Check out my Photographs and Yes they do...

Painting is my passion but I also like to take photographs so I decided to add them to my portfolio.  I have noticed a number of artists have photographs along with their paintings or drawings or whatever.  I like to create spatial and colorful effects with the camera.  Most of my paintings start with a photograph I take but I change them considerably until I like my painting much more than I like the photograph.  As I have said before, photo realism is just not for me.  Got to have elaborate, complicated, expressive brushwork.  You can't reproduce a photograph with that in it.  Anyway, I am pleased with my new folder which is entitled I love the Beach Creative Photographs. I hope to sell prints of them.

On the way home from a vacation I was starting to get punchy behind the wheel so I decided it was time to goad my husband into saying something that would make me laugh.  I saw the sign that said traffic speed enforced by aircraft or something like that so I asked my husband if that meant an airplane would swoop down and give me a ticket.  He said no but they have a special airplane that swoops down and sucks up the offending car and then takes it right to the police station.  He says that is an old joke but I hadn't heard it before so it made me laugh.  Glad to be home!



Be sure to check out my Limited Time specials on Fine Art America and don't forget about my best-seller, "Reaching Out", on The Mindy Project.  I have had to miss a few episodes but there were

shots of it on the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 18th episodes.  Funny show!

Going Around in Circles and The Only Thing the Doctor will discover...

Most painters start out having a ball with paint and turning out a lot of things they like without a lot of effort. Then they start to discover all the intricacies of what they are doing and they try to control the paint too much and bye bye happy accidents. Then they try to balance between control and accident and worry over every brush mark, large or small, as the painting takes on a language all its own. I'll bet most painters would agree with what I just wrote. These steps lead to life long circles. I try to tell the painting what to do and it tells me what to do as I keep modifying my approach with each work. Painting is never boring. Right now I am using a much more traditional thin to thick technique I haven't used in a long time. Round and round. Where I stop nobody knows. As long as I am here I will paint.

Last Friday I had an MRI for pain in my rear end and leg. Since the pain is in the muscle and does not exist 24 hours of the day I figure the only thing the doctor will discover from the MRI is that the insurance doesn't cover the cost and I will have a big copay. Let's hear it for insurance!

Sold Another Original and Whatever Happened to Turn it On?

I am so pleased to sell another original. This time it is one of my intimate face series. I am very proud of the design elements and sensuous surfaces of these little portraits of family members. My son has been my model for many paintings. I haven't done one of him since he grew up but I am considering a new one. These painting were based on old photographs. I enjoy interpreting photographs and expressing my feelings through the textures and colors. Although I am extremely eclectic, photo realism is not my favorite type of art. An artist cannot show expressive brushwork or interpretive colors in photo realism. Just not my thing.

Whatever happened to turn it on? Everything has become so complicated now. My son has everything attached to his TV but the kitchen sink. I have no idea how all of this stuff works so I am no help if something goes wrong. My husband and I have enough trouble baby-sitting the computer so we don't get attacked by a virus through that modern day trojan horse. We had to get a converter box for our TV so now we have three remotes. One for the TV, one for the DVD box, and one for the transformer box. If I leave the room my husband tells me to give him everything so he can drive the thing. I greatly appreciate computers as I am able to sell artwork around the world but sometimes I miss the days when no one could find me, the phone just had a ring, and the TV was turned on by a dial.

The Final Brush Marks and Frances is just Too Nice

It is always so hard to know when to quit on a painting. I have learned over the years to let them alone for a while before deciding if they are really done but it is so difficult to stop. Often times I feel like I should push one a little more before I quit but that usually just creates more problems to solve and perfection is always out of reach. Since my work is representational people that don't understand abstract art are always trying to get me to explain it to them. I tell them that I can't explain what all artists do. I believe the only way people that only understand art as a picture of something can understand how all art is abstract is for them to take it up themselves. Whether the artwork has specific shapes from nature or not there are a multitude of decisions to be made based on how it looks as a work of art created by one personality.

Just put the last marks on one I am pleased with. It's not exactly what I want but it is close.

Our dog Frances is just too nice. The other day we saw her about two feet from her dish. She was calmly watching a cat eat her dog food. She didn't bark or go after the stray cat. I guess the natural animosity between dogs and cats is not always true. She is still periodically staring at the neighbor's dogs as they bard like mad at her. She never barks back or bares her teeth at them. Sweet old dog.

Reaching into the Past

Since we are snowed in I am able to work more than usual. I am excited about my current portrait of my husband and son. The photograph that I am basing the painting on is twenty-five years old. Since then I have been through so many different approaches to oil painting that they are all converging in my head as I paint this one. I started out using the traditional thin-to-thick method of layering oil paint but I have since explored many levels of the impasto technique. I still apply the paint in layers. Most oil paintings are made that way but I am often asked if I use a palette knife as the brushwork is visible on close inspection.

It is so exciting to look at the photograph and make visual decisions partly based on the photograph, partly based on my personal expression, and partly based on combining various impasto techniques. Painting is a magic act. I balance between control and accident and arm wrestle it down as Paul Frets once told me.

Here is another painting I want to add to my portfolio when the weather improves and I can get a good outdoor shot.

PAINTING EXCITEMENT

I recently posted two new paintings on ebay that I am very excited about. I intend to enter online images of one of them in competitions. It is one of the best paintings I have ever done. "A Naturalist" is an intense portrait of my husband. The color contrast, brushwork, and spacing are wonderful.

The other painting, "Bottom Creek", is a waterfall in Montgomery County. The sensitive color modulation and light effect on the water make this painting a wonderful visual experience.

Be sure to check out these items on ebay. Just put Kendall Kessler in the search.
green pastels