Day 242

Red Landscape, 4 x 4 inch oil on canvas board

© 2013 Kathleen Coy

The day sort of got away from me today, and as dinnertime approached I started thinking about what I could paint quickly, which made me think of using only one color, which made me wonder what an all red landscape would look like. Apparently, it looks like this. 

Day 237

Winter Fog, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel

© 2013 Kathleen Coy

I felt like doing a simple, high key palette knife painting. This was painted from a photo reference I took out driving around the countryside on one of those magical, grey, foggy winter days we get here in Iowa on occasion.

Day 231

Iowa Lavender Field, 12 x 6 inch oil on linen

© 2013 Kathleen Coy

I started this painting last summer on location at a local lavender farm, but as it was my second painting that morning and it was nearing 100 degrees, I decided to just block in the sky, hill and distant fields and finish the rest in the studio later. My plein air group's upcoming annual show in a few weeks finally gave me the motivation to finish it today. I was trying to capture the sense of distance that one experiences in the Iowa countryside, even more so than the lavender plants in the foreground. 

Day 205

Autumn Marsh, 6 x 6 inch oil on panel.

© 2013 Kathleen Coy

After the detailed paintings of this week, I wanted to relax with some loose palette knife work. I also wanted to play around with some brighter colors, so this phthalo turquoise seemed just the ticket. Something different, just for fun.

Day 199

DeSoto Reflections, 5 x 5 inch oil on panel

© 2013 Kathleen Coy

It's cold here in Iowa today. Really cold. So I decided to paint a scene taken from a photo at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge a few summers ago. I don't do a lot of landscapes, but it's nice to look at something green this time of year...

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!

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. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12090695@N02/3125606853/in/photostream/

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

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.

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.

Day 157

Lowcountry Marsh, 4 x 4 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Click for purchase information.

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. 

Day 152

Hitchcock Trail Study, 6 x 6 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

The Loess Hills of western Iowa turn the most beautiful shades of gold in the Fall. I wanted to do a quick study, trying to capture the colors and textures of the hills against the blue sky. 

I'm also having a one day sale for Cyber-Monday in my Etsy shop - 20 - 50% everything, today only! Click here.

Day 145

Marsh Study, 6 x 6 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

One of the things I fell in love with in South Carolina were the marshes. The marsh grasses reminded me of vast prairies intersected with water, and were truly a feast for the eyes. Most of the land here in Iowa is vast mono-crops of corn and soybeans, and the prairies that used to be here are few and far between. 

With this study, I was trying to get the feel of the colors of the grasses, and the way the evening light was hitting the water. This is Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, near Hilton Head Island.

Day 126

Ice, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Click for purchase information.

This is what I wanted to paint most during the Malvern Plein Air festival. Sure, there were a lot of neat buildings and gorgeous landscapes around, but this ice cooler on main street kept calling to me. I just loved the way the red lettering looked with the turquoise wall. However, the only way to have this view was to set up across the street. I got all ready to paint, when car after car parked in the space in front of the ice cooler, completely blocking my view. As busy as main street was that day, I knew it would be an exercise in frustration to even try to start painting, so I snapped a quick photo when the parking spot was clear, so I could paint it at home. 

Just in case my painting didn't put this song in your head, I'll put it there now. **evil laugh**

Day 125

Platte River Bridge, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

Click for purchase information.

This was my view when I faced the other direction during our plein air trip along the Platte River. (See yesterday's post if you missed it.) Every time I've been across this bridge over the years, I look at the houses along the riverbank, and it was so cool to turn the tables and be at one of those houses looking at the bridge. I painted this one in the studio the next day from a photo I took, and all the feelings I had the day before of being burnt out vanished. This piece was so much fun to paint! Of course the red truck was my favorite part, and I enjoyed pushing the colors of the water a little to make them brighter. Very happy with this piece.

Day 124

Platte River Moods, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

The plein air group met at a cabin along the banks of the Platte River last week. The Platte River is a strange beast - it's very shallow, with many little sandbar "islands." It was a beautiful day, but this was the fourth day out of the last eight that I had been plein air painting (two days at the Malvern festival, and two days with the local group), and to be honest, I was feeling pretty burnt out. Plein air is something I like to do once in a while for fun, but it's not my main focus at all. I contemplated staying home, but like I said, it was a beautiful day and I had been looking forward to painting here. 

So I painted long enough to get this study done, went for a hike in the woods, and called it a day. I was just trying to capture the light, and the shapes of the water, and some of the colors I saw. 

Day 123

Dry Spell, 8 x 10 inch oil on linen

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

SOLD

This is the second painting I did at the Corning Plein Air festival in July (2012). If you missed yesterdays post, I explain why I'm posting it now. There are picturesque scenes like this one everywhere in the countryside around Corning, Iowa, which is one of the reasons I really like this event. 

Day 122

Bell Tower, 9 x 12 inch oil on linen

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This was painted on location in Corning, Iowa, at their plein air festival in July of this year, and was awarded 2nd place in the competition. I loved the way the afternoon light was hitting this church. The reason I'm posting it now instead of then are twofold - I needed the first 90 days to be a uniform size to fit the display I had for the 90 Days exhibit, and now I need a weeks worth of paintings in reserve for something very special coming up. So I'm posting it now. It was painted in a day, within the year, and it counts. I really love this painting, it's one of my favorite plein air pieces.

Day 121

Hillside Sumac, 6 x 8 inch oil on linen

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

This was painted during the Malvern Plein Air festival over the weekend. The evening light was gorgeous, and the sumac is coloring up beautifully right now. This painting was awarded an honorable mention.

Day 120

Check-R-Mix, 9 x 12 inch oil on linen

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

350.00 framed.

Another one painted at the plein air festival in Malvern last weekend. This is the old Botna Valley Grain Company's office building, next to their iconic grain elevator, neither of them in use anymore. I loved the old, rusted metal sign on the wall. 

Day 119

Green Dump Truck, 5 x 7 inch oil on panel

© 2012 Kathleen Coy

SOLD

I spent the weekend at a plein air festival in Malvern, Iowa. The weather was gorgeous, the scenery was beautiful, and I got to spend time with good friends. What more can you ask for? I did this little painting the last day - I was driving around and screeched to a halt when I saw this green truck in a quarry.