Pushing the Clay Around and Sheldon and the Corpse...

It is hard for me to believe two things these days. I can't believe I ever thought oil paint didn't cost that much and that our grocery bill was ever less than outrageous. I am not happy if I use the traditional thin to thick glazes of oil paint. The paint isn't that expensive if one uses that method. I push it around like a sculptor does clay on an armature. Sometimes I sink back into the old method and immediately go back to slathering it on and pulling expressive forms out of it. I can't get my unique color style or expression any other way so, yes, oil paint is very expensive. Not as expensive as our groceries but it is up there.

I don't watch a lot of TV for two reasons. I don't have the time and I am a movie buff. It usually takes me days to watch one movie but there are no commercials and the ones I watch seem to have much better acting and dialog then what I see on TV. The only show I like to watch is The Big Bang Theory and so does my husband. More and more the plots seem to be centered around the fact that Sheldon is an obnoxious know-it-all who drives the others crazy. My husband said Sheldon would drive a corpse crazy. No doubt.

Be sure to check out my Limited Time promotions on Fine Art America. I have three specials on canvas prints of popular paintings at about 40% off.

So Glad to Sell Two More Prints and Comment on the Good Life

I am so pleased to sell my first Acrylic print!  I'm not sure how long that option has been up but I know I haven't sold that type of print before.  This time the print was of one of my oil pastel paintings of Mountain Lake in Giles County VA.  This was the setting for the popular movie "Dirty Dancing" with Patrick Swayze.  It is a beautiful resort and I have stayed there several times with my husband and son.  I haven't met the medium I don't like but oil paint is my favorite and most of my work is in oils though I do have oil and soft pastel paintings, lithographs, charcoal drawings, and some water media works.  Watercolors are beautiful but they are too fragile for me.  If left in enough light the painting will fade away.  Not so with oils or pastels.

Also glad to sell a regular print of "Reaching Out" which is one of my nude drawings.  I am so glad my nudes are well received.  I think they are elegant and tasteful.

Last Friday we were in heavy traffic when a car jerked in front of us causing my husband to break to keep from hitting it.  The car had a covered tire on the back that had the words The Good Life on it in fun playful letters.  My husband said they should add, Especially when I am getting ahead by cutting you off.

Be sure to check out my work at kendall-kessler.artistwebsites.com

Smelling up the House and In My Next Life...

I am happily working on three large paintings right now and the smell from the paintings is rather strong.  I have an exhaust fan that changes the air in the studio every five minutes but it really can't do much about oil paint layers drying on large pieces of hardboard.  The first stages of my paintings are not interesting.  I spend a lot of time analyzing the space and value pattern.  In my opinion, and I think the opinion of most artists, how these two things are handled make or break art.  All the dazzling color and intricate texture patterns can't make up for poor space or value patterns.  I don't think the average person understands this but it is extremely important to me that my paintings have strong visual structure.  I used to think teachers that talked about art this way were either nuts or making it up to sound smart.  Now I talk exactly the way they did.  Art is quite a weird journey.

My husband likes to make cracks about mirrors.  The older we get, the funnier the cracks are.  He said he caught a look at the mirror from a distance and it was laughing at him and saying it was going to go on strike.  It couldn't take reflecting us anymore and it hopes to come back in the next life as a dog dish.

Be sure to check out my Limited Time offers on Fine Art America.  My most popular painting, "A Break in the Clouds", is on special as are "Samantha", and "Alan by our Window".

I Knew That Would Not Last and If There Were an Award...

When I started my latest painting I tried going back to a more traditional approach  using very thin layers and not letting the brushwork show.  Every once in a while I do that at the beginning of a painting and then decide it isn't me so I pile the paint on with expressive brush strokes .  I am very pleased with the energy in this painting.  I was listening to David Garrett's cross over version of Vivaldi's Summer and I think I captured that bursting expression that is in the music.  It is no wonder I entitled it "Tulip Dance".

My husband and I try to look reasonably put together when we go out but in our home we dress in clothes people probably wouldn't even give to Good Will.  My favorite pair of pants has a few holes, splotches of paint, and balloon out in the back.  My favorite shirt is baggy and has a hole in the shoulder with some other kind of stains.  My husband has a stained,  baggy shirt I doubt anyone would be caught dead in and the pants are a saggy mess.  If there were an award for worst dressed couple in a home environment, we would win it hands down.  My husband said he would beat out homeless people that haven't had a bath for ten years. 

Definitely Jealous and Small Smiles...

Congratulations to Michael on Fine Art America  for his 340 print sale today!  I am quite jealous and sure wish Groupon had selected my work for this great print deal.  I can't image what it would be like to find out I had 340 sales.  I am certainly going to work harder and harder at promoting my work to generate more sales.  I really don't like living in front of a computer but I can see that is what it takes these days.  This is the first day in a long time that my myafacial pain is hardly there so I can work more!  Yea!!!!!  Hope to continue to see improvement as I resemble a pretzel doing the stretching exercises.

We are getting sick and tired of a dental commercial called Small Smiles.  So many commercials that are aimed at the young tend to be on the sappy side.  Of course the message is that this great organization is genuinely concerned about children's dental care but my husband can't resist saying Small Smiles, Big Money.  No offense to the Dental profession!  I'm so glad there are people that are willing to work inside of people's mouths and I don't begrudge them the money.

Sold Two More Prints and He can not eat Bologna

I am so pleased to sell two large canvas prints of two beautiful Virginia mountain scenes.  The original Reflections on the James River is a featured painting in my current show, A Naturalist's Legacy in Blacksburg, VA.  The original painting of Near Purgatory was sold the first time I exhibited it.  It is great to be able to sell prints of these favorite mountain scenes my husband researches for birds and butterflies.  My husband has introduced me to many wonderful vistas on the Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding areas.  Most of my paintings are based on these places.  He is a well known naturalist in the New River Valley and has dedicated his life to educating all age groups about wildlife and conservation of his homeland.

My husband's dietary problems are always the topic of conversation in a crowd.  Most people are not familiar with fructose intolerance and are surprised to find out there are people that can't tolerate most fruits and most vegetables.  Everyone asks him what he can eat.  At the Super Bowl the subject came up and a friend was naming foods and asking if he could eat them.  She was going down the list and when she got to bologna(some people spell it baloney) her son said my husband can't eat bologna because he is full of bologna so that would make him a cannibal.  What a comment and he can not eat bologna because of the additives.

Check out My Limited Time Promotions and You are Really Scraping the Bottom of the Freezer...

A Break in the Clouds

Prints on Paper or Canvas available at kendall-kessler.artistwebsites.com

I am excited about starting three large paintings and my new Limited Time Promotions on three of my most popular paintings.  I am pleased that I can offer 40"x50" canvas prints of Stepping Stones on the New River and Golden Farm Scene.  Also, 24"x36" canvas prints of A Break in the Clouds can be purchased for the next few days.  This is a great way to get beautiful canvas paintings at a greatly reduced price, approximately 40% off my regular price.  My new paintings will include another scene from Pawleys Island, Isle of Palms, and Rock Castle Gorge.  If my head is not in the mountains it is at the shore. 

As always, I like to try to include some humor in my blog and I have been really struggling for something this time.  My husband almost always comes up with something in our daily conversations but not much has been happening lately so tonight I tried goading him in to saying something funny.  My son's birthday is December 3rd and we didn't have any ice for his party that day so my husband went out and bought a big bag which is still in the freezer.  I keep forgetting about it and use the trays.  I asked him if ice goes bad and he said it goes so bad it eventually has to be arrested and jailed for being too slippery.  I told him I was going to use his comment in my blog and he said you are really scraping the bottom of the freezer if you are going to use that.  I love puns and it's all I have this time.  Maybe next time will be funnier.

I am Going to Dominate This and Power Lunches

As we all know languages change or they die out like Latin.  There have been a lot of language changes among the young that I had a hard time getting used to but now seem normal.  When I was a kid no one said awesome to mean anything but big.  Now it is such a catch all word for anything exciting or astounding.  It has been around so long I am completely used to that change.  When someone has a serious illness they are attempting to fight kids say they will dominate it.  I like that one.  I am not seriously ill but I do have to cope with some sort of strange pain in my leg and hip.  I have decided I am going to dominate it and stretch every time it starts to hurt even a little.  I am starting to spend a lot of the day looking like a pretzel. Tomorrow, without fail, I am going to get started on three large paintings, with or without leg pain.  I WILL DOMINATE IT!

My husband and I often discuss the economic problems in the USA and how some of the problems could be solved.  Mostly, we are joking, as we don't really know how to solve these problems, but there are some obvious changes that may help.  Corporations and wealthy citizens could pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us and that would provide our government with more funds to work with.  I'm sure there is a lot of pork that could be cut out of both corporations and government.  My husband suggested that they do away with power lunches.  I asked him if he gets a power lunch at work and he said he doesn't even get a power biscuit. No pork there!