More Cats

Not sure what to call this painting, maybe Pink Sunday Socks. It's a winter painting, with warm clothes and warm kitties, and lots of night time to think and dream.

 

It's in watercolor and gouache, about 7 x 9 inches. 

Cat House

Jim's a soft heart when it comes to stray cats. Here he is, with a few our our feline family.

Painted in watercolor and gouche, about 5 x 7 inches.

 

This painting is also about 5 x 7 inches.

Buddha Cat

This painting is about 5 x 7 inches, watercolor, gouache.  

I'd like to say I finished this painting today,
but it needs to set on a shelf for a few days while I decide if it's done.
Below you'll find a step-by-step. You'll notice I was working over some calligraphy practice.

Just trying to get color down. I get nervous starting a new painting.

It can be hard to stick with it when the painting looks like this.

I put some acrylic medium over the background at this point.

Here I kept building the white.

I hope this animation doesn't make you tired.

Exhibit at Oakwood Village, Madison, Wisconsin

The new month started with a new exhibit. I spent the morning of November first hanging 69 artworks in the halls of Oakwood Village on Madison, Wisconsin's west side. The exhibit will be open through December. I hope you can stop in.

Directions to Oakwood Village University Woods

6175 Mineral Point Road

Madison, WI 53705

Call Denny Geller for more information: 608.230.4324.

Press Check

Press check yesterday. Thought you'd like to see the press operator printing new bookmarks. This video is a pretty large file (close to 40 megs) so I've included a still in case you don't wish to download such a monster file.

The press operator is checking the
color saturation.

While I hung around for the ninety minutes that it took to print this run I chatted with Jeff, a pressman who was on break. Jeff's been in the business since the days of Linotype. We marveled at the changes in the print industry over the last thirty years. 

Here are the new designs that were printed yesterday as bookmarks:

Big Swim Ahead

Been spending a lot of time in water. Long training swims as my friend, Rayo, and I prepare for a five-mile swim event.

Imagine a hot summer morning. It's 5 AM and Lani and I swim across Silver Lake. We both stop swimming in an instant: the lake is turned on. The fog has lifted and the lake glows with the rising sun.

Here is Lani.

The upcoming five-miler that Rayo and I will swim requires an escort boat. Thankfully my sister, Linda, not only kayaks but lives close to the event in Minneapolis; she's kindly allowed us to press her into being our race escort. (So glad!)

Closer to home Bob and Kay Simandl met us at Devil's Lake with their custom-built ocean kayaks to practice. Bob patiently paddled at our relaxed swim pace of about 38-minute miles - yep, slow. He stayed good-humored. AND navigated perfectly. For hours. This painting was a thank you present. Notice the subtle water angel about halfway down.

I'll let you know how the swim goes. 


Minnetonka Challenge, July 28, 2012, 6:30 AM, Lake Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Five Mile Open Water Swim

Blues

I plan: paint abstract. 
My brush says: blue water, sky. 
Not very abstract.

(That's a haiku.)

I'm trying to use color theory: warm and cool, recede and come forward. Somehow I'm still too literal, thus blue water and blue sky. Can I break this tradition? But is has been interesting figuring out the blues: cobalt, cerulean, ultramarine. Maybe I'll get bold and try out prussian. 

And it's always a delight to add a touch of orange. Orange is a nice color.

Big Shoulders, Big Water: this is inspired by the 5k swim held in Chicago each September. The event is called Big Shoulders. Notice the tiny little orange swim buoy on the upper right?

I managed to get some pink and orange into this painting.

The tomato-shape on the left is a swim buoy. There are some tiny swimmers to its left and the Madison shoreline in the background. This painting is inspired by the Madison Open Water Swim held in August in Lake Monona.

A tiny swimmer on the lower left enjoys this ice blue and quinachridone coral lake. Perhaps I can consider that abstract for a Wisconsin lake.

 See more at LorraineOrtner-Blake.com.