More Charcoals and Gouache Work

"Bedded Ewes" , charcoal and gouache, 7 x 9.5" ©2016 kathipeters.com

 

While still working in my charcoal , and adding a splash of color .....I captured some images of the sheep in a friend's flock. We visited the Maine farm on a cold rainy April day. The birthing barn was warm with wooly mothers and their off spring, bouncing lambs with sweet faces and bright eyes.

This artistic venture back into charcoal, seems to have kindled my artistic muse. I am enjoying getting my hands dirty, and thinking in black and white, working with values. Some of my small charcoal works on paper have gone to Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, NY. I hope collectors of my work go check them out. They are 'going' at very easy on the purse-strings prices.  Some I consider studies, as I really liked them and feel as if I would like to explore them more as paintings. Some are really finished artwork.

 

 

"Dinner Is Served" , Charcoal and gouache, 12 x 20.5"  ©2016 kathipeters.com 

So far our spring has been lovely. I am behind on getting my veggie garden in, but the perennial gardens are coming along fine.

In between gardening and barn chores ....I am fitting in studio time. More works in the works!!

 

A Fjord Pair

"Fjord Pair"   Watercolor      11.5 x 16"    ©2012  kathi peters 

The watercolor of the Fjords is done and before the snow came, I was able to capture a good photo of it. I have put it up on my website purchase, unframed.
Now,with NO snow outside, I am finished up a 9 x 12" casein of an American Saddlebred horse and rider. A lovely studio day for sure!       

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!

A Christmas Show!!



Art work  displayed       "Shades Of Gray #8"   Oil on copper        22 x 22"     ©2010

I want to invite everyone to view the wonderful on-line art show featuring the work of many of the  Women Artists Of The West's talented members...!!!

So many great Christmas present ideas!!

I am proud to be part of this select group of talented artists!

Yes.....ENJOY!!!! 

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!

The Art Of Farming On A Small Scale

Sweet Adeline [resident Corgi] on her way to the farm and chores.

Life at Cob Cottage doesn't always just mean sitting in a warm sunny studio and creating works of art. This January it has ALSO meant treks to the barn through knee high snow and shoveling ...shoveling....shoveling! That is the hard part of having a small farm tucked in the Maine woods. But on the bight side..there is a lovely changing landscape that we are blessed with, ...360 degrees of nature's beauty... God's gift to us to enjoy each day....between shoveling and trekking!

JRT on the hunt.

Our dogs are small, so they need paths, to and from, to get their business done each day. Addie is very happy for these paths, like mazes running through our orchard and gardens...all provided by Les . The man snow blows them paths hither and yon. Spoiled pups! Nell [ our resident JRT ] spends the majority of her 'walkies' time looking for voles and varmint under the snow. She jumps and leaps through the white, then dives to depths with only her tail showing! Then after she has hunted her fill, she heads for the bedroom to sleep among the pillows...where she is sure I will not find her!

What dog? I don't see a dog?

Down in the barn four horses depend on us for their food and comfortable...no lack of that there! But even there, in the paddocks and run-out-sheds, there is more shoveling and snow blowing to do with each snow storm. [Not to mention the daily shoveling of 4 stalls!]

There is no lack of subject matter at Cob Cottage to feed my creative muse

Now it is time to get back to the studio and the next painting!

Draft Nap Gold

I love painting white/ gray horses. I can see so many colors in a white horse. But when I painted this draft, for some reason I approached him with a solid white,very graphic,and not shadowed at all. With a gold background and his bed of gold and yellow hay, I wanted to "keep it simple".

Years ago [it seems, in another life] I drew fashion illustrations, wrote a fashion article about what was "in" on the fashion scene in Italy. Now a days, one would find me in jeans, covered with hay, dog hair and paint. I would not change a thing about my life....and my training in fashion, in illustration and commercial art often colors my work that I produce today. My painting animals is a far cry from the fashion world.........but I love it here on our tiny farm that feeds my muse each day.

This 16 x 20" mixed media painting, titled "Draft Nap Gold" will be put up on my website.

Back Doing What I Do Best

I enjoy my family, our home, gardens, animals...my life ! And everyday I feel blessed with this life and the life experiences I have had. And because I am feeling such a Pollyanna today, I have to admit I am SOOO lucky being an artist, painting what I love and having folks who enjoy my work.

The crab apple tree outside my studio window is all in blossom with sweet smelling flowers and even the plum trees have blossoms...not as many as last year. This will mean less plums to harvest for us. But the birds will have their crab apples to eat all through next winter.

But for today I don't want to think about next winter. Last year's Maine winter is still to vivid in my memory!!!