Wow - I've not been here FORever!

I started another blog - probably without thinking it all the way through, so that I could show my art for sale. Thinking it through though, I could have probably just kept this one going and that would have been fine. Now if you want to see what I have for sale you'll have to go to http://www.katepethoud.blogspot.com/
Actually, it was set up as a daily painting site but then people were emailing me and asking me if this piece or that piece was for sale - so - there you go - you just can't anticipate everything.

One of the things I've been working on - well, two things actually - is starting arts and craft classes through the summer for kids, and preparing lesson plans to get me ready to start teaching for Stanislaus Arts Council in September. I am very excited for both opportunities and there seems to be doors opening up in the most unusual ways for me. We'll see what happens. Oh, and if you are in the Modesto area and are looking for fairly inexpensive art classes for your children please email me at DreamrKate@yahoo.com.

Here are the paintings I've done in the last few days:

Enjoy - and check back.

K

I almost forgot. . . .

I almost forgot to include the tiny panoramic paintings that I've been doing as ideas strike. I love that the composition seems to be coming together in these very small moments. They're small enough to hang in a grouping or in tight places where you might want a small, colorful surprise to brighten your day. Anyway - feel free to comment and tell me what you think.

Gosh, it's been weeks since I've posted anything. As you can see, I've been busy painting and I've sold a few things. I'm going to be involved in a few upcoming local events where I can show and sell my art - The Knights Ferry Peddlers Faire, Congregation Beth Shalom is having a 'first ever arts and music event,' the upcoming Third Thursday Art Walk, and another couple of art events at the local parks.

The weather has been hit and miss still... we get a few days that are gorgeous and then just when we think we're heading in the summer direction, bam, we get rain. Unpredictable but fun to watch. It's this time of year I love to drive just outside of town a bit to look at all the spring flowers, the peach and apricot trees. There's always something beautiful to be thankful for.

Scott's making breakfast and the smell of coffee and the thought that I can go right to painting and drawing is luring me away now - so BYE for the moment!

K

Spring Flowers

Here are a couple of things I've been working on. I think they're ready to go, hopefully tonight. All three are watercolor, or watercolor and oil pastels and ink, on 8 x 10 inch canvas. People have asked me for prices but that seems too forward to me, so if you are interested please email me. I think they're very affordable.

Are Sunflowers Becoming a Theme With Me?

Sunflowers seem to be "my thing" lately. I don't know if it's because they have large wide-open happy faces, or because they ever strive to reach the sun, or is it just because they show up for work? Every day during the summer, they are there, on duty, standing along the fence just smiling as if they are the overseers of our back yard kingdom.

Or is it because the petals grow so crazy-wild and it takes a real conscientious effort to be able to capture their rise and dips. Or maybe it's just because they are happy and in trying to spread that happiness, it makes me happy? I think it's that - it makes me happy. I've consciously given up doing things that don't make me happy every day. Kind of an indulgence, but I'm going to keep it going as long as I can.

Here are a few drawings that I haven't put color to yet. I like the compositions and I wanted to preserve them until I try out different colors and effects. (Basically, I don't want to mess them up.)

More later.

K

Trying Something a Little Different

Okay, this sunflower is NOT tiny - it's 5 x 7, small, but not tiny.

I've spent the last couple of days working on a few very small watercolors. Why? I don't know. I don't even know why you ask me that. I just felt like it. Anyway, I like the idea of panoramic paintings and I've got to work with what I've got.....and .... well here they are. Since they are so small, the thought of framing was starting to concern me. I haven't see any very small panoramic frames lately. . . . or ever. . . and custom framing, phffft, I'm sure that THAT would be cost prohibitive, so I'm going to mount them on recycled wood - which means I'm going out to my garage and find pieces left over from something else I've done, and put them on that.

We'll see how that goes.

Feel free to comment. I was so pleased that I couldn't even wait until a decent hour to talk about it.

K

A Painting a Day - It's all I ask...

Well, some days I'm fairly prolific, and some days I'm not.

I watch my dog, my big beautiful German Shepherd, as she turns in circles, figuring out just how to settle in. It's a puzzle to her, though it looks very much the same to me, but she's looking for just the right spot, just the right "merge" place where she can ease into her relaxation mode.

Granted - she's a dog, but many times in my effort to get started I feel the same way. There's a process. I get up in the morning, get coffee, then I head to the computer to check email and look at things - could be other blogs, it could be flipping through magazines for a minute or 15 - but most of the time I spend time laying out what I've been working on.

I've finally gotten my watercolors in a binder, in protective sleeves so that they're . . . well - protected, from water drips, my fingers, accidental pencil marks - whatever. I'll line up the other half dozen drawings that are in progress and try to decide which one I feel led to work on. They're all in various stages of unfinished - just ink, ink with some color, drawings that need something but I haven't figure out just what ... I spread them out and just look at them. Though it may appear (to people close to me) that organization is the bane of my existence, I am finally accepting that it's much easier to work in a semi-organized fashion - completed stuff put away, only the others cluttering about. Semi-organized.

My "circling" requires me to check the binder, line up my pencils, return pastels to their boxes. I like the process of setting the paper pads in front of me stacked in order of height and right next to them the pots of brushes. I probably only use three different brushes most of the time but still I like the pot of them nearby. It makes me feel official - like if I needed them, they'd be standing at-the-ready. Good little soldiers. Worn but loyal.

I think I'm ready now. One more trip to the restroom, one more glass of water. And now - to address what's at hand - do I start on a big page of blankness or work on what I've started?

Here's work from today - Saturday, March 6, Happy Birthday Mom!