with the result. This is my second painting of the Carolina marshland, and I think I could paint it a hundred times and not get tired of it. I love the light, and the peacefulness, and the reflections on the water.