So You Want To Paint With Casein? My Latest Painting

" The Big Boys"  casein on claybord , 16 x 16' ©2015 www.kathipeters.com

I have been so often asked how to paint in casein. It is hard for me to explain how I love working in a media that so many find difficult to use. I have been working in casein since I started using it , along with tempera , years ago while living in Italy. I love tempera, but I am in love with casein and always have been. Both are opaque paints , casein a milk based paint.....and tempera an egg based paint. Both paints smell. But I love the smell of the casein emulsion......and the way it is works, for the way I paint. I work in small spirts of studio time. I work with glazes a lot, and can paint a layer  and let it dry and then come back and add another glaze, with the length of time left between glazes dictating how much of the previous layers will effect the newest layer.  I have done some workshops on to paint with casein....but my feeling is that if you are interested in a medium......then read all you can about it. Get some of it  and experiment with it.

I just finished the above casein painting of two handsome draft driving horses. The pair were working up at Acadia's Wildwood Stables last summer and are another in my works depicting the handsome horses pulling the carriages along the carriage roads of Acadia National Park. This painting is available on my website.

Mother Nature has be teasing us with some spring like weather. It felt so good after months [it seems] of being in the cold hard grasp of  winter and too much snow. Our snow is melting. There is hope.

Until it is gardening weather I will paint!

Beautiful Belgian Horses With a Nip In The Air

The weather has taken a turn and there is a lovely chill in the air that whispers of fall, leaves starting to change color and the veggie garden has slowed down. I have pulled out most the veggies, leaving tomatoes to ripen and Swiss chard to grow in the clean fall like air. I now we have several weeks left of summer. I will take it with joy. Then begins fall’s cascading colors and even the cooler nights. Life goes on the farm with the never ending chores.

 

This recently done oil painting is drying and available on my website. Draft horses from the stable in Seal Harbor, Maine……The beautiful big pairs that carry the sight seekers along the carriage roads of Acadia. The drivers have groomed them nicely and added the lovely touch of braiding the big horses’ tails. It was that extra touch that caught my eye and prompted me to paint them.

 

                   "I Said HAW"  , Oil on canvas on panel,  12 x 12"  ©2014 www.kathipeters.com

When I haven’t been in the studio painting I have been outside painting and trying to paint doors on the house and then there is the new horse-fencing that needs staining…….yup………….never ending chores on a small Maine farm.

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!

Respite, Another Painting Inspired By Maine's Acadia

 

Winds have blown and rains have come .The brilliant fall colors have slowly fallen, dulled and now just a hint of the brilliance that was, is left along the edges of the farm. Soon it will be time to hunker down and settle in for another long Maine winter. I love it!

 

 

 "Respite"  Casein on paper  9 x 12"   ©2013 www.kathipeters.com

 

My days have been spent working on commission work, but after several days of doing just that I HAD to change out and do some original work. As I had my caseins out and at the ready I worked on 9 x 12” casein on paper of big gray drafts that captured my interest up at Wildwood Stables in Seal Harbor, Maine. Another summer subject became a painting. Then after finishing “Respite”, I started second 9 x 12” casein of 2 Wildwood draft horses. I am so enamored with them, big grays with a rainbow of color reflecting off of their wonderful coats in the summer sun.  I work on the second painting today, but “Respite “is already on my website and available.
The rest of my Sunday afternoon will be spent painting…….. ”Sleeping Grays”.
Back to the easel I go.

The Studio Is Emptying Nicely, Thank You & New Work Added To Sale

"Sunlight Basenji"  Casein on board,  7 x 5"  framed and shipping included for only $200.00 USD

Last week was spent going through boxes and picking out paintings to add to the “Clean the Studio Special Fall Sale”.  Lots of folks have taken advantage being able to obtain these discounted artworks…. and I quickly boxed work up and moved them out, winging their way to their forever homes…..or maybe they will become Holiday presents for someone special.  I want to thank everyone who is helping me clean out and get my studio space back. Nell thanks you too. Now she has more room to throw her “babies” around and chase the cat.

Here are a few of the framed works added to the sale.

 

"Warming Up At Acadia "  Casein on board  10 x 20" Framed and shipping is included in the low price of $600.00 USD

"I'm Watching You" Casein on board,  5 x 7"  This is framed and offered at $175.00 USD Shipping is free!!

And when I was not packing and shipping…. I was working on a large commission painting of a carriage driving pair trotting through a lovely spring field. It is a lovely scene and I am so stoked to have been picked to paint this wonderful scene. I look forward to doing more original paintings .  New paintings coming SOON!

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.

Four-in-Hand at Acadia

Last weekend we went up to Acadia National Park carriage driving with friends. Wildwood Stable was getting ready to close for the winter season. What a wonderful time we had, with weather that was awesome. Maybe the fall colors weren't as brilliant this year as other years, but there were splashes of color that delighted the soul.



This casein painting above, done on Colorfix paper, is one of the works from the body of work that I am painting now. The four-in-hand in this painting is a team that was up at Acadia on an other occasion.

It always amazes me that these horses stand and wait , calmly, for the hitching and for the whip to take up the lines ......and then off they go! It makes me think that this is how we should approach life..............wait and then when the moment is right................off you go!!!

Waiting Our Turn

Maine Carriage Day is one of New England's oldest pleasure driving shows.For years it was held at Cumberland Fair Grounds, then moved to different spots, Snowfields in Pownal, and other training barns that had room for it. This year it is being held at Skyline Farm in North Yarmouth, and will have a different format.It will be held with dress classes and turnout classes being the most important themes. I hope to be there to get shots of interesting turnouts for future paintings, and to help with the ongoing art show that is still exhibited, "A Dog And Pony Show".

The small work pictured above is of a whip and her Morgan from a Maine Carriage Day event of years ago. This is a 5 x7 inch casein on canvas board. It of course is available for purchase.

This weekend we are heading to Acadia and Wildwood Stable to go driving with friends and their beautiful pair of Clydesdale's! I am looking forward to spending this time steeped in the tradition of carrige driving and the beauty of the carriage roads of Acadia, one of Maine's greatest treasures.

In past years I have enjoyed summers at Acadia, with my husband, driving our Welsh Cob mares. Lazy summer days with the pair trotting down the carriage roads built by Mr. Rockefeller, so that he could enjoy the spectacular views of Mount Desert Island and coastal Maine. If you have horses and haven’t been there, you need to go!!

At Wildwood Stables, where we camped with our horses, I took many shots of the draft horses there that pull the carriages that take the tourists through the carriage roads, so they can get a glimpse of the beauty that hides on these roads forbidden to the automobile. This casein is of one of those big boys, on a respite. I have done several versions of this draft, in different mediums- in casein, watercolor, acrylic, liquid gold, and pastel. Some of those can be seen on my website.

“A Quiet Spot” is the latest version of this gentle giant.

Warming Up At Acadia

My favourite place to be in the summer [spring or fall] is Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Isle , Maine. For years we have been taking our horses there to experience the wonder of the carriage roads that John D. Rockefeller left to our nation. There we can enjoy a step back in time, on carriage roads created to be travelled by horse drawn carriage or by horseback. I have also had several art shows in Seal Harbor , where the main body of works exhibited have been works depicting scenes at Wildwood Stable, horses and the people who go there with their horses.

This casein depicts a scene where a driver, exercises her horse before hitching for a drive, and two ladies in their wicker phaeton prepares to head out onto the carriage roads from the grounds of Wildwood Stables. The Triad stands behind with outcrops of granite showing through the trees. It is a beautiful day!!

How I wish I were there today instead of working in my studio!!