My Interview With A National Magazine !!!

  

 In the middle of our summer driving 'marathon " in Acadia  National Park this year, I was contacted by Ann Pringle, the editor of Driving Digest, about doing an interview for a feature article in their fall issue #203. I was more than pleased and honored to be offered this opportunity to show my work and to answer Ann's questions about my life and my work. It's no secret that the majority of my body of work depicts the world of the driving horse. It is a equestrian discipline that I love to participate in and to paint. I hope everyone has had the chance to read the article, and to see a sample of my work as Driving Digest featured it so wonderfully. Thank you Driving Digest and Ann Pringle!!

 

 

"The Wheelers", oil , 12 x 16"  copyright 2015

 

 

I am back in the studio now....busy with the start of commission work for the holidays and new year.

I am also working on new original work. My art work is very important to me....Life goes on.

 

 





Ponies... More Ponies At Acadia

 "Ponies At Acadia" , casein , 9 x 12" ©2015 www.kathipeters.com

This is my latest casein painting done. The subjects , the handsomest four-in-hand of gray ponies,.... who I saw up at Acadia this summer. They were just coming back from a long drive. We were just leaving with our carriage, loaded on out trailer and were heading back from a month of driving at Acadia.

That leader pony, watching me, captured my eye.... I had to paint that inquisitive face. Why didn't I include the carriage and passengers? Because for me it was more about the horses......."Ponies At Acadia"

Most of today was spent in the studio as summer continues it hot muggy and frankly not too pleasant weather. I am not a lover of humidity and heat. But soon winter will come with its blast of frigid cold and snow.....I am hoping for some cool sun-filled fall weather about now. So for the time being I will be cloistered in my studio cave....painting.

Carriage Driving In Acadia !!! And My Latest Oil Painting

 

                  "By Bubble Pond - Acadia"  oil on canvas on board  12 x 12"  ©2015 www.kathipeters.com

 

There are so many roads to travel by bike or on foot up or riding horseback in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island . You can even go by horse drawn carriage...a link to the past. By carriage is my favorite way to experience the beauty that is Acadia. My painting "By Bubble Pond- Acadia" is another way for one to experience that thrill from the comfort of their home......this latest painting is available and ready for it's forever home.

 

This next month will bring driving those Acadian carriage roads a daily joy for us. I will be filling my imagination with paintings that will be done after our driving marathon is over. Bear with me as I placate my muse.......fill my head with Maine scenery and horses and carriages. And in between ......my gardens will grow and lawn and fields will need mowing. Never a dull moment at Cob Cottage Farm and Studio!!   And I will paint!    

 

 

                                                   Little Long Pond , Acadia

The Cabin By The Estuary in Acadia

 

"The Cabin By The Estuary - Acadia"  , casein on board,  16 x 20" ©2014 Kathi Peters

 

This painting was done a while ago, but I have been so lax on writing my blog and never posted about it. I actually have finished 3 paintings and haven’t written about them. I blame it on my presence on Facebook, [www.facebook.com/kathipetersart] and the fact that we have been busy on the farm mowing, gardening and trying to keep up with it all. We try and drive our pair of horses too. It all doesn’t get done, but we are enjoying this summer so. Soon it will be fall and I PLAN on getting back into the studio then to work on some new works I have been planning. But as long as the warm sunny days lure me outside, I need to get things done that need doing outside.
The old house or cabin in this painting has intrigued me to years. I wonder about who lived there before leaving it neglected. Every time we go to Acadia we pass this old house that now sits empty. It looks down from a small hill onto the estuary on the opposite side of the road that runs between. Both scenes have been inspiring me to paint them.  I have finally captured the gray small house. The estuary is next. I know already how I want to approach the painting of this ever changing landscape.
I have not yet run out of ideas for new paintings………….I don’t think I ever will.

 

 

Where Has March Gone? New Percheron Painting!

"Percherons Heading To The Tea House - Acadia"

 

This month has just flown by. With spring being very fickle and just giving us glimpes of her warmth and promise of green, tomorrow we have the priviledge of experiencing yet another Nor'Easter with snow and high winds.

I will be in the studio trying to get paintings packed and ready to ship out.

 

March did let me finish this new painting of draft horses at Wildwood Stables in Acadia National Park. Acadia is a spot where I get a lot of inspiration for paintings and it has been so for years . For over 20 plus years we have been going there and soaking in Acadia's beauty. We are so looking forward to doing that again this summer. If it ever comes. We are still waiting on spring to do her thing!!

 

Until then......I paint!

News ..I Am Added To A New Art Gallery In Red Hook, N.Y.

2014 started with a weather pattern that is more or less erratic. But I don’t think I am telling you something you aren’t aware of. With an ice storm that left us without power…or heat... in below freezing temperatures ,  our farm is covered with a coating of ice which is making it hard to walk ...but oh so easy to slide…often unintentionally. So I walk carefully into the New Year with cleats on my winter boots and trying to grab time in the studio.  The cold weather means more work on the farm and less artistic time for me.

The good news is that I have been invited into a new art gallery in Red Hook, NY. So this week I packaged up 7 paintings to go to Equis Art Gallery, in Red Hook…..and I look forward to a great working relationship with them. This gallery that is representing some of the best international equine artists, and it is the dream incarnate of equine photographer Juliet Harrison. How appropriate that her "stable of artists" includes some amazing equine artists! I am so flattered to be part of that dream.

"Four In Hand From Above"  casein on paper  12 x 9"  ©2012 www.kathipeters.com

 One of my works that will be exhibited in Equis Art Gallery is my casein painting “Four In Hand From Above”, a painting that was inspired from a loft view of a coaching turnout that was up at Acadia’s Wildwood Stables years ago. I am always inspired to paint carriage driving scenes and the lofty view of any subject is also a view I have painted throughout the years. Equis Art Gallery is interested in my carriage driving art work. I will strive to create some more works with just that subject.

BACK TO THE STUDIO I GO…….There are paintings that need doing!

New Painting Of Dosing Drafts Done

This was originally posted on my studio blog .  10/20/2013

 "Sleeping Grays"     Casein on paper      9 x 12"

 

“Sleeping Grays” is done…. and I am back working on one of several commissions that I accepted. "My Studio Clean up Sale" is still on…so don’t forget to check it out, as I have added a few new paintings to the sale and will continue to do so for a bit longer. Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far clean out and gain back studio space for creating!

My days in the studio seem to fly by and Nell is always with me when I work. She works too. Squirrel guard is a very strenuous job…..Sometimes she needs to take power naps [too]!

 

My gardens are still providing color and eye candy. Soon though, all will be gray surrounding the farm, until snow comes and blankets it all with white, and the blue and purple shadows of the long winter light.

 

 

 

Each season has its own glory. I enjoy them all.

My Work In Two Exhibits 'Down South '

"Warning Signs"  casein on board   12 x 12"

 Just a quick up date and reminder.....My casein painting "Warning Signs" can be seen at The Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art - "The Horse In Fine Art", at 30 Atlanta Street, Southeast Marietta, GA from April 13 - July 2, 2013. AND  this Art Show overlaps the Spring "AAEA Invitational ...Exhibition" at is hanging in The Anne Wright Wilson Gallery , Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY. April 12 - May 24, 2013. My work can bee seen in BOTH venues for the AAEA Spring Invitational. Hope you all get a chance to see the shows!

I have been busy, finishing up a commissioned watercolor and now working on a large [for me] casein of the coaching carriage crowd at Acadia National Park in Maine. This painting will be included in a one "man" show that will hang in North Yarmouth, Maine at Skyline Farm Carriage Museum that opens next month....I will write more about this in another post.

Now it is time to clean stalls.....

Winter Continues And I Paint

"Ground Driving"  casein on canvas  6 x 6"  SOLD

 Each weekend of late has presented us with another major snow fall. Last weekend was no exception.But Monday morning dawn sun-filled and a brilliant white landscape delighted the eye!! I am so grateful for the sunny days where spirits are raised and snow is shoveled......preparing us for the next event!

While it snowed, I retired to my studio and I took our my casein paints and did 2 smaller works depicting scenes  from my life."Ground Driving"  has sold and been shipped to it's new home already. The second is being varnished , then it is ready to go.

"Between Drives At Acadia"  casein on canvas    10 x 8"

I love the gentle giants who pull the carriages over the carriages road at Acadia National Park.If you have been following my blog fora while you probably know that driving horses and Acadia have been a big part of my life. We are so looking forward to actually getting up to Acadia with our own new pair of  horses this spring. We are SO ready for spring!!


But until then....Nell is trudging through the snow that newly fell on our deck....wondering where a JRT can lay and bask up the sun while it is out...where?... with all this snow covering our world today!!

Nell wants sun....spring!  ©2013 www.kathipeters.com

 

Saratoga and More More More

I let the demo audience try their hand at oil painting on copper!!

It has been a while since my last post.We have gone to Saratoga  Springs and back....Had a wonderful vacation of sorts. [I think they call it  a bus-man's holiday??} I did a painting demonstration at The Equidae Gallery that represents me in Saratoga Springs in the summer and then in Vermont the rest of the year. I talked about how I got started in oil on copper paintings, [Thanks to artist Renee Lammers !! ] and why I work in that medium on copper and not so much in oil on canvas. I painted in the demo too, starting a new work depicting a four-in-hand in Acadia's Wildwood Stables. The Friday night Champagne Reception was packed and I was pleased to be greeted by the proverbially "red dot" that every artist hopes for when we arrived at the opening!! A good start of the race season!!

Les and I had time to explore the parks and gardens of Saratoga, visit the track, enjoy the carousel in the park and the artists' retreat and wonderful gardens of Yaddo, with its lovely statuary and fountains,rose gardens and woodland walks. We also managed to have some wonderful tasty meals at Saratoga's awesome restaurants. One could say we ate our way through the city!! Indian,Thai,Italian....and of course Mrs. London's pastries extraordinaire! We met friends there and when I wasn't working we just had a great time!!

Visited Spa Gallery with friend Juliet Harrison & we called artist friend Kimberley Santini

 to congratulate her on her work hanging there!!

Saratoga Springs Park

In the gardens of Yaddo

One evening I even sat on the Saratoga Lake-side and plein air painted the wonderful brilliant sunsets our B&B afforded us each night. But Saratoga was hot...and felt much hotter than Maine's hot weather feels. We were happy to be on our way back home, and travelled back taking the "high road" through Vermont and New Hampshire, where we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of each New England state.

"Saratoga Lake Sunset"   Oil on copper    6 x 6"  plein air

So we are home. Nell is happy to have us home. ...and I am back working in my cool basement studio with Nell by my side....Life goes on.......and wonderfully it seems!!

Horses and Hound and Maine Winter

Duster looks out over distant fields.   ©2012 kathi peters

Winter has been cold and bitter of late....winds howled and snow blew.The horses cherished any sun they could find,soaking up any warmth it might afford them.But I have to admit that the snow covering the farm and forest is beautiful to look at.....soft to walk through....and not that hard to shovel.I am grateful for small miracles!

Victoria enjoys her side of the barn.  ©2012 kathi peters

Nell soak up sun anywhere she can find it in the house.   ©2012 kathi peters

The buoy chime swings in the wind. ©2012 kathi peters

I have been working in my studio each day. I have finished a new painting of a mare and foal. "Mother and Son" will be up on my website soon. I am also busy on an smaller casein painting on paper....a four-in- hand driving scene from up at Acadia National Park.....a freguent subject for my artwork. I paint what I know and what I love......Acadia is so beauiful. Combine that with carriage driving.....heaven!!!

But now it is cold out. Winter is in full force and my days are spent in the studio,...while our resident horses and hound look for comfort in the warmth of the winter sun, while they dream of spring,summer, warmer days.

Quick Little Landscape Oil Painting

"Duck Brook Bridge Again"      O/C                5 x 7"

I like doing small quick oil paintings... sometimes just to capture a scene and see if I want to go further with the idea. I have so many Acadia scenes that sing to me....this is one of them. I think I will pursue this scene in more detail....but it may take me a while to get to it. I have work I need to finish, both originals and commission works. I am still looking through photos taken while in Lexington and Georgetown, Kentucky. And I have winter scenes I need to get painted now.I have put this small oil on my website.
Fall is starting to show its colors around the farm. The horses are starting to sport the beginnings of their winter coats. I am so not looking forward to the Corgi's shedding [blowing] her summer coat for her winter' woollies'.....and WHO told me that JRT's don't shed??? 

An Aarhus Gallery Show

"They Stand, They Wait-Acadia" casein on paper 9 x 12"

Please join me at Åarhus Gallery for an opening reception Friday March 5th, 5-8pm for the second annual '44N 69W: Radius Belfast'. An all encompassing show running from March 4th through the 28th, featuring work by Maine artists. All artworks, celebrating this vast creative community, will be on view and for sale with 20% of proceeds going to food banks within a thirty-mile radius of Belfast. Last year over one hundred and fifty pieces of art were exhibited to the delight of hundreds of visitors, with consequent sales enabling a generous donation to the Good Shepard Food Bank. This year I am exhibiting a painting depicting carriage horses up at Acadia National Park, Maine's crown jewel! We have spent many wonderful hours driving the carriage roads of Acadia ourselves. I will never tire of painting horses at Acadia! I am honored to be part of this great endeavor!

Grays Though the Park

This new 10 x 10" casein on gallery wrapped canvas, is an Acadia inspired work. This pair are actually the leaders of a four-in-hand coaching visitor at Wildwood. I loved the way the light hit them as they trotted through the pine lined carriage roads on the Rockefeller's roads behind Little Long Pond. That part of the Acadia Carriage Roads is my favourite part.

I went in loose and abstract with this painting and just finished up with a hint of detail. I have put it up on my website.

Now I need to clean out the studio to make room for new supplies that I ordered ...then back to work.

Acadia Again

It might seem as though I am fixated with Acadia...........I am. I miss the old days when the four-in-hand drivers were coming up to Wildwood each fall to picnic and drive, all duded up with their grooms in full livery and their passengers with their fancy hats. It was a taste of a other time. A time when things were slower and full of tradition. I liked that.
This 11 x 14 casein is a scene often seen at the Wildwood barn as the grooms readied their charges..this time it is a Kladruby being groomed...what a lovely team they were stepping out on the carriage roads.
This work is being added onto my website.

Another coupe for me...I finally sent off an 'email newsletter' ...it was a learning experience for me...full of typos I am sure......but done, nevertheless. This is another way you can hear my news and you can sign up for it on my new website. Check it out!!


Now I am headed out to the barn while the warm weather stays...going down to paint the barn doors.....yellow to match the Tamarack trees that dot our forest line.

A BIT OF COLOR , HEH!!?

Published?

Some news about what has been happening career -wise for me while I have been 'playing' in my gardens.....

I have had two artworks chosen to be featured in a new book By Vicky Moon, titled “Equestrian Style -Home Design, Couture, and Collections from the Eclectic to the Elegant “ to be coming out next month. [July 2008] It is published by Clarkson Potter. The book captures the equestrian way of life with an unprecedented peek into several dozen stunning residences…. a French-accented mansion decorated with contemporary horse art; an equestrian resort on 395 acres—complete with cottages for owners to rent and a large private collection of carriages; a spa with a swimming pool for horses; and a working barn that Kathryn Ireland decorated to do double duty as a home for a professional horseman, riding instructor, and model, and whose students included Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

“Rhapsody In Blue”, a casein painting of A Friesian under saddle and “Acadian Four”, a cut paper drawing of a coaching scene at Acadia, were picked to illustrate equestrian actives for select chapters of the book. “Equestrian Style” is certain to be a good read for horse lovers everywhere.

These two artworks will be exhibited at Gallery B in Lexington, KY at several book signings for Ms Moon's Equestrian Style" new publication held at the Gallery.

Beautiful Jim Key DONE For The Mural

My panel is done and ready to be shipped..........Nice to have it done....

and now I am able to get busy on some other works, some commissions and works for upcoming shows, that I have had to put on hold because the deadline loomed for the Le Cadeau Du Cheval- The Gift of the Horse. I will be checking for my panel to see when it gets up onto the mother image.

It is hot today in my loft studio........95 outside. This is hot for June in Maine. I guess I need to start working outside a bit when the weather is like this!!

Yesterday we took the day off and headed north the I favourite spot...ACADIA! No artwork was done but I did get some awesome photo shots for future paintings. I love Acadia National Park! It always feeds my muse!!

Taking It Laying Down

I have been very busy the last week or so......but I am almost done with a commission and some deadlines I needed to get through. It has been hard forcing myself to stay in the studio. I swear that I will get out in the sun more tomorrow ......transplant some perennials and did I see grass growing that needs mowing already??
I may even get a ride on one of the horses in!!

The 9 x 12" painting above is of one of the draft horses at Acadia National Park. This fellow is done in casein on Colorfix....a favourite combination for me.

More later.........time to feed the horses. [Isn't it always time to feed the horses ,or the dog, or the cat, or the flowers, or the husband...............etc etc....................

Acadian Deer

The reference photo for this drawing of a young Acadia buck was given to me by a passenger who was on the horse drawn carriage my husband was driving on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park last summer. I decide to try this shot in a close up in graphite. This drawing is about 9 inch square on Bristol paper. It is available for purchase.

It was fun doing this in detail, with no actual details of the trees and leaves... just the suggestion of their being there. This young buck had soft velvety antlers. He wasn't afraid of the carriage full of visitors as they snapped pictures of him from the carriage. I wonder if he couldn't smell the humans due to the draft horses being there.
Les [my husband] had told the folks during the ride around Day Mountain, that his wife was an artist...and the fellow, who shot this picture, offered to send me the photo to paint, draw or whatever. So here is my first work from the reference photo.

We have many deer around our farm in Morrill......[sometimes I think TOO MANY when they eat my perennials!]....and have been enjoying watching a young skipper run around our horse fields in the evenings of late. He is so full of himself.
Spring is in the air!!

The Black Pair

This 16 x 20" casein is done, varnished and good to go.

The two driving horses were at Acadia this last summer when we were up there to go driving with friends. I had to paint them......big and handsome men that they are!



Most of my day has been taking up with varnishing paintings and doing paperwork. My how that is tiring. Makes me want to take a nap! Sounds like a plan..................