Distractions

Nellie caught a tiger!!!!

I had started an oil on copper painting, and was well on my way into it, when it seems that life began asking or taking too much of my time. My time in the studio has been way too short and too sporadic to make headway on that painting or even get absorbed in it. I need to be absorbed in my work to feel as if I am connected to it, immersed into it. So I sit here, and I look at what I have painted so far..... and I feel like wiping it all off, only to start again. Nell asks for some playtime. She has a tiger that needs throwing.....she needs my attention,so I oblige.

Some of my Bleeding-Hearts   copyright 2012 www.kathipeters.com

And then my gardens need pruning, preening and enjoying. I have to answer their call.

Cob Cottage Farm    copyright 2012 www.kathipeters.com



And then after days of rain and gray, a bit of blue appears in the skies over the farm...the evening sunlight hits the billowing clouds and.I have to admire God's glory and give thanks for small blessings......like a small Jack Russell who wants my attention.

I can finish the painting tomorrow.....

Copper and Oils and Gardens

Addie [PWC] and I went for a walk in the back yard,checking on how our gardens are coming along. [Mistress Mary, quite contrary,How does your garden grow?] I think we quite agree that so far, so good. The small hydrangea has taken to it's new spot on our farm and is coming into flower. The white clematis that climbs our back arbor, is in full bloom,covered with flowers.

 After our walk we headed back into the studio to work on the oil painting on the copper panel. I hope to get this one done this week. I have some other commission work I need to get done and then have new ideas I want to try on more copper panels.  I am liking this oil painting on copper for sure.

I learned today that I was featured in an article written by Renee Phillips in the new July/August Art Calendar magazine. The article is titled: "Healing Power of Creativity". Surprise Surprise! I don't think that I knew about this article?? But I am smiling! Thank you, Renee. I can't wait to actually see it!!

Things Are Heating Up In The Studio

Things are really heating up in the studio for me and I can't say that it is my painting!! But I take comfort in knowing that some of my artist friends are feeling the heat too...literally!
On another front, I am feeling the heat of deadlines for new shows opening this fall, and will be blogging more about that later. For now I am thinking I need to start doing plein air painting..someplace cool yet sunny! Where would that be? Here in Morrill, Maine it has been into the mid 90 degrees for at least 4 days now.In our little passive solar home the AC is cranking! The weather is supposed to turn today.....relief! Who says Maine doesn't get hot!!???

My gardens are finally really blooming...perennial and veggie....which keeps the deer happy eating all my efforts. The shot above is my front raised gardens....the deer are eating the flocks.Bad deer!

There are a few new works updated on my website. Take a look...enjoy!
And now, I guess I better get cranking....new works in the works! And I am heating up!!!

Getting Back to Normal

After delivering the “BIG” painting to Freeport, my studio time as been sporadic at best. I manage to clean up a bit of the garden overgrowth and we mowed lawn in shifts with the sun. I captured back the book I was reading “Casa Rossa” , which was stolen by my husband while I was slaving away in the studio on the “Big” painting. But I also started two small caseins of JRT’s…. and a graphite commission of a paint horse. So I have been busy, but not over productive.

Here are a few shots of the gardens as they turn into jungles around the cottage.

Today we have sun…so I am headed out to muck stalls and walk dogs.
Then back to work…I have to paint!

Poppies Are Red

This is the time of year that I really wait for all winter. As colors start popping in the gardens and the eye is drawn to each splash of red, and blue and yellow. as each perennial flower opens, announcing it's blooms. These days the poppies are singing their song with a complimentary note from the Shasta daisies. I have been forcing myself to stay in the studio and work on the commissions I have to finish for clients... and on the new works in the making.

Addie [ our eye impaired Corgi] demands time for walking and loving as she heals... along with her bored companion, Nell the little terrier-ist. So on my breaks from the studio, we walk around the gardens and make mental notes about what needs to be done to maintain the flower beds. It is an never ending labor of love.

So here is a sneak preview of what is happening in the gardens as I write. Enjoy .....and I need to get back to the art work at hand!

Happy Memorial Day

Our flag is flying high this weekend. It actually flies all the time. But today we stop and take time to honor the veterans and to also remember family and friends who have past. We all are indebted to the veterans who fought for our freedom... in America and abroad, in the past and still today. Some of them are from my family.....and today is a day to take time to remember them and what they have given for us and future generations. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Our spring is in full swing here in Maine..finally. My lilacs are perfuming the air and my perennial gardens give me so much joy ...either looking at them ..or working in them. Every year I say I will not get anymore new plants, but I can't stop myself from picking up some new flowers or ground-covers to round everything out! So far this spring I have added a new bleeding heart and a different Monks Hood. Don't ask me varieties..I just know color!! Years ago I worked in a commercial green house, and then for a nursery, but names escape me now. I just know color!!

This above is my "Look Into Garden", with the first blooming old fashioned lilac. I look down into this garden from my kitchen windows and it is a joy all year long with interesting landscape even in the middle of winter.

And then below, the view now from my studio, shows the round veggie garden that we separated with an arbor that will be shaded with grape, clematis and then morning glories later in the season.I get to look out at the horses as they graze in their fields. Mares on one side ...geldings on the other.

Now I better get back to work on painting on this glorious day of remembering and honouring!

New Series & New Schedule

This morning the skies are a bit gray. We have had some glorious weather prior, with the maple buds bursting, giving the woods around our farm a lovely pink cast The pussy willows are beyond cat paws stage and now hang down with a light yellow glow and spring is really in the air. It always amazes me how spring is heralded in with mostly yellow colors. At least in my gardens. I delight in the changing colors as the spring and summer processes. Love it!

I have decided for the most part, from now on I will work 5 days a week in the studio and will allot my weekends to spending time doing other than studio work. I think I have earned it! And we will see how long I can stick with it!

This is new casein, pictured above, that I am working on…It is a Work In Progress. A “WIP”. And then I have also been asked to do more dog 'works'…so need to think on that a bit. I have willing subjects just sleeping around the house!

But my heart is really into a new series I am starting, exploring and thinking on.. On the other hand…I have vowed to do some plein air work this summer…[ I said that last year too?]
But the BIG question plaguing me is what to pack to clothes for the KY trip!!

The Equestrian

I am painting today when I should be getting things together 'better' for my solo show with Gallery B in Lexington, KY. in May. But I really believe one [ meaning me!] needs to paint while the muse is hot. So I finished this mixed media painting [ 10 x 10 1/4"] of my mother as "The Equestrian". As I explained before in an early post on my blog, and will explain again.....I am working on a series of works depicting my family and times in their lives. I feel a need at this point in my life to make a statement about my family's past. I am hoping that someone will connect with this statement and understand what I am trying to say. At times I don't really know What I am saying?!! So good luck to us all!!

The wind has kicked up a notch here on the farm and gray clouds have replaced the sun that shone earlier. Spring is being it usual fickle self. I don't mind though as the promise of bulbs bursting and flowers blooming is so evident! So while the weather brews a storm, I will take care of things that need being done for the May show and think about what I plan on doing in the gardens when weather permits. It will at some point! It always does!

Almost Done- ALMOST

I must confess....I have been in the garden more than the studio ....but, heh...it was a long cold winter and that is my excuse. That and the fact that I have too many gardens and am making more all the time. With me it is like potato chips....one is never enough. That is also my excuse for why I have 4 horses. This is the walk way to our home.......gardens to the left of me ...gardens to the right!! But I love it and they feed my soul.
[There are also gardens behind the house]


This is where I am with the panel for the mural "Le Cadeau Du Cheval" . I think I only have to add some highlights and then it will be good to go. I think..................


The painting that is sitting on the easel behind it needs to get done................
I guess I do NEED to get out of my gardens...for a while at least.

Show Opening In Belfast Maine- May 22, 2008

I have been working..both in and out of the studio.

My gardens are starting to look good. I think that June is when they are at their prime. I am looking forward to that! Both our sons gave me plants for the gardens for Mother's Day [and dinner out to boot!!]. Such good men they are!!!

On The art front: The 2008 Festival of Art presented at The Hutchinson Center in Belfast opens on Thursday, May 22nd with a Reception for the artists and public. I will be there... and so will my casein "She Rode A Purple Horse". My painting "In Your Face" is hanging in the Gothic Building storefront window in Belfast on Maine Street , along with some other local artists' works, to celebrate this show. There is a Biblical saying "A prophet is not recognised in his own country"....so it is with me. This is almost my first local showing...new for the Belfast arena, not Maine. I look forward to getting more involved with the art scene here.

"The Horses In Art" show at the Columbia Art League has closed and is now being moved to the Wildlife Experience Museum in Parker, CO. My two casein paintings [ "Shades of Black # 8" and
"Shades of Black # 9" ] hanging in that show, will be traveling to the museum for the Opening Reception on June 6th, 2008. I will not be able to go to that opening.....

Happenings at Cob Cottage and Elsewhere

I have been invited by Anderson Galleries of Locust Valley, NY, to participate in an art exhibit, “Horses in Art” opening at the gallery on Thursday May 1, 2008. Paintings and sculpture from the show will first be previewed and exhibited at opening day at Belmont Racetrack, Wednesday April 30th at a private luncheon. How I wish I could be there for that! But our four horses, our Corgi and cat keep me at home feeding, cleaning and doing for them. I am often the artist in absentia. My painting “Gypsy Vanner and Wagon” is headed down south for that show. This is the watercolor and tempera painting shown above.

And THEN my mixed media painting “My World” took first place at the Grand National Western Art Exhibit and Sale that was held at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA. last week. This painting is done in casein, and liquid gold leaf……….a dreamy work with white horse and moon. Several of my ‘Shades of Black’ Series where also hung at that show.

Today I will try and work in the studio…with the sun and warmth calling me outside. My spring bulbs are peeping up in the perennial gardens and I even see my curly onion tops emerging through the ground in the veggie garden. There is much to do outside…. but much to do inside too…what a predicament??? Which way to go???

Am I Blue?

I did a lovely watercolor of a gray Welsh pony a while ago. [It is in the Center Piece Gallery in Seal Harbor this summer] The image was provided to me by a photographer friend from across the country. She resides in the great state of Washington. Wendi Ross and I seem to be drawn to the same sort of subject matter… Kindred spirits it seems.
I have been doing a lot of drawing lately and I re-visited this little Welsh in graphite with a watercolor wash of blue. This pony has the bluest of eyes, so it seems proper to depict him this way. All gray and blue.

This graphite and others....and some new watercolors... will be put onto my website soon, but this is a preview of what is to come!!

But now I head out into the gardens to work. A labor of love! Soon [well, I hope not too soon.] snow will be flying and I will be cooped up in my studio with much to be done. Now the gardens await!

What Happens When Your Studio Is Small

With four horses to care for, a Corgi to walk, perennial gardens [that surround our cottage] that need spring cleaning and getting all details put together for a museum art exhibit I am curating……..Life has been a bit of a jumble lately. I do manage to get into my studio each day and work. The above image is a casein just finished……..”Penned #1” is one of two caseins finished of the same subject matter. In fact the second is a continuation of the first. Thus it is appropriately named “Penned #2”. These are small, 5 x 7”, but a number three will be coming soon and it will be bigger!
I have come to the conclusion that I do small works because my studio is small………the old ‘bell jar’ theory. That is why I am planning on working outside more this summer. With the sky above me, I shouldn't be hitting my head as I often do in my loft studio!Stay tuned!