Half-listening

Do you ever get the sense your cat is only half listening to you? Here she’s even got one ear turned away!!

I never get tired of painting Callie’s glorious mane.

Half-listening - Acrylic 6x6 in. on gessobord

Sunny Side

I found this very cool reference photo on Paint My Photo.com. I was curious to see if the photo's cool composition would translate into a painting. This is another of the pieces I've been working on for Art 4 Shelter (May 9th at MIA).

Sunny Side - 5x7in. Acrylic on archival paper

Hollyhocks for Art 4 Shelter

I’m working on a few pieces to donate to Art 4 Shelter.  The sale this year is at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on May 9th.

I accidentally got my "stay wet" palette too wet, which made my paint a bit thinner - but I think it increased the visibility of the brush strokes which is kind of cool. I'm really loving the new paints I've been using.

Hollyhocks - 5x7in. on Guerilla archival paper

Koi

It was fun to get a little more abstract with this one. Someone in my class told me it had a little "Kat Corrigan going on", which made me so happy to hear! :) 

Koi - 6x6 in. Acrylic on Gessobord

Gerberas

I've been seeing a ton of beautiful floral paintings in my Instagram feed lately and was inspired to try some. I really like the "loose" (impressionistic?) style of floral paintings by Debbie and Brian Miller and Teddi Parker, and was going for that feel here. This is based on a reference photo from Paint My Photo.com. I'm still experimenting with the new paints and slightly expanded palette - and it was fun to paint on a black background again after taking a break from that for a while.

Gerberas - Acrylic on 6x6in hard board

Shake-it-up Callie

I've been in a painting rut lately. I've been painting quite a bit but not liking how anything is turning out. Hmphh. I've been experimenting with a few different things to try shaking things up. This painting of my favorite muse, Callie, is using a different paint brand than I normally use, and a couple added hues to my normal very limited palette (cadmium red medium and ultramarine blue, if you're curious!). I also tried a different background toning (quin. magenta) than my usual black. 

Callie study. 5x7in Acrylic on gessobord

Sun-bleached Scene (and a case of detailitis)

I've been painting a lot of animals lately so I was feeling pretty rusty for this still life. I liked how sun-bleached the scene was in the reference photo (from Paint My Photo.com). I got it to the point you see here and then went a little overboard with trying to add prickles to the cactus in great detail. The painting didn't seem balanced then in terms of detail, so I tried adding some detail to the wooden door in the background... it was all downhill from there. One of those times I wish there was an "Undo" button. (I could actually feel my brain mentally reaching for Control+Z!). Oh well. Here's the last point at which I liked the painting. Simpler times.

Sun-bleached Scene - Acrylic on 10x10 gessobord

I'm starting a new painting class at Wet Paint tonight with a new teacher - it will mean experimenting with a new color palette, and likely not painting on a black background like I always do. Yikes! It should be interesting - I'll share paintings from the class here!