Happy Halloween, Harry, 6x8 Oil

Happy Halloween, Harry!

Harry, the teenage cat in our house, is a gorgeous mix of pumpkin and buff colors. He loves to be anywhere we are, doing anything we do, but he especially loves it when Tim takes out the toolbox. He's all over that. Anyway, with no kids left at home and no children in the neighborhood (no, really, NO kids!) Halloween isn't much fun. But we had many years of pirates and princessess, werewolfs and ghouls, and lots and lots of fun!

Feeling Gourdy, 6x6 Oil

I loved painting these little gourds - it had been a day of frustrating painting, trying to paint a fishing boat in Bristol Harbor, then a Ferry, then finishing the umbrellas, below, then this painting sort of 'fell off my brush'. I like the way the one on the left came out best.. a little loose!

Umbrella Memories, 6x8 Oil

Almost moved into the studio, and now am back to doing 'Dailies'. These are two more umbrellas, taped to the studio wall. Just fun getting back into it!

Just Crabby, 6x6 oil

This is a commission I've been working on - I actually have two crabs that I promised to people. I never really gave much thought to them, but since I've started doing a bit of research on them, I'm a big fan of their shapes, their rounded backs and claws.. So... this guy - NFS, but I probably will do a few more crabs this Fall! And, yes, he's 'cooked', but he's definitely a 'live wire'!

It's A Dog's Life (Sometimes)

OK, here's another weird thing about me. I love dogs - to the extent that every September I find out the dates for the Bay Colony Dog Show in Boston (Always early December) and cross the day off my calendar so I won't accidently schedule anything else, and I go with my chair and my sketchbook all by myself to the show. It's overwhelming, but I try to pick a few breeds and hang out there for a while. I concentrate on

Pugs, my personal favorite, but I also love the Scotties, Cairns, Corgi's, Bernese Mountain Dogs, all the Belgians (the Malanois, the Sheepdog and the Turvuren), the Australian Terriers, the Boston Terriers, the Flat Coated Retreivers, and... well, that's not exactly CONCENTRATING, is it? Anyway, in addition to the little pug posted much earlier on my blog, here's my tiny dog collection....

This was a little girl bulldog trying to be good while waiting for her turn in the ring...
This was a darling Scottie (I gave her a less cluttered background)...

And there's just something about yellow labs, isn't there? I had a black lab cross (never actually owned a purebred!) who was my best friend and painting companion, gone 11 years and I still miss her....

And don't you love how we can 'accessorize' them? All of these are oil paintings, the Scottie and the Bulldog are 4x4, the two Labs are 5x7.

Time To Come Clean....

I have been a little 'quiet' here lately... apologise for not posting, but.... I broke my camera! Well, not intentionally, but as Sister Eugenia Margaret used to say "There's no such thing as un-intentional!". I left my camera outside in the garden and then it rained.... here's where that voice in the back of my head yells "I TOLD you to get the waterproof version!".

There's kind of good news here, too. Last Saturday we bit the bullet and bought a super-duper SLR... which I can't figure out. The 'training' disks are like they were in Greek. For 3 days I've been debating whether to bring it back for a 'better' point-and-shoot version (also much cheaper) or to stick it out. So either I learn the new camera asap or bring it back and get the P-A-S PLUS another little pocket camera (and have $$ to spare) - either way I'll be posting by Monday. I'm PAINTING, just not posting. Actually I've been busy with those commissions, which, instead of being a chore, are actually turning out to be quite fun... and that's the way it should be.


Many of you know, through a personal email I sent out, that I was featured in a Blog Article www.annechovie.blogspot.com by Anne Harwell. She's a fun artist/designer that I check in on from time to time because she always has interesting thoughts and work.


ALSO.... and this is huge - I got myself a new studio!!!!! Yes, 'putting it out to the universe' does work! I'll be in Middletown, RI on Aquidneck Island in a suite with 4 other artists. There's some shared space and some individual studios. Being messy, I get an individual studio. I'll post some photos as we move in. Thanks for enduring this very long post.

:) Kelley

Hull Sunsets, 6x6 Oil

I once lived in a beautiful town called Hull, MA. It's a peninsula that stretches up from the South Shore of Boston into Boston Harbor. If you've ever flown out of Logan Airport going south, you could probably see it's unique shape from the window as you pass over it. Because it's such a narrow finger of land, ocean on one side, bay on the other, and it's low, you get incredible light throughout the day. But the most magical time is sunset, when literally if you look west you see something like I've painted above, and if you look east you see the reflected light in the sky over the Atlantic, all pink, purple and teal. I've never been anyplace like it.

Now, I've been fortunate enough to be commissioned to paint 6 small Hull sunsets. I've been working from photos, and if anybody ever tells you they did an entire painting from 'life' when doing a sunset... be suspicious! This moments are fleeting! The first two, shown here, are complete, with the exception of the grass, etc. that blew on the wet paint. That will flake off when dry. I'm mid-way through the third, and will post #3 and #4 together. So these are not for sale, although I'd take one more commission on similar ones before the holidays.

Boathouse Road, 6x12, Oil

SOLD

This is a 'late' post - I painted this on Thursday of last week in Westport on Boathouse Row, - a gorgeous day in a gorgeous spot. I'm getting bored with the little landscapes, though. I feel the need to do some 'color shots', and play a little with design. We'll see what comes through. Sand and sea and sky and trees... nice and all, but it's failing the 'So What' question. What do you think?

Camel Hump Dunes, 6x8, Oil

SOLD

For those of you seeing this and saying "ANOTHER dune painting!?!" ... sorry! I couldn't help myself! Yesterday I went painting with friends in Westport, MA, which, IMHO, has the best beaches in Massachusetts, because 1) it's got dunes, and 2) it's still in the 'Gulf Stream' which brings warm water to swim in (well, Portuguese Man O'War, too, but still...). Anyway it was, YET ANOTHER picture perfect day. As luck would have it, I had a total of two hours to paint and I absolutely SLATHERED this little one first, so I could paint a larger painting (see http://welcometomyartworld.blogspot.com/ for the larger piece). I'm working on a few commissions so 'free' painting time is at a premium, hence the 'slathering'. I like it anyway! Maybe more, since there was no time for fussing!