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



Keeneland Study

"The Paddock Walk"    oil   6 x 8"    copyright 2012     www.kathipeters.com

I have been looking through photos for reference material for new paintings. I have just finished [?] this small 6 x8" study in oil of a Keeneland Paddock scene. I was planning on maybe doing it bigger ,and more involved. I love the colors in this. I tried to keep it loose...keep it simple. The oil is giving off a glare now,and so I will get a better shot when things dry a bit. This is done on canvas on board, so it will take longer to dry than my oils on copper panels do. I will probably put it on my website when done.

The studio smells  of oil paint and medium.... so Nell and I took a walk into our fields that are now open, with only snow around the woods line. The sun shines brightly today, with a nippy March wind that is refreshing after a morning in the studio. What a blessing to have this spot to walk in, explore and enjoy. There was so much I saw in this short walk that I want to paint. God willing. So back to the paint.

The Birches In March   copyright 2012  www.kathipeters.com

Free Falling, Polo #5 and Snow Coming

"Polo # 5"     Casein on board   6 x 8"   ©2012 kathi peters

Two small caseins  finished so far this week...and I am working on a third. The weather is absolutely brilliant today....in and out! Outside the sun shines and it's warmth must feel so good on our old horses backs as they stand sleeping. Inside Nell and Mittens soak up the rays enjoying a rare moment sharing the same space with out a hassle.Nell is always the instigator. But for the moment they sleep..... quietly together!!

    Nell and Mittens basking...©2012 kathi peters

I LOVE painting JRT's full of personality and this guy [seen below] is overflowing with it.I feel so privileged to have the chance to paint several works depicting him and his antics. "Free Falling " is one of the most fun of all so far!!! But I am working on one more in honor of Saint Valentine's Day......stay tuned....I am working on it right now! 

                                                                       "Free Falling"    Casein on board    7 x 5"    ©2012 kathi peters

Both the two caseins depicted here, are now on my website in the Small Works portfolio of works available for purchase. "Polo #5" is one of a series of small paintings depicting the exciting sport of Polo!! They also are in my Small Works Portofolio.

Back into the JRT painting, after a brief "walkies" with Nell in the bright sun. Tomorrow we have a snow storm coming.....sigh...........

Road Trip Due To Cabin Fever

"Through The Daisies"  Casein   6x6"           ©2012 kathi peters

The days are starting to feel a bit longer. I know the sun is setting later each day. Yet the long gray winter days had started to get to us at Cob Cottage ....so we picked a sunny wintery warmer day to head south and to the shore, in order to breath the fresh air tinged with the salt of the sea and .the cries of the gulls.... We drank it all up and come home refreshed and ready to take on the rest of winter that is left.

One of the scenes that I want to paint....icy Maine waters

©2012 kathi peters

"JR-Just Jumping"   Casein   5 x 7"                          ©2012 kathi peters

I have finished two small caseins since I last blogged.....and here they are ! Now I am excited about doing some new work inspired by the wonderful scenery we saw on our road trip...and if time allows, I might just start some this week!!

Both these small paintings are up on my website.....

Have a great day! I know I will !!

Summer-Enjoying It While It Lasts

Nellie likes the cool shade and grass. copyight 2011 Kathi Peters.com

The weather has been summer like.Warm with humidity in the air, with cooler nights where the fan is needed for sleeping.Our gardens are growing like Topsy ...flowers reaching for the skies and zucchini popping up overnight. Red tomatoes line the kitchen windowsill and bounty fills our plates. Nellie enjoys lazy afternoon in the shade of the arbor,laying on the cool ground blanketed with soft grass. This winter when the winds howl we will relish memories of the too short summer.

The scent of roses fills the air.   copyright 2011 kathipeters.com



My days are mostly spent in my cool basement studio.I work at my easel or drawing board,as I watch life go by in my back gardens. Some days I can leave the studio door open,hear the birds songs and the chipmunks chatter as they pursue their daily activities in the gardens. Nell lays in the doorway, catching a breeze and wishing she could catch a chipmunk.

I have been working on the second painting I started at Equidae Gallery in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the beginning of the month. This demonstration painting on canvas [on board ]started as a casein, is becoming an oil pastel, but a nocturnal scene this time and it is almost done. But today I am backing away from it, to return later with a 'new eye' to finish it. Today I am working on three 6 x 6"  caseins .....not of horses...but of crows and a seagull.
Nell sleeps at the studio door.

Demo Painting Continued

The Saratoga demo starts
.

Terry Lindsey, of Equidae Gallery, invited me to do a demonstration of how I work in Casein paint and to tell about this much misunderstood milk based water medium. I hope I was able to dispel some fear that folks have about Casein, a paint medium that lost artists' interest when acrylic came into being. I have worked in acrylic, sometimes mixing Casein with acrylic in my mixed media works...but for the most part Casein is my favourite medium, and the majority of works done by me, and collected by collectors of my work, is done in casein...pure and simple. Casein, a clean milk based water–soluble medium requires no strong solvents. Because of that, I am comfortable using it in my home based studio. And because it dries quickly to a velvety, matte finish and over time, it becomes resistant to moisture,  it is possible to lay on a glaze and move onto the next stage within a few hours instead of waiting for days,like I do with my oil paints....or even watercolor. Did I say I like Casein?

I explained how I work in Oil on copper versus Casein on canvas.




Demo #1

All most done...or done? I need to put it against the wall for a bit,then look again!

This shows a bit how one of the caseins progressed. I turned it into an oil pastel painting when I got home. I don't know why. Maybe just because I could. I think it is done now. I will know that it is in a few days....after looking at it a while.Or NOT looking at it for a while!!

In the mean time my sunflowers are growing!!!

copyright 2011 Kathi Peters

Spring Brings Foals

"A Yearling"                       Casein on board                          6 x 6"  

Between shoveling and dreaming of spring I have had some creative progress in the studio. 

This little  casein pictured above is done and available through my website's Small Works Collection.  The subject is a handsome yearling  who I met at Cobra Farm during my Lexington,KY  visit last year. All the yearlings were getting ready for the weekend's Young Stock Sales.......a sad and a happy time. Young stock were headed to their new life....no longer left to just play and grow.They had a purpose in life.....and the weekend  sales would determine that to a point. I saw so many at Cobra Farm that I would have loved to take home with me. Like I need another hole in my head!!

It is raining today.A spring misty moisty morning. The farrier is here trimming our horses feet. Our horses are left barefoot. They have not felt the metal of shoes for years. I think they like that. I am headed to the studio for the rest of the afternoon. I need to clean the studio up a bit before I start on some bigger paintings now....and finish a commission.

Girl In The Hood

Nellie styling it in her new sweatshirt.

Today a package arrived in the mail....surprises for me ...for Les ...and for Nellie!  Nellie now has a new spring sweatshirt and she has been proudly wearing it around the farm. She has the whole New York hood swagger down pat....she is the 'girl in the Hood'!! She is BIG and she is BAD!! Be afraid!!!

The snow is slowly melting,  leaving bits of green and mud. But I am not complaining. Spring is officially here and with it the promise of gardening. I am so ready this year. I am actually excited about it this year! We have started cleaning up the back arbor that the deer ruined this winter as they pulled down our grape vines and clematis vines. I see day-lily leaves spiking through the ground. My curly garlic is green and growing. Birds are singing ,calling for new mates, singing their hearts out,  filling the air with music.

Spring melt on the farm.

I have had time to work on new paintings and the painting below is one of new works which are slated for galleries for the summer season. This is one of my Tennessee Walking geldings, Dom. Dom is 30 years young this year. He has been my "man" for over 25 years. "He... the man!!" Dom and his pasture buddy, Duster have been the models for my "Shades of Black" series. Both are black TWH geldings.

"Spring Green"   Casein on board         6 x 6"

Now down to the studio. I have work to get done before the gardening time catches up to me!

Casein of a Clyde Grazing On Green

"Hand Grazing - Clyde"          casein on board           12 x 12"

A painting with green...appropriate for Saint Patty's Day!..... while we still have feet of snow covering most of our farm. The handsome Clyde in this painting has been the subject of several paintings I have done over the years. I love painting those gentle giants! I did this casein on board and will be varnishing it.......and putting it on my website. Some of my casein paintings are varnished....some not. I make the choice after I have finished a painting. Varnishing this casein painting will give it a look like an oil painting. That is the look I want for this painting.

I spent the morning grooming our horses.....trying to get into the winter crude and dead hair,as they shed their winter coats .Boy.... do I smell like a horse!! Not so nice as smelling like a rose?!!! But this is a sign of spring for sure!!!

And Yet It Snows



"February Chill"             casein on board               6 x 6"                   copyright 2011

It snowed yesterday. It is snowing today. As I write, the gray skies are spilling white onto our farm, covering the woods and fields with another blanket of white. The horses are settled in their stalls after having a morning turnout while their stalls were cleaned. Nell has played in the barn, moused and inspected the stalls for treasures. Now we wait, cozy in our cottage, for the storm to end......then we can continue the endless shoveling. I think of Italy a lot in the winter!!!!

I did the small casein painting, pictured above, after watching Duster [my 23 year old Tennessee Walker gelding ] as he ate his hay that was spread over a snow mound. The day was cold and white. The days have been that way a lot lately!

The painting is available purchase on my website.....along with many other works!

My work is being featured in the art show "All Creatures Large and Small", that has it's opening reception February 3 , 2011 at Gallery B in Lexington, Kentucky. It is a fun show where a portion of the profits from the sales go to benefit the Lexington Humane Society. So I am hoping my Kentucky friends and clients can make that show and help the Humane Society ......it is all about the animals.

The snow is falling harder now.....Nell is so glad she has a cozy house.....she is one of the lucky beasts!!



Cozy Nell



Painting On Copper, Drawing On Claybord

The Spruce wood lot at the end of our field.

It has been a bitter cold week, topped off with yet a new blanket of snow to cover the farm. I did have time to get some work done in the studio, but when we are hit with such mean weather, it also means more work caring for the horses, shoveling snow etc etc.......Today we have a break in the cold, but skies have darkened, warning of the coming of a new snow storm. I will take what ever reprieve nature blesses us with. I cannot help but marvel at the beauty of this season and the woods surrounding our cottage. I look out at the distant stand of spruce, all dressed in their lace shawls of snow....even on this gray day, they look lovely.

I have finished the 8 x 10" oil painting on copper substrate. I call it "Angels and Horses" and it is available on my website.

"Angels and Horses"       oil on copper panel          8  x 10"       copyright 2011

I also have been working on a mixed media peice, on a 12 x 12" Ampersand claybord panel.This piece depicts a Freisian .....driving....through the woods. This work will also be available on my website when it is finished, but this is where it stands at this point. It is done in graphite...but there is more to do........with paint.

"Focused Friesian"      mixed media      12 x 12"       copyright 2011

With what is left of the day, I am heading back down to the studio.....'make hay while the sun shines'...........on this cold gray winter's day in Maine.

Angels And Horses

This 8 x 10"  still-life oil painting is almost done.

Today a winter storm rages outside the studio.  I am cloistered in this cozy space, working on several works..... but the above oil painting on copper panel, is almost done. It depicts objects that I love, and that all have a connection to my life. The angel is one of my angels that came with me when I came back to America after living for years in Italy. I have a small collection of these angels, angels who I imagine came out of churches at some time in the past. I bought them in street markets near our apartment in Milano....How I loved shopping there with my mother.There were no supermarkets in Italy then. Everyday we shopped for our fresh food and vegetables. And while my mother food shopped, I hunted for treasures, like my angels. Today they guard my sleep in our bedroom. The book "The Art Of The Horse" sits on a table in my studio, to always inspire me. The Indian block print cloth underneath, was a gift from a dear friend. They all have meaning for me...and hopefully someone else can relate to these...all depicted together.

The view from my studio today.

I will stay painting in my studio. The horses are bedded in their stalls out of the snow and wind. And the storm  blows outside.

Lift Off

"Lift Off"                              8 x 13"                           wateroolor

This watercolor was finished earlier this week.......it is available on my website.

After this watercolor painting, I am putting away my watercolors for a bit and getting back into my caseins. It has been a hard week for us here at Cob Cottage ...........but more about that later.

The Promise

"The Promise"   watercolor         8 x 13"

One watercolor done for the new year. It is good to be back in the studio producing again. I have been able to start another watercolor of another foal, same size, same format. Then I do need to get the oils back out and also need to finish some casein works that have been waiting in the wings. Up and running!

This painting is now on my website for purchase.

It Was All About The Storm




The snow fell and blew.

  The week started with snow.Then more snow..... and then it blew around the farm recreating moguls and drifts, which made the path to the barn disappear from sight. The dogs did not want to go out of the warmth of the house. Ican't say I did either! Our cat slept thoughout the storm, getting up only to race crazed around the cottage, then curl up again and sleep. I wanted to just curl up and sleep too, but horses needed care and the dogs needed to be dragged out occasionally to take care of business. And then after the snow stopped, and skies cleared, came the shoveling out. Not much time was spent in the studio. More time was spent just trying to get 'life' back to a 'norm' for winter chores.....horses out,horses in...dogs out and about ....paths to and from it all.

View of barn after storm & my stars that hang on our deck...for my starry starry night enjoyment!

Duster and Dom enjoy their snow bath each morning.

The horses were more than happy to get out and roll in the new snow. Our neighbor came with his snowmobile and punched a path for Les to wend his way out to the manure pile. Life has taken it's winter schedule and yes, I will be getting back into the studio.....to paint . I grab my studio time as I can.

Nell......thinking.

In the meantime....All of us at Cob Cottage want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Some exciting new happenings on my front.....more about that later. Now it is time to walk the dogs along their snow maze down to the barn!!

Watercolor And Water Coming Down

Watercolor I am working on today.

Mid week and rain is coming down. It comes down in sheets, beating against the south of the house, running down the window panes...and the dogs do NOT want to go out. I don't blame them. I spent the morning painting in the studio.Today I am working in watercolor....a painting of two Belgian drafts as seen from the box. In the studio easy listening jazz is playing, and the atmosphere is cozy. I will stay here and work while the pups sleep upstairs ....Nell has taken to sleeping on the big antique chair,all propped up on a fluffy blue pillow. I am letting sleeping dogs lie.

Cozy Nell

The rain drums against the studio windows, even under the deck that shields those studio windows. One of these windows is decorated with our winter squash,.... each squash waiting to be picked as the squash of the evening....fall dinner fare. I think I need to do a painting of them....they look so good! [While they last!] 

Rain on the pane.

Addie does not like rain down her ears.

Then when  the weather cleared a bit, the pups and I headed down to the barn. I turned the horses out and cleaned the stalls. Addie ,our Corgi, still was not too happy about the drizzle. The rain runs into her lovely pointy ears, you know....not a nice feeling. So we hurried and cleaned the stalls and made them ready for the horses to come in to for the night.....Then headed back to the house for the warmth and to dry off. We had to stop and enjoy the brook that runs by our cottage.....as it wanders through the woods towards our back pond. It is really bursting today.....I think it is a lovely sight...even if it is a bit gray today.

Red fallen leaves dress up the gray day.

Life In Progress

'Tug' in progress

The past week flew by too fast. I saw the studio occasionally, but not so much I could really do anything that took a concentrated effort. So I did one small casein painting of a tug...a painting I have been wanting to do for a long time.....and sketched out a head shot of a Morgan...a work that I also have been meaning to get into. Both works were done while sitting at my drawing board....and I am finding I would rather be standing up and painting on my feet. So that means bigger works...and room to dace around a bit! That should make the pups happy...they like it when we dance....sort of like dancing with the 'stars'!

Addie likes to watch me work.

The girls pups and I go down to the studio each day....some days are productive...some not so much. Such is life.We take our 'brilliant days' when we get them and chalk the others up to "practice"!! No time wasted!!! We learn from our triumphs and our failures...at least I think so.

The graphite sketch below is the one I worked on today, for a bit .I really think I want to do this one as a watercolor.....we shall see. In the mean time I will continue with works in progress...and my life that is still in progress...!!

Graphite sketch of Morgan mare.....should it be a watercolor?

Horses and Deer, JRT and Camera

Our fawn.....who eats with our horses in their pasture.

We are surrounded by deer.They are taking over Cob Cottage Farm,eating my gardens and grazing with the horse quite comfortable with the arrangement. Me??? Not so much! I have been playing with my new camera trying to learn what buttons do what....all so I don't make a complete fool of myself when we are in Kentucky where I will be taking oodles of shots for reference for future paintings. Where else but in horse-country USA!! Lexington,KY. I am sure our farm-sitters will love seeing the deer around the farm. Something special to keep the New Yorkers amused!!

Nellie and her new chewy bone.

So I HAVE been reading and reading the manual on the camera and I must admit I am easily confused... Nellie has been helping my studies. [As you see above]. I am hoping that I can capture some action shots...something that I could capture before with my old digital. I am not even taking my 35 mm camera.....too heavy and too much film to develop when we get back!

My new camera is Fuji 12 mp and has a 18x zoom......this should help!

What has been "perking" in the studio???? Two new oils on copper,but I have to admit  that I have not been in the studio much of late.Too busy chasing deer out of my gardens and orchards! The below oil is one of the two, almost done......and will be one of the paintings headed to Skyline Farm for their 5th annual Fall Art Exhibit, which opens next month. I will tell more about this as we get closer to the opening reception.

 WIP of my Concord grapes and squash vines  - oil on copper 10 x 10"

I have to run ...deer in the orchard.....horses in the fields... and dogs in my face... saying it is their dinner time!!!

Summer Green

Winter squash fight  for room on the arbor.

Our grape arbor and fire pit.

It is summer and everything is growing...growing fast and green and out of control, around Cob Cottage. Our grape arbor is covered with grapes and the veggie gardens on both side of the arbor are over flowing with tomatoes and cukes.I am fighting a daily battle with our resident deer population ...and barely have time to stop and smell the roses it seems. Where are those lazy crazy days of summer? I know "they" write songs about those days...but "they" must not have horses, gardens, lawn to mow, dogs to walk or deer to chase OR gallery shows to produce art work for!

"The Two Greyhounds"  oil on copper        8 x 10"

This is my latest oil on copper painting. These two rescue Italian Greyhounds belong to an artist friend of mine. The two handsome boys were sitting in front of their frosted window on a cold winter's day during a visit, and I had to take a picture of them that I knew I would paint some day. The painting is done now......just waiting to be varnished. The painting is available through my website.