Art – Page 136 – Katie Jeanne Wood

Telling Stories We Already Told – mixed media figure painting

This is a large 24×30 inch painting I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s actually one I started about 4 years ago, and thought I had finished. I recently took it down off the wall in my living room, and decided it was time to revise it, and offer it for sale.

This is one of the first of many larger paintings to come this summer.

Telling Stories We Already Told
Acrylic mixed media figure painting on canvas
Available here
Prints are available at Saatchi Art

Anyone who has been in a long term relationship or marriage will relate to the title. You’ve already heard it all from your partner before, but you politely sit through hearing the same old story one more time.

My poor husband knows this all too well. I am notorious for retelling stories. I don’t know why, but my husband generously gives his time to listen to me. Sometimes more words get added, and the tale gets longer, but it’s still the same story in the end.

Listening to: Harry Styles playlist..gosh, I didn’t expect to like his music. Not at all, but after seeing him do carpool karaoke with James Corden, I had to look him up. I love this album so much. He’s so pretty. I think I might have a wee bit of a crush.

The Swimmer No 2 Oil portrait painting by Katie Jeanne Wood

The Swimmer No 2
Girl wearing sunglasses
Oil portrait painting on panel
*free shipping within the USA if purchased through my website

Watch me paint her in this video.

Girl and her chicken oil portrait painting

This one has taken me about a month to paint. I’ve had to allow the oil paint to dry in between sessions because her skin tone was getting too muddy. Plus, I had to do a lot of detail work with a tiny brush. Hands and skin tone don’t usually give me any trouble, but for some reason I struggled on this one. I think I finally finished it a couple nights ago, but I’m going to let it sit for a few days before I decide for sure. More photos to come later.

*****

I’m still having a studio sale in both of my Etsy shops. You can find portraits here. Florals and birds here. Some prices have been reduced greatly. I need to free up some space for more paintings.

Don’t Look, But Isn’t He Cute
Was $400, now $300

I’m thinking of painting over this one soon, if it doesn’t sell. Get it while you can.

Apologies to everyone for not visiting your blogs lately. I’ve been working around the clock, and haven’t had time. I’ve also been having trouble staying consistent with my blogging schedule, plus I have a slew of comments that I haven’t got around to reading and publishing yet either. Ugh. I hope to get it all back on track this week. I hope you understand.

Love,

your exhausted friend, Katie xo

Bundled: pink chickadee bird painting set

Bundle of four cottage chic chickadee bird paintings

To ease up my workload a bit, I’ve started to bundle some of my mini paintings. Not only is that good news for me, but for you, also. If you bought these four paintings separately, it would cost you $160. You can get this bundled set for only $125, and if you buy it through my website, I offer free shipping within the USA. You get a mini gallery to hang on your wall, as well as savings. It’s a win/win for all! This cute set of 4 cottage chic birds is available here.

There will be more, perhaps larger, bundled sets to come in the future. This is only the beginning, so stay tuned.

If you love what you do

Pink & blue mixed media acrylic floral painting
Available here

If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it’s within your reach. And it’ll be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking and thinking about what it is you want to design or build. It’ll be worth it, I promise. –Steve Wozniak

Reading: Clothespins on the Line

Re-watching: Beautiful Losers

I saw this documentary a few years back, but had to watch it again. It makes me nostalgic for the artist I was years ago.

From Wikipedia: The film focuses on the careers and work of a collective group of artists who since the 1990s began a movement in the art world using D.I.Y. aesthetics from skateboarding, graffiti and underground music such as punk rock and hip-hop.

Kyffin Williams – featured artist

Kyffin Williams
Walsh landscape artist
b May 9, 1918 – d September 1, 2006
source

source

Having been diagnosed years ago with several autoimmune diseases, in which there are no magic pills to cure, I can relate to what Mr. Williams said about his epilepsy. Having chronic illness does tend to make you shy away from society, and keep to yourself. Thank goodness for art and the internet.

Links:

Kyffin Williams website

Wikipedia

BBC article

About this featured artist series: I pretty much always keep my nose to the grindstone, and rarely look up from my own work. I’m so busy in my studio, who has time for anything else? That’s what I used to think, anyway, but I want to change that a bit, and spend 2017 exploring other artists’ work. My thinking is this.. maybe by understanding what makes other artists tick, I can better understand myself, and why art is so important to me. I hate the thought of keeping these gems all to myself, so I thought I’d share them with you. Look for new featured artist posts every other Thursday.

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Prepping mini panel paintings

Before I start painting on any substrate, I prep it first. Take these mini 4x4s for example. The back of these panels come plastered with Dick Blick’s logo all over them. As much as I’d love to promote Dick Blick on every order I ship out, I think it’s more important to sign, date, and add my website info to the back of every painting. The logo needs to go.

I’ve tried gessoing over it, but the logo showed through. So, now I paint over the logo with black paint, like this..

It’s not ready for my signature until the backs get two coats of gesso. With all the drying time involved, this process took most of the day. Now it’s on to the front of the canvas..

I’ve written about my dislike for painting directly on canvas many times in the past. Same goes for canvas panels. I don’t like the texture of canvas. I don’t like how paintings look on canvas after the paint dries. My remedy is making a nice smooth surface to paint on by using either artist quality modeling or molding paste. I spread a layer on with my palette knife, and wait for it to dry. Yes, more time is spent waiting..

Once it’s dry, I wet sand the surface of the panel until it’s nice and smooth. Then, I cover the modeling paste with two coats of gesso. ::insert lots more waiting between coats here::

Once these are thoroughly dry, I can start thinking about what I’m going draw on each one, and then finally, I can begin to paint.

If you’re thinking this sounds like a long drawn out process, you’d be correct. It took me two full days to prep 24 panels. I’ll have more to say about all this next week. Stay tuned.

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Ancestry

16×20 Red, Blue & Green Mixed Media Collage Painting
Flower Series No 175
Available here

I watched a sweet documentary on Netflix last week called Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson that I thought I’d share with you.

PACKED IN A TRUNK uncovers the story of artist Edith Lake Wilkinson, committed to an asylum in 1924 and never heard from again. We follow the journey of Edith’s great-niece as she pieces together the mystery of Edith’s life and returns her work to Provincetown.

I’m not going to say too much about the film because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I will say I give it 5 stars. Watching it made me wonder if any of my ancestors were artists. I come from a large family, but no one besides Mom painted (that I know of), and she never had the passion or drive like I do. Makes me wonder where all this comes from because it seems Edith’s great-niece inherited the desire to paint from her.

It fascinates and intrigues me. Maybe I should sign up for Ancestry, and start digging? I know that my family’s last name Chandler means maker and seller of candles, which is artistic, so perhaps I’ll find a great aunt who painted, also? One can only hope.

A little side note: before I started painting full-time, I had considered making & selling candles, scents, and soap, but the pull to paint was too great, and won out. Later when I read about my family name, I got chills thinking back to those days when I was mulling over which I wanted to do. So, there’s a chance there was someone else in the family just like me, who chose painting over candle making, also.

Do you know your family’s history? Were any of them artists like you? Have you ever used Ancestry.com? How helpful was it? Let me know in the comments below.

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