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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Mentors In My Past

 "Manichini" by Manfredo Acerbo  1977

I grew up in Italy,studying art there... and I would imagine that I am very influenced by the artwork and artists I knew and saw in my travels through Europe as a child and later as an art student and working artist. I attended the Rome Academy of Fine Art as a young 17year old,surrounded by artists from around the world who were there as post graduate workers,all educated in Fine Art. I was an immature teenager, whom the board at the Academy thought had some talent and promise. I always wonder what they would think today if they saw my work and usual subject matter. I also spent several years in a Roman art school [ENALC] studying advertising art.

My mentor, during this time, was one of my professors, a teacher and also a celebrity in his own right. Manfredo Acerbo was a well-known poster designer.Those days in Italy the major advertising medium was posters...plastered all around the cities and towns.
Movies,cookware, tomato sauce, aperitifs....all advertised on posters. Manfredo was one of the famous designers of posters...did a lot of them for the spaghetti western movies that were so popular that that time. But he was also a fine artist  and a good friend of the famous painter Giorgio Morandi, who is well know for his still-life work. I have always loved Morandi's simple design and so Italian palette. I feel close to them both.

The reason I am rambling on about this is that today, the words spoken to me by Acerbo, the words that I will always keep as my reason for doing what I do.....has been speaking to me much!  Acerbo advised me, one day after a grueling painting session with a 'nasty" model....."Kati [that was how he pronounced my name] do not listen to this bitter critic ....but always draw, paint from your heart.The model was upset with your work because you captured her soul and she didn't like what you saw. Never loose that ability you have to capture the real subject.You have your own style and never let it be influenced by another artist, by teachers,or critics.STAY TRUE TO YOUR SELF" 

Those words have become my mantra of sorts.....I only hope that I can live up to his expectations of my artistic abilities......it all seems like yesterday and yet so far far away.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Doing Those Self-portraits

I think that artists should do self-portraits every so often. I have blogged about that before. I don't have live models available to work from,  so if I do a self-portrait, I get a cheap model and can get a figurative work done.  I try to get one self-portrait and maybe a still-life into my portfolio on a regular basis.

Over the past two weeks I have done two small acrylics  and one graphite self-portraits. With the acrylics I approached them from a weird angle, and did the same view twice, but with difference crops. 

"Retrospective #1"    acrylic     4 x 4"

 
" Retrospective #2"       Acrylic        4 x 4"


The graphite is a straight on view, looking strait at the mirror.....but I cropped it so just one side of my face is portrayed. [The' alive' side?] 
So...what do you think? Did I succeed in capturing provocative pieces?

 "Self"    graphite      10 x 3"


It is a very rain day out...and I am only now getting to actually work in the studio...just one of those days!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Around the Farm

All our equine kids on the farm are well fed and busy these days, keeping the fields mowed. They complain that it is a full time job....and that I should not bother them this summer, as they are far to busy! Our bay Cob mares are the busiest, for sure!

This afternoon I took a walk out to the pond to snap some photos of our pond-lilies that are in bloom.The sun was too bright to get the true color of the lilies, but I so want to paint them and I am thinking this HAS to be done in oil and on copper! It won't be plein air, but close to!!



And then, as I walked back from the pond and the fields, I  saw the hydrangea in full blossom, a delicate blue and begging to be photographed...and should be painted! I know these are not horses, but I just have this need to try everything on copper and in oil!


 But I have been painting too....between the walks....


 "Pokey Pembroke"           5x7"              oil on copper

Today I finished this small oil on copper of our Corgi...this will be added to my website and is available.In the meantime I need to get some caseins done for the September show at Gallery B ,in Lexington, KY. So it is back to the studio for me!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Watching Paint Dry



I have finished the 22 x 22" oil on copper on birch...and I am very pleased with the finished product! I will be doing more paintings on this support.... on copper panels. With a local supplier, I am promised the availability of the copper, and am more that happy that this is a support I can have on hand and use as the muse dictates. As soon as I can get a better shot of the painting, I will be posting it on my website. I will be including this painting in my "Shades of Gray" series.


 

The woman rider is a very important part of this composition, so I am showing a closeup of her here.
This painting is all about the light and the shadows..and the ever design.

Now back to the casein painting in progress....a handsome Kentucky foal!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Copper and Oils and Gardens


Addie [PWC] and I went for a walk in the back yard,checking on how our gardens are coming along. [Mistress Mary, quite contrary,How does your garden grow?] I think we quite agree that so far, so good. The small hydrangea has taken to it's new spot on our farm and is coming into flower. The white clematis that climbs our back arbor, is in full bloom,covered with flowers.


 After our walk we headed back into the studio to work on the oil painting on the copper panel. I hope to get this one done this week. I have some other commission work I need to get done and then have new ideas I want to try on more copper panels.  I am liking this oil painting on copper for sure.


I learned today that I was featured in an article written by Renee Phillips in the new July/August Art Calendar magazine. The article is titled: "Healing Power of Creativity". Surprise Surprise! I don't think that I knew about this article?? But I am smiling! Thank you, Renee. I can't wait to actually see it!!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Ice Pony

"Ice Pony"     mixed media   18" x 14"

This painting is framed in a lovely distressed gold frame and it hangs in my office at the moment. It is painted in casein, acrylic and gold with some ink throw in for good measure. The horse is a lovely Icelandic perlino stallion........and looking back on it now, I was playing with the colors of grays/white horses when I painted this fellow. I suppose I could add this to my "Shades Of Gray" series. I have added the painting to my website..........
It is available.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Progress on Oil Painting On Copper

Oil painting on copper mounted on birch board  22 x 22" @ kathi peters 2010

I have been working on this oil....and am loving the feel of the paint as it slides onto the copper, along with working on a painting of this size. It means standing up and that makes it possible for me to move around more.I  look at the painting ,step back and look at the work. What a novel idea!! ;-)

We have been having a bit of rain lately. This is a good thing as things were starting to get a bit dry.But the rain also cut the season short for my poppies. I do love the short spurt of bright red in my garden..and the fact that I can enjoy it all just outside my studio door! Now the roses are starting. When they open in flower not only will I have eye candy, in red and pink.... but the air is perfumed by the roses as well!! Now I know why I moved the studio down stairs!!

 

AND....An exciting side note: I am featured in the June issue [#56]  of American Art Collector magazine.There is a great article, written by John O'Hara, titled " The Art Of The Horse", and my work is featured along with 14 other equine artists. I am happy to be in such great company. If you get a chance , take a look see of the caliper of artists and read the article.

Now back to the studio. September and the art show at Gallery B in Lexington, KY is coming up fast. I need to put the pedal to the metal.........or the oil to the copper!!! Ciao!


Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Long Way To The Barn

This is the path I follow, stepping out of my studio, heading down to the barn. This same path is taken more than several times a day. It is a peaceful path surrounded by my gardens and the woods that lay beyond our lawn. These moments stolen away from my studio always have a way of revitalizing me. And the horses are happier for having seen me! They know it means food when I appear!

I am currently working on two paintings, both in oil, both depicted the same subjects, but each done on different supports. One on canvas on board, and the second on copper panel mounted on birch wood.So here are two painting in progress....the first on canvas.....as it stands now.

  The photos that I have used for reference were provided by Yvonne Kauklija of Coldwellfarm in Stockholm, Sweden. Hard to explain but I met Yvonne through her stallion Sammy Assadhem! and I met him on Facebook!  I want to write more about Yvonne, her lovely farm and wonderful horses and her artistic endeavors, but that will be in another post.The horse appearing in both paintings that I am doing now is 'Shagelle'.  She will be portrayed in my series "Shades Of Gray"

And then ....the painting that is on the copper panel is just  barely started, but the more I paint with oil on the copper panel, the more I like it.The panel seems to emanate an inner glow that is hard to subscribe....and at this point is hard to photograph too! But this is the painting in three stages, so far! The prepared panel, the drawing with ink on the panel and the sky and 'landscape' roughed in and some of the shadow added in a maroon-ish purple.

The copper panel is scuffed and sandpapered after being mounted onto a birch panel.


I have drawn the subject onto the copper panel


I have started painting now on the copper!!


I am so happy that fellow artist, and friend, Renee Lammers turned me onto this metal painting support. Renee has been painting on copper for quite a while and teaches it too. I know this is a sort of big undertaking, a painting of this size... but I am up to the challenge...and I am always happy to try a path less taken!!


"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference." Robert Frost
I take the same path, the same 'road' to and from my studio, to our barn each day, many times. I think it is time for me to try another road for a change....while wondering if it will make a difference!