KENDALL KESSLER'S OIL PAINTING DIARY

Saturday, January 25, 2014

BACK TO OILS and When you see it...

Still working on my own brand of Expressionism but I decided to go back to oils on my latest cat painting.  Acrylics are great but my first love will always be oils and I will just have to put up with the slow drying time.  I might just start a number of paintings so one will always be dry for the next layer.

I am enjoying exploring different cat expressions and poses.  This one will have an electric look to it and more expressive brushwork than the last one.  I have been developing my own style that is a blend of Impressionism and Expressionism for such a long time that this deliberate intent to emphasize my expressive side is tricky.

I keep wanting to go back to a more analytical approach of light and shade rather than arbitrary color.  This is a great experience for me and I plan to continue for quite a while but I just have to get back to oil paint.



My husband and I are a little technologically challenged.  He is better off than I am which is why he took the job of setting up our new land line.  He was taking so long to do it that I asked him from the computer room how much longer it would be.  He said when I see it flying past the window, I will know he is done.



Here are some Oil Paint facts that may only be of interest to artists but maybe not!

Oil paint revolutionized art. Because it’s slow to dry, it freed artists to take their time with a painting, change their minds, make corrections, and even start over.

The earliest known oil paintings, Buddhist murals found in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan caves, date to around the 7th century CE.

Pigments can be made from minerals and organic materials, including semiprecious stones and snail mucus.

The most expensive pigment was ultramarine—deep blue. Made from lapis lazuli, it was once more costly than gold.

Until the 19th century, artists had to mix their own oil paints each day by hand.

The paint tube was invented in 1841 by American painter John Goffe Rand. Before then, oils were stored in animal bladders.

Oil paints dry to the touch within two weeks, and are generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. It may take years for a painting to dry completely.

Be sure to check out my Special Promotions on Fine Art America!  These large canvas prints are 40% off regular price and there is a 30 day money back guarantee which includes the shipping charge!

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Monday, January 20, 2014

Sold Prints of Beauty and Danger, A Break in the Clouds, and Take two...

Just sold another canvas print of my second best-selling print, "A Break in the Clouds" to a great patron in Wisconsin.  A jewelry box with Beauty and Danger on it went to a great patron in Maine.         
I am so pleased to keep selling A Break in the Clouds, which is a beautiful vista of Rock Castle Gorge on The Blue Ridge Parkway. My husband has spent so much time researching Birds and Butterflies there that I used to tease him that he needed a mailbox there.  That was before everyone was on a cell phone.

It hasn't been that long that I started Kendall Expressions on my website, so I am very happy to sell another one of the selections!  I am especially proud of Beauty and Danger!

My husband and I are getting a lot of mileage out of jokes about all the medications we are told to ask our doctor about that are followed by lawyers claiming to get compensation for damages done by some of them.

My husband's latest quip is take two and call your lawyer in the morning!

Here are some Big Cat Facts

Recent research has discovered that lions can actually count!  They can tell whether or not the amount of lions roaring on a tape was fewer or greater than their own number and were able to decide whether to stay or flee if they were outnumbered!

Out of all cats, the tiger is the largest with a body length of up to 3.3 meters and weighing up to 760 lb.

The nick name for leopards is Prima Ballerina or Prince of Cats.

Believe it or not, jaguars have been seen in the United States. Just this past March, a jaguar was spotted in Arizona.

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Another Kendall Expression Cat and How to get a call through...

Not feeling too well today so I am not going to gab for long.  I am pleased to introduce another Kendall Expression painting.  This time I did another cat painting.  It is an intense study of eyes with constant modulation of contrasting colors and textures.  I think the color accents are especially pleasing in this one.  Not sure if I can find some more unusual cat facts but I am going to try.

My husband and I always get a laugh out of the commercials regarding drugs.  Ask your doctor if this is right for you.  Sometimes the commercials regarding legal action on those drugs and how to get compensation for their detrimental effects follow the commercials advertising the drugs.

We especially like the one that advises people to call a lawyer if they experienced any illnesses as a result of the drugs, even death.  We are told we may be entitled to compensation.

Even death?  My husband's comment was do we have a hot line in the casket?



MORE CAT FACTS



A cat can jump up to five times its height in a single bound.



A cat's brain is more like a human's brain than a dog's brain.  The region for emotions is identical.



About 40,000 people are bitten by cats annually in the U.S.



When cats are happy, they squeeze their eyes shut.



Cats can make over 100 different sounds while dogs can only make 10

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Sunday, January 12, 2014

Blue Ridge Splendor and The only way it would be more obvious...

Yesterday I added another Blue Ridge Parkway painting to my ebay classified listings and received a lot of hits and positive feedback on Linkedin.  The painting, "Bull Mountain", is a popular one that I keep forgetting to add to my website where people can buy it or prints of it.  It is on Etsy and I have put in on Pinterest.  I have to take my easel outside to get a good enough file for printing so I will try to get to that as soon as my back stops hurting.  It isn't bad but I have to be careful due to past disc problems.

Anyway, I decided this would be a good time to include some Blue Ridge Parkway facts in my blog and some of my popular paintings on this wonderful mountain area.



 The Blue Ridge Parkway, often called “America’s Favorite Drive,” was constructed, in part, to connect the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.



 Begun in 1935, the Parkway was also envisioned as the first elongated national park providing the recently enamored automobile traveler some of the most spectacular natural scenery in the United States.

The physical characteristics of the Blue Ridge Parkway are significant. There are twenty-seven tunnels, all constructed through solid rock – with 26 of the 27 located in North Carolina.



It is due primarily to the tunnels that much of the Parkway is closed throughout late fall, winter, and early spring. (Due to dripping groundwater from above, freezing temperatures, and the lack of sunshine, ice often accumulates inside the tunnels even when the surrounding areas are above freezing).



The 469-mile Parkway is the longest, narrowest, and most visited National Park in the country and is carried across streams, railways ravines, and cross roads by 168 bridges and 6 viaducts.



The speed limit is never higher than 45 and lower in many places. The highest point on the Parkway, at an elevation of 6047 feet, is south of Waynesville, North Carolina near Mount Pisgah on Richland Balsam Mountain at Milepost 431.



There is so much more but I will save that for another blog.



Now for some humor.  Today, as usual, I did something stupid on my computer. I have decided that the only way it would be more obvious that I did not grow up with computers would be if I attached a sign to my back.  Something like this.



CAUTION , THIS WOMAN DID NOT GROW UP WITH COMPUTERS    LET HER NEAR YOUR COMPUTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Cat Painting coming along and I need a match

I have started another cat painting and it is coming along nicely.  Not sure how many cat paintings I will do but I have always loved the look in their eyes, especially the domestic ones.  They seem to live with us and apart from us.  At one vet visit I was fascinated by the way one resident cat kept looking at us and then jumping down from the desk only to jump back up a few minutes later.  Always on the prowl.  They are a great subject for expressionistic work.

It has been so cold lately that my husband said he saw a thermometer outside ask for a match!  I guess that would be the only way of getting the mercury to rise.  Of course, our system has sprung a leak when the news is full of stories about extremely overworked plumbers.  The part we have been waiting for is here but no plumber.  We are emptying buckets around the clock.  Oh well!  We still have heat so we can't complain too much.

Be sure to check out my Special Promotions on Fine Art America!  If you would like to order one of my paintings on canvas at 40% off the regular price then check it out!  Patrons have a thirty day money back guarantee, including shipping! As we all know, plumbers are expensive!

MORE CAT FACTS

Cats can drink sea water to re-hydrate themselves

Cats sleep  for 70% of their lives

Cats instinctually imitate the hiss of snakes.


A cat’s whiskers are normally as long as the cat is wide, helping it determine if it can fit into certain spaces!

A genetic study concluded that every domesticated cat in existence could be traced back to a group of only five African Wildcats from the Middle East, circa 8000 BC!



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Sunday, January 5, 2014

A Dreaming Cat and Shouldn't he be back from Florida...

 I am pleased that I finished my latest Kendall Expression painting entitled Twine Dreams.  I am especially pleased with the complicated system of brushstrokes in this work.  The cat is awake but the look in the eyes suggests a dream state and the curving marks are surreal pieces of twine all around the cat. These paintings in my latest series are getting more and more colorful with great linear accents.

There are a lot of great Snowmen jokes are the internet right now.  My favorite is one with a conversation between two snowmen. Don't you find it strange that Bob never got back from Florida?

Don't forget about my Special Promotions on Fine Art America.  I have three very popular paintings up right now and below are some great facts about Cats!  I love to learn!


Cats have been used to deliver mail: In Belgium in 1879, 37 cats were used to deliver mail to villages. However they found that the cats were not disciplined enough to keep it up.

Cats see so well in the dark because their eyes actually reflect light. Light goes in their eyes, and is reflected back out. This means that their eyes actually work almost like built-in flashlights.

Each year Americans spend four billion dollars on cat food. That's one billion dollars more than they spend on baby food!

Cats are the only animal that purrs.

 Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of the principles of gravity, also invented the cat door.

If your cat is near you, and her tail is quivering, this is the greatest expression of love your cat can give you.

A Cat can run at 30 miles per hour.

The heaviest cat on record was 46 pounds,15.2 ounces.  Probably ate more more lasagne than Garfield!

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Garfield!