Another Oil Painting Break and That is the Longest Time...

I am taking another break from oil painting which only lasts as long as I can stand it.  Still, I do like working in other mediums once in a while.  Right now I am working on a large colored pencil still life.  I think it is safe to say that painters and pastel artists are not much on colored pencils but I like to use my least favorite mediums occassionally.  It is a great exercise to work with something that is completely different from globs of paint that have to be thinned down with mineral spirits.  It is great not to hear my exhaust fan!  I hate noise of any kind when I am painting but I also hate inhaling poisonous fumes so I have to have it on.


The other day I made my neighborhood famous chocolate chip cookies.  When my son was young we would have lemonade and cookie sales and the neighbors would line up to get my cookies.  One neighbor said they were the best cookies she had ever had.

 While the cookies were cooling my husband was smashing up a banana for the rice flour banana muffins I make him which are pretty good but nothing like my cookies. As I have mentioned before he had to go on an exceptionally restrictive diet when we finally figured out what was making him sick all these years.  I noticed he kept looking at the cookies and then he said that was the longest time in his whole life he had stared at a cookie without eating it.

Don't forget to look for my best-selling print on The Mindy Project airing September 25th!  Also check out my canvas print specials starting tomorrow!

Another Beautiful Nude and A Modest Proposal...

I am so pleased to add "Dreaming" to my Beautiful Nudes series.  This one has a delicate, cascading look and lovely linear patterns.  I re-named the gallery to Beautiful Girls since I have some clothed model drawings that I am adding.  I especially like to mix charcoal and white conte crayon for these drawings.  The textures created by the mixtures are soft and sensuous.

  I have a modest proposal. I have decided that at this time of the year there should only be political commercials on TV.  We simply do not have enough of them.  Why should corporations bother with products when they have to get a candidate elected that will do them the most good? Every household should get at least two political phone calls every hour - one from the Democrats and one from the Republicans.  Since whoever has the gold rules, then the rich that own the politicians should have all the air time and they should monopolize our phones.

Don't forget my specials on large canvas prints on Fine Art America!


Also don't forget to look for my print, "Reaching Out" on The Mindy Project September 25th!

A Beautiful Nude goes Viral and Everybody must Love me...

A few days ago I noticed a lot of hits on a nude I uploaded three days before and they kept coming until late afternoon!  Of course, someone must have stumbled the drawing which is a big help!  The drawing pretty much stopped getting hits at around 270.  One time a stumble resulted in 2000 in a couple of hours.  I am going to spend more time there looking at this and that.  It is a fun site!

I am convinced when I drive that everybody on the road must love me.  They are either trying to kiss my bumper or they are zooming by to get a good look at me.  What I don't understand is why they don't smile and wave when they pass me.  Sometimes they don't look happy at all.  I guess they are thinking about some problem they have to take care of.  Oh well.  It is nice to be appreciated!

Don't forget that one of my beautiful nudes, "Reaching Out", was selected out of over 3 million from over 119,000 artists to be on The Mindy Project airing September 25th.  The drawing will be in the main character's office.  Check it out!  This drawing is my best seller!

Also, be sure to look at my Artwork Added in 2011-2012 gallery on my website for additions to my portfolio.  I have been adding a lot lately.

Another Beautiful Nude and The Golden Years...

I love what I do but I don't love the photo shoots of my work.  In order to get acceptable prints for internet sales I have to drag my heavy easel outside and set up a tripod.  I have a lot of drawings on paper that I am trying to catch up on and they have to be carefully taped to a drawing board so the image will be perfectly flat.  After each picture I have to take all the tape off and put more on the next drawing.  I have the greatest respect for photographers.  It is back-breaking work to get a good print.  I am amazed at how a slight change in position can yield a completely different image in terms of the color.  After I am done I have to spend a lot of time on Aperture to get the color and contrast right.  My legs and back hurt.  Enough for today!

My husband has been going to a physical therapist due to a fall in a gopher hole that messed up his hip.  Each co-pay is $35.A few years ago he fell on ice and permanently damaged his right hand - luckily he is a leftie. He had to be operated on to the tune of quite a bit of money.  I don't remember how much.  I have mentioned before he is fructose intolerant so we have to buy very expensive substitutes.

He has come to the conclusion that the gold in the phrase Golden Years must refer to the amount of gold one has to have to get through them.  I hope he doesn't have any more serious health issues.  We aren't even in the Golden Years yet.

Again, I am excited about my best-selling print, "Reaching Out" being featured on the set of The Mindy Project which airs September 25th.  I haven't seen it yet in the commercials but it will be in the main character's office.  I used to jokingly tell my husband I should always have my cell phone with me because Hollywood might call.  Well, Hollywood did call and I hope they call again!

Revising a Nude Drawing and He Works for Potato Chips...

When I was a kid I often heard about how artists often return to work long after it was done.  That seemed so strange to me at the time.  I couldn't imagine working on a painting years later but now I understand why this happens.  Sometimes I figure out what what was wrong with an earlier painting or drawing long after I cried uncle.  Artists continue to learn more about their work as it becomes more complex and then earlier works seem so much easier to deal with.  Right now I am revising a charcoal nude drawing I did many years ago and like the effect I am getting.

When I was dating there was one comment I consistently heard from boys that made me uncomfortable.  They said I didn't talk very much.  One boy said other girls talked his ear off but I was so quiet.  I know I wasn't a big talker but I did think I talked when I had something to say.  I am painfully shy so I have to put on an act when I am around people to keep up my end of the conversation.  The effort grinds my stomach so I am perfectly happy alone in my studio or with my family.  When I started this blog I wasn't sure how I would be able to think of much to say so I decided I would have to be creative which is why I try to include something funny.  Sometimes I come up with something but I rely on the poet I married and the great thing is I don't have to pay him!  He works for potato chips!  As long as I keep potato chips in the house he tries to come up with something for me!  He didn't have anything for me today so I better go and check the supply.

Looking forward to seeing my most popular print, "Reaching Out", on The Mindy Project.  I saw an  advertisement for the show yesterday.  Hope it is a hit!

Strangest Bot I have Gotten and Which is More Likely...

I have had some weird experiences with bots but this one takes the cake.  Often I will get hits from the same place on four of my paintings in succession.  There is a different address each time this happens  They are always in the same order and these paintings are not together in my images or together in a gallery.  One of them was not getting many hits before this started to happen and now it is way up there and climbing every day. Oh well. I know bots are not a bad thing but this one certainly is selective!

With all the political commercials right now it is hard not to come up with a joke.  Here is one from my husband.

Which is more likely?

a. Congress may do some work in November,

  (as stated in a newspaper headline)

b. a team of Zoo monkeys will build a rocket and pilot it successfully to Mars by Christmas-

My money is on the monkeys!

Be sure to check out my canvas print specials starting tomorrow.  I will have "Reaching Out" on sale which, if you read the last blog, then you know it has been selected from over 3 million pieces of artwork from over 119,000 artists on Fine Art America to be on the set of the new sit-com, "The Mindy Project" which will air September 25th.  The set director bought and licensed an 8"x10" print to be place in the main character's office.

The other two specials are below.

Kendall Kessler's Most Popular Print will be part of the set of the upcoming sitcom The Mindy Project

Fox TV has requested the use of my most popular nude drawing, "Reaching Out", to be used as part of the set of a new sit-com, The Mindy Project.  The drawing will be in the main character's office. I am so pleased my work will be seen by millions and I hope you will look for it September 25th! Fine Art America has 119,627 artists on the site with 3,158,806 images.  This selection is quite an honor.

"Reaching Out" is now my best selling print.  "A Break in the Clouds" is in second place.   On Fine Art America this drawing is number one in the search results for charcoal nudes, nude girl drawings, nude drawings, and black and white nude girls.


Low on funnies this week.  I will have to get my crazy husband to work again. I can't do this by myself.  I am learning from the master but I am just a novice.  He is the nutty humorist and I depend on him.  The only thing I have is what he said about what people may have to do after going to some restaurants which is get two jobs.  One to pay the bill and the other to work off the calories.  Not his greatest but maybe next time I will have a better one.

Be sure to check out my new Gallery of artwork uploaded in 2011-2012.  Now you can view my recent uploads without looking through all my other galleries.  I have been uploading a lot lately.

Sold another Beautiful Nude and They may be Warming up...

I am so pleased to sell another framed print of Drapery Pull to a great patron in New York.  I am very proud of my gallery entitled Beautiful Nudes.  I think both the black and white nudes and color nudes are truly beautiful as art and I am glad they are appreciated!  Drapery Pull has a lot of visual drama with the strong light effect and the crowded space.  The girl seems to be pulled in by the setting.  I haven't sold any of the ones in color yet  but I think Repose is one of the best pastels, if not  the best pastel I have ever done.  I am very proud  of my American Artist award from highly acclaimed  pastelist Daniel Greene.  As I have said before, I  live to paint but pastel paintings are great, too.

The other day the gang of mini doberman pinchers next door were starting to bark so loud that it was sounding like a shrill squeal and I let out a moan.  It was in the evening so my  husband said why are you upset, they may not be doing that when we are trying to sleep.  I said how do you know they aren't just warming up like an orchestra?  We don't have air conditioning so this little group of barking tyrants is the bane of my existence right now and I hear one of them is pregnant.  Yikes!