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

May I Be Thankful For May !?

 

 

It is the merry month of May. It also is a month of celebration as spring really arrives in Maine and  it is the month we usually have the vet come to give our horses their yearly checkup and annual shots. BUT  May will always have a miriad of meanings for me... because it is STROKE AWARENESS month.    But I digress…read my blog entry of May 19th, 2008 that explains a lot. ....

 

"What May Means To Me Or Why I Blog" written  5/19/2008

"May has always been a special month for my family…spring is in full swing, my husband’s birthday falls in May and of course so does Mother’s Day. But this year [and every year now] May has taking on new meaning for us, as it is designated as Stroke Awareness Month. And we are very aware about stroke. Now.

 

On July 29th of 2006, my husband and I, along with my sister who was visiting from California, were all headed from our farm in Morrill, Maine to my eldest brother’s home in New Hampshire to celebrate his 70th birthday. It was a surprise party for him and for the first time in a long time, my siblings and I were going to be together to party and have a good time. We arrived on time and I got out of our car to greet everyone, feeling so happy to see us all together. My sister-in-law, Bev walked up to me and started talking …I could hear her, but I couldn't make out a word that she was saying. I didn’t feel right, but was busy looking around at everybody when I realized I couldn't see my right hand or arm and I couldn’t figure out where they were…and I was still trying to understand Bev. She sounded like a slow broken record and her words were all jumbled to me. I looked around for my husband Les, and when I saw him I asked, “Where’s my arm? And he said “By your side? What’s the matter?” Then I guess everyone saw something was wrong with me. I remember them helping me into the shade of a huge tree on the grounds and helping to lay me down on the ground. I looked up at everyone… I didn’t know what was happening. I couldn’t really talk and tell them what I felt and a sea of faces looked down on me. But through it all a strange feeling of calm and peacefulness filled my being and I knew it would be all right.

 

I was suffering a stroke.

 

 

 I missed my brother’s 70th. To make a long story short…I was rushed to a hospital in N.H. and then was transported by ambulance to Portland, Maine, and admitted into Maine Medical Center. This was done in order that I should be closer to my family and doctors. Tests were started. The left side of my brain had been ‘attacked’ when the blood flow was interrupted or stopped due to a blood clot. A significant part of my left temporal lobe was affected and this left me with right-sided paralysis and Aphasia. Aphasia is a condition where language problems make it difficult to talk the way I used to and makes writing very difficult for me. Something that was so important to me in my life [I have worked as a newspaper reporter and fashion editor in the past…and wrote poetry.] .... was now something that was so difficult. My understanding and comprehension of speech were unimpaired, but speech itself became hard as my speech related muscles wouldn’t cooperate and my brain could not find the words to say what I wanted to. But what was more important to me, as I lay on the hospital bed with my family around me…could I draw??? I managed to get the nurse to understand what I wanted…. a pencil and paper. She brought them and everyone looked on as I sketched an eye, a horse head……….okay… I could live with the limitations I had a this point. I could draw, and this would mean I could paint. Life was good!!!

 

 

In the week that passed in between hospital tests, MRI’s and blood work, I sketched some, slept a lot, but I knew I needed to get home, to our quiet farm where I would be alone with my husband, see my Corgi and our horses, see and smell our gardens and get down to the business of getting better…. to getting ‘Kathi’ back!

 

This year and half that has passed has been difficult. Our horses became my therapy, as I brushed them while walking with a cane, my hand and arm gained strength. I cleaned stalls, needing the muck fork to help stand up with. Throwing hay and lifting shaving bags became my upper body strengthen exercises. I had a speech therapist come and work with me in our home, she helped me start to get over some the Aphasia problems…and an occupational therapist to help me get my hand coordination back. And I painted…and drew and I slept. I slept a lot. I still sleep during the day needing naps to replenish my energy.

 

I started a blog after my therapist suggested that I do it as an exercise to recapture my language skills. Each and every blog entry has my recovery in it. Metaphorically each of my paintings tells of my struggles and my victories...most in the form of equine art. But through it all, I knew that my attitude about what I was going through was more important to me that what had happened to me. My recovery depended on my attitude. I cannot control what happens to me in life, but I can control my attitude. And that is my life’s mantra now……….’if it’s gonna be..it’s up to me.’

And I have also been blessed with a wonderful husband who has been beside me through it all. Les has been the wind beneath my wings. So in a nutshell….that is my story. Why I blog.. and the road leading up to the beginning of my blog. That is my story and I am sticking with it."

 

So we are here today 9 years since my stroke. I have had several TIAs [small mini strokes] since 2006. I still have Aphasia, though mild now , I do have trouble understanding and writing numbers. I can't stand noise and confusion. I have trouble writing and figuring out spelling of words, which can be very frustrating! I do have central pain syndrome , which has left me with pain on my right side , 24/7........Yet when I paint, I feel no pain....only afterwards. I feel blessed to have been given a "new birth" ...and everyday is a gift to be thankful for!  I was a professional artist before my stroke.....and I still am. I try to muddle through the business part of being an artist.........the painting part is 'a breeze". I want to thank all my friends and collectors of my work for their past and continued support of my art.... Your support fuels my passion.

 

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball.........it's up to us to hit it out of the ball park!  

Carpe diem!  Who knows what tomorrow may bring.

 

 HAPPY MAY DAY!!!!!!

Pond Lilies and Horses - New Paintings

"In Our Pond"      Oil on Copper        6 x 6"

June has come and gone. The farm gardens are resplendent with color and heady with fragrance. I love it. I want to stay sequestered in the comfort of our cottage and wrapped in the atmosphere of my surroundings. But it seems lately that every summer I am called away to do painting demonstrations and attend show receptions...all away from home. I am busy now getting things done for Saratoga Spring's Equidae Gallery show that opens the end of this month. But I have been able to get a few new paintings done...One ...the small 6 x 6" oil on copper, "In Our Pond",  pictured above. An afternoon was spent painting our pond lilies,,,,,sweet summer grass  perfume filled the air and  bugs buzzed by....a lovely humid summer day past before the thunderstorms came through

Back in the coolness of my basement studio I did a 6 x 8" oil painting of a Saratoga Race Track scene...And "Saratoga Sea Hero"  and the pond lily painting "In Our Pond" are both now on my website.

Today I work in my studio, after a brief reprieve. The farrier came to trim the horses.

The skies darkened and a bit of thunder rumbled,....but no storm.

Now it is back to framing......And before I know it, the day will be here for shipping paintings. Back to work.

"Saratoga Sea Hero"   OIl on copper    6 x 8"

Another Small Oil And Summer Is Here

Bee working hard.   copyright 2012 www.kathipeters.com

I have been busier than a bee in spring....and now that summer is officially here, I can't see things slowing down for a long while!!  The spring that brought us lots of rain, turned sunny and warm and the gardens are growing like Topsy. I can't keep ahead of it all.In fact I can't even catch up!!!!  But I am enjoying each new flower that bursts open with color and scent. I know that we are thoroughly blessed here on the farm.

Rosa Rugosa just starting..how sweet the smell.

The horses are enjoying all the green that their pasture has put forth.... and we all are resting easy since their winter's hay is put into the barn and sweetly perfuming the loft air. 

Clematis adorns the arbor giving us shade to enjoy.

Nell and I have taken to the cooler woods paths for our walks....and on one of those woodland walks we spied a small bird's nest hanging from a sapling, swaying in the breeze. One tiny egg lay in it, all speckled, it was safely hidden under an umbrella of the sapling's green leaves. How sweet and small a promise it is.I think it is a nuthatch egg. I had to do a small painting of it...small as the egg and nest themselves. "One Egg" is an oil on copper, 4 x 4" image size.....and will be framed in a golden wooden frame, available on my website.

"One Egg"   Oil on copper     4 x 4"   copyright 2012  www.kathipeters.com


If you enjoy my blogging....please feel free to share my blog and my work with friends!!
The more the merrier!!

New Painting In The Works

"The Yellow Door"  a work in progress............copyright 2012 www.kathipeters.com

Spring seems to have arrived. Nell and I have been taking walks out into the back pastures and I have been inundated with ideas for new paintings, all inspired by our farm, our horses, my world. This casein on canvas pictured above is the first .....and I have a copper panel ready for an oil landscape. I know that soon [ if the weather cooperates ] I will be called outside to prepare gardens and dig in the dirt. I can't wait! So I am driven to create more now, so I can garden later!!

My work has been invited into the American Academy of Equine Art's Invitational Exhibit "The Horse In Fine Art"  to be hung in Lexington,KY at  the historic Spindletop Hall. The show opens April 2 and hangs through May 26, 2012.

I will also be having work again in the 10th Annual "Festival of Art" in Belfast, Maine at The University of Maine's Hutchinson Center. This show opens May 10th with thier reception and then runs through the 13th. These are two are some the many shows I am particapating in this spring ...more to come this summer. So I guess I need to keep focused and painting.....   so hard when spring starts calling!!!

Spring pushes back the snow from the fields. copyright 2012   www.kathipeters.com



Spruce Head,Maine New Painting In February



The start of the Mill Cove painting.

I  often get questions on how I work....and I must admit working in oil on a copper panel is very different than working in casein on board. For one thing the oil on copper goes on slippery and slick. Casein on a toned board or paper goes down gritty and matte. The difference between the two is one of the major reasons I enjoy them both.

With the oil I start with a full color block-in which leaves me with a sort of abstract image. Once I have established the composition I go in to the "embellishment" ....deciding what I want to detail and what I can leave out.I don't want too much detail.I personally prefer less detail, more nuance, and that is the song I want to sing. The oil I just finished is pictured here, in this blog post, in the beginning stage and then as the finished work. I think you can get an idea of how I went with it.

I do use the same color palette with oil as I do with my casein work. My watercolor work is a whole different palette and is approached from a complete different direction. But that is another story!

I am having fun with my oil on copper while doing these past small Maine landscapes. I plan on doing 2 more, but the next 2 will be more inland scenes,not costal. But they are all what I love about Maine! We love living here.

"Mill Cove-Spruce Head,Maine"      Oil on copper      6x6"   ©2012 kathipeters.com

I am Stoked



"His Flock"  Casein on board    12 x 12" ©2012 kathi peters

The year has started wonderfully....I am so happy to announce that my casein painting "His Flock" was selected as part of the FAV15%  (the jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the December 2011 BoldBrush Painting competition. This is a huge competition that highllights the works of the best of the best.......and I AM stoked to be elected to be part of the FAV 15%!!
I just wanted to share.........

Winter In Maine Is Cold

Graphite Self Portrait ....or having fun!      ©2012 kathi peters

It is cold. It is winter and we live in Maine. One would think that we would be used to this....but it always is a bitter reminder that Mother Nature is in charge... and we get what we get and HAVE to cope, as we bundle up in multiple layers, to go down and do barn chores, waddling like Michele men through new snow and ice. THIS is when I wax nostalgic for Italy......sun and warmth. I have been looking through old photographs of my life, ions ago,in another life.....growing up in Italy. A lot of sweet memories there.....and they help warm my winter days in Mid-coast Maine.

But I have also been painting.

I have done a new oil painting, again with a copper panel for the substrate.The subject of the painting is an old bicycle that stands leaning on an old tree....and has been standing there for several years now....summer, winter,spring and fall...in all weather....in snow or rain. I have been wanting to, planning on painting it, for a long time. Each time I drove by the yard where the bike sits, I would say to myself...."Paint that!"  It was time to do it last week....so here it is. I have added it to my website.

"Retired"    Oil      10 x 10"  ©2012 kathi peters

The sun is dipping lower in the sky now. The temperature only rose to a chilly 10º F. today, is starting to fall again. I guess it is time to bundle up, waddle to the barn and close the horses up in their cozy stalls for the night. They will appreciate it. Winter in Maine is cold.

 

Our stand of spruce.    ©2012 kathipeters

New Fjord Pair Watercolor In The Works

The New Year celebrations are over.We enjoyed dinner with fellow artists and their spouses.[the unsung heroes!].Artist Susan Renee Lammers and her husband Robert invited us to a lovely dinner highlighted by a delicious seafood chowder that we shared with Gregory Dunham, his wife Pat and their daughter.There was much laughter and talk....a great start to the new year 2012. Now it is time to get back to the studio with new conviction and to create.

"Fjord Pair"  watercolor  ©2012 Kathi peters

I have started a watercolor of a driving pair of Fjords horses.It is almost done at this point. A second painting,a casein on paper sits on my easel, and I work on that while I wait for the watercolor to dry between glazes. I am not one for hurrying up the drying progress of watercolors with the use of a hair blower....I prefer to let nature take it's course and elect in stead, to use that time to change direction,with new eyes and work in another medium.....still a water medium... but in my first love casein!

And I have prepared a copper panel for a new oil....Now I need to get that idea sketched out onto the copper.  A new year...new ideas!

Maine is cold now.This morning the temperature was a bone chilling 3º F. Nellie and I are trying to work up energy to head down to the barn to do barn chores.Just a another cup of coffee and I should be ready to go!!

Cold frozen ground,with clouds rushing by. © 2012 kathi peters

After Christmas

Morning dawns over the farm the day before Christmas ©2011 kathi peters

We had a lovely Christmas with family and friends. Christmas day blessed us with a perfect snowfall....Santa found Cob Cottage and all the four-legged family members received gifts. Now we are all getting back to work....and I am in my studio after what seemed to be a long break. Too long.

A vacant home during the winter months.©2011 kathi peters

  Nell and I are enjoying walks along our woods trails and found this small nest left after the occupants headed south. I think it might be a chickadee nest?? Or maybe Nuthatch's? I will be doing a painting of this nest....I do feel the need to do work other than equine art...!! I think I will try it in oil???

So new work will soon be available....and soon it will be a new year with new goals. I have been "thinking" a lot of late.

New Poultry Oil Painting

"Maine Rooster"   Oil on Copper    8 x 6"  ©2011

Wet paint drying in the studio as we speak. In a few days it will be ready to be varnished and ready to go! Over the next week or so my time in the studio will be sporadic. But am I excited about new work coming.
This small poultry oil painting is available on my website in the Small Works Collection Portfolio.
Now ...time to feed the horses!



"His Flock"      Casein on board      12 x 12"  ©2011

Our fields are green The horses feed most of the day in the far pastures and I find it hard to remind myself that it is winter!! The days have been warmer than usual and Nellie have been able to take walks with no need for her to get duded up in her barn coat or sweatshirt. We will enjoy the mild weather has long as Mother Nature cares to bless with this reprieve from winter's cold.

A new casein, titled "His Flock", is up on my website and I am busy now on a few small oils on copper. The casein, pictured above, was inspired by a man I saw a few years ago at a farming event we had attended here locally, and I have been wanting to paint him. But what was he looking at so intently? So I used artistic license and painted in his "flock"......a small flock it might be, but still important to him....a bit like how I feel our Lord feels about us all....his flock. So I would say that this painting is a metaphorical depiction of my beliefs.

This year is coming to a close. I am taking some time to rethink my goals for the  new year [years?] ahead. There will be a few changes in my life, I know....but that being said.....I am looking at my "flock" and pondering life. Waxing poetic I retired to the studio.....with Nellie!

Immortalizing The Chippie



"Little Chippie"     Casein       6 x 6"

Nellie and I have a certain chipmunk who likes to chatter at us when we are working in our garden. He darts in and out of the rock wall that surrounds the garden, then he is up the tree and throwing crab-apples down. Nellie has declared an out and out war with said chippie.I chose to paint him. There is a gray squirrel family that lives in our woods too...they are raiding our bird feeders. Nellie is waring with the squirrels too. I will do a painting of the squirrels. But for now the small casein painting of "The Chippie" is up on my website and available.

I also painted a small landscape of an old barn that is down the road from us.This barn was shelter for an old appaloosa horse and a small mismatched herd of cows.I drive by this barn a lot and always wanted to paint it.....so I did.This 6 x 8" oil is also on my website and offered frmaed and ready to hang.

"The Shade Barn"  Oil      6 x 8"

Les and I have been busy painting the house,.....still. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have had a bit of time in my studio, but not enough to get into anything big or complicated. Soon I will be able to......I can't wait!

Dressage, Oil Paint and Cats Hunting

"Tempi Changes"   oil on board       6 x 6" 

A beautiful day out today in our part of Maine......I sit with the door open,the sun spilled in and the air is filled with the sound of the wind blowing through the defrocked trees, stripped of their fall color, the rustling leaves blow across the lawn and into my gardens. I want to head out to plein air paint today. It is too beautiful a day to stay in.

I just did this small 6 x 6" oil of a dressage scene shown above. I have explored before. I often do this, re-explore a previous work, tweak it, change colors, composition...my approach. This small painting will be available on my website in the Small Works section.

While was outside this morning our Mittens went hunting.She has spent most of the morning stalking a chipmunk.....I am doing a small casein of this chippie.....Mittens is determined that she will be having a chipmunk dinner soon. I will immortalize him for prosperity.

But for the time being...the chipmunk runs around storing food for winter, Mittens waits for the perfect meal [in her eyes] and I am going out to paint or sketch.....out into the sun!

At Last

They popped today it seems!

This morning I awoke to see Fall had finally arrived.while I was sleeping.The loft window looked out on the farm with it's garland of  autumn color. Even though it also means that soon snow will arrive, I always marvel at the fall display that brightens our days as a harbinger of the cold gray winter ahead. I took Nell for a long walk around our pastures and woods beyond.The woods smelled sweet with leaves that crackled and snapped beneath our feet. We met a doe who stopped in her forging for food and watched us before turning and running into the depth of our woods.Nell wanted to give chase, but she, of course, was on a lead.

So close we got!

We are still painting our house.....inch by inch it seems. And in between our house painting days, I am grabbing studio time as I can.I did one fun Polo casein...it's all about color. And then yesterday afternoon, I did a quick oil of our Nellie....a painting that I have been wanting to do for a long time...from a photo I had taken of her on our bed.It is oil on canvas on board and sized at 8 x 6". It will be put up on my website and available for JRT fans......I think.

"My Bed Too"   oil      8 x 6"

The Grapes Are Ready

The grapes are ready.....   copyright 2011 Kathi Peters

A sure sign of fall is the ripening of the Concord grapes on our arbor.I am ready to do a painting of them,and have been checking on their progress each day.The time has come!! Now if the rain would stop....just for a while...I will do a painting of them in their lovely purple hue...it will be an oil on copper....I can't wait!!!

My last roses of summer are on the bush....I think I need to do a painting of them too.This all needs to be done soon....the days seem to fly by....I feel a need to capture the sweet songs of summer  and of fall as they slip away.

My roses   copyright 2011 - Kathi Peters

This Friday,Nov 7th is the opening reception of the TWO PERSON SHOW at Gallery B in Lexington,KY. I regret that I will not be there in person....but my artwork will share the stage with the work of Veronica Clark...and I will be there in spirit. I am also donating a portion of my sales  to the American Stroke Association.....so please help me to help them!!!
and enjoy the show!!!

Another Crow

"Crow #3-I Drink Diet"     casein on board        6 x 6"

Another summer week has flown by.I hear the crickets singing their adieu to their summer life....their ode to fall.When time allows I have been in the studio,painting and framing works for the October 7th show opeining in Lexington,Ky's Gallery B. The above work is another casein chaulked up for my crow series.[ "Crow #3-I Drink Diet" ] I am having fun with these.This is available on my website.Shipped for free within the USA!

Going To The Birds

"Gull-Up Close & Personal"    Casein on board        6 x 6"     copyright 2011

For three days I have been trying to write my blog post since Irene pushed her way into our lives. Every time I have lost it to cyberspace. All this also done while trying to cope with Irene's mess littering the landscape and dealing with the farm daily chores. I have not had very good luck trying to find studio time. And an Oct 7th two-person art show opening at Gallery B in Lexington is breathing down my neck...I am one of the two!!!..so I must persevere. I can do it!!!

I have managed to finish three bird themed small gems. They are available on my website.

"Crow # 1"   Casein on board  6 x 6"    copyright 2011

"Crow #2"   Casein on board   6 x 6"  copyright 2011

I am in the studio.....and to work!!! 

Painting In & Out - In Casein & Oil

"Day Lilies and Bird Bath" Plein Air

I felt a need to get out of the studio and away from the casein painting I am working on, so I readied my Thumbox with oil paint and a new 8 x 6" copper panel...and off into the very warm day I went, to sit in the shade on the north of our house, while I painted the glorious yellow day lilies in blossom where they sit under the front "Look Into Garden"'s bird bath. I am liking the ability to change medium and subject matter....and environment. I am starting to get the knack of plein air work. It is a learning process for me. I have a hard time focusing on what to paint and how to approach the work when I am surrouned by so much visual abundance. I am thinking that this changing of gears,so to speak,will only help me with my studio work too. Now that I have the small  plein air oil drying in the studio,I look at it and can see where values need to be addressed,lines fixed and will finish off the painting... and will then be putting it up on my website.

I also finished a small casein of our JRT  from the photo that I posted in my last blog entry. "A Sweet Face" is varnished, framed and going to a good home. It is so easy to buy work off my website over the Internet using PayPal's secure login. Don't forget!

"A Sweet Face"   casein on board      6 x 6"     SOLD

They say we are getting some rain.This is good.The fields are dry around our farm....the gardens need watering daily.The watering takes a good part of the day.I have to grab my studio time when I can. I am grabbing some time now!

Things That Take Me Away From My Studio

"Pond Iris"            oil on copper panel                    6 x 8"

I have a new copper panel ready for painting Plein Air....I want to get out and paint the pond lilies in our field pond,a bigger and deeper pond than the small oil I finished a few days ago.[ "Pond Iris" ] The yellow and white pond lilies in the big pond are in full bloom, reaching for the sun from the depth of the deep dark pond. Nellie and I have been there several times on our walks to check out their growth, but I have yet to get time to go there and actually paint. Maybe over the next few days,if it doesn't rain.

My artwork for Equidae Gallery,Saratoga Springs,NY, has FINALLY left the studio after a snafu on my carrier's part. The show there opens this Thursday, July 22, 2011. I guess my shipping problem is one of the down-sides of living in the woods!

The weather lately has been  very hot by Maine standards My studio is cool in the summer, so Nell and I have been staying in the studio a lot .....so if I do go out to paint, I will leave Nell in the house,sleeping. I think.

Take me!!???