New Model

My daughter's settled at college, and I've been shooting a new model for reference photos. Above is the first painting I've done with her. It's 24" x 20", unnamed, and needs a couple of final tweaks (I often see things that bug me when I make the jpg for online -- it's just the viewing the art in a different way).

I've been asked several times over the past couple of years to teach. And I've decided to finally start. Probably a combination of workshops and some local weekly classes, starting in January in Everett. I will also be doing a demo this Saturday from 4pm - 7pm at Everett Artist Supply (9304 Evergreen Way, Everett, WA) during their artwalk. I'm looking forward to using one of those new reference shots!

I've got work in four shows starting this month, and need to talk off to deliver to the first now. . .

Colorado Bound

I have a new gallery carrying my work -- the Philinda Gallery, located in Edwards, Colorado, which is in the Vail valley. Yesterday I finally got three new paintings shipped off to them.

Here is one of the paintings I sent. It's titled "Big Step", oil on canvas, 24" x 18".

The Day After

Last night was the opening reception of my solo show, Figures & Friends, at the Fountainhead Gallery in Seattle. It was great. I saw folks I hadn't seen in decades -- and sold art -- it doesn't get any better than that! The gallery is open Thursday - Sunday, and the show runs through March 28th. So anyone who missed it can still stop by and see the artwork. Give me a jingle, and I'll meet you down there if I can.

Above is a shot of the Fountainhead Gallery at night as we were leaving.

New website

I new there would be something I would forget! Sure enough as soon as I hit the publish button on the last lengthy catchup entry, I remembered that I didn't tell folks about finally getting my website up and running last year. It actually debuted in about May, but didn't really have much artwork on it until late fall.

It is functional, but it doesn't have all my new work on it yet -- or even some older work for that matter. But it's getting there. Above is a screen shot of one of the pages. You can go to check it out at:

www.karenmcclelland.com

Cheers.

A Jockey a Day

Here's another of these fellows that I have painted for Parklane Gallery in May. Again he's very close to completion, but still needs a couple of more strokes, and of course the signature.

All the reference photos for the jockey series I took last summer at Emerald Downs racecourse. I look forward to racing starting in April so that I can go back and get some more photos. They've been a blast to paint.

As before this jockey is for sale, and won't screw anything up if he goes to a new home before May when he's due at the gallery, because I have several of these paintings I'm working on, and probably more than I need for the gallery show in May. The price (before he gets to the gallery) is $250.00, and includes a custom wood frame, but not shipping.

If your a new viewer to my blog, this is an original oil painting on canvas. All the jockeys are the same size 16" x 8" (this is the unframed canvas size).

The Jockeys

Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab . . . er easel. I have to confess I was playing that soundtrack the other day when working on my new series. While the jockeys may be tan there is no blonde hair ;-).

This is the first in a new series I'm working on. They'll be shown at Parklane gallery in May. I have been enjoying painting the bright colorful silks immensely. I've chosen to do almost all of the jockeys from the back with the exception of a couple of side views. I made this decision on purpose because if I were doing them from the front, their faces would automatically be the focal point, which is not what I was going for. To me it's all about the posture, and the beautiful silks. What are they doing? What are they thinking? I find I am really drawn the to mystery of figures from the back. They capture my interest. B.C. Nolan, a fine artist who also paints many figures from the back expresses it much more eloquently -- but naturally I can't find that article when I want to. So I'll just have to leave it by saying it was a conscience decision.

This painting is done except for the signature, which I'll get done this week. So in the meantime I've got the copyright mark across the bottom.

They are for sale, each painting in the series is 16" x 8" and they are framed. The price for each one is $250.00 (plus shipping). Plus they do not need to be purchased as a set. I will probably have prints made of them, but do not have a final decision on that yet.

If you wish to purchase one of these fellows you can contact me directly until they are at the gallery (in May). After that they maybe purchased by contacting Parklane via their website at www.parklanegallery.com.

The start of "Salute"

Finally getting a chance to start blogging again. I've been exceedingly busy the last couple of months. Parklane Gallery in Kirkland, (www.parklanegallery.com) where I hang my work announced that in January they would be hanging "salon" style. Which means artwork floor to ceiling. I thought instead of hanging a lot of different pieces, would it be fun to hang floor to ceiling, one image made up of many different canvases.

What a project it turned out to be. I had never tackled anything like that before. I knew in my mind what I wanted to do. I had a eight foot high by four foot wide area to work with and I wanted to do a horse and rider. My first thought was a jumping image, but the width made me think of a horse and rider more from the front doing a dressage halt and salute. My next problem was I was really short on time to try to get out and take a reference photo. I really prefer to take my own, and of course I'm very careful about copyright. I saw a photo I was interested in taken by a wonderful equine photographer named Karen Lietz (karenlietz.com). We came to an arrangement and the photograph was mine to use as a reference for my Salute painting.

Next was to divide up the image into the different canvas sizes. I started figuring it out using different standard gallery wrapped canvas sizes, with 1 1/2 inches between the canvases. Having done that (it was either 10 or ll canvaes, I made my trip to the art supply store. Well they didn't have all the sizes I wanted in stock. And because I was working up against the clock I didn't have time to special order the canvases. So I started redesigning my layout in the store, pulling canvases off the shelf. I ended up working it out and it turned out to be 14 canvases.

Back to the computer to lay out the image some more. Making it very accurate with the canvas size and the 1 1/2 spacing. After that the next stage was drawing the image onto the canvas. Now I had planned to do some photographing for my blog as this project went along. Since I'd never tackled anything like this before. That went down the road of "best laid plans". When I'm working I just never think to stop and take photos. Plus the fact that I would forget to take my camera to my studio.

My next step was to gesso the fourteen canvases to get them ready for painting. Obviously the finished paintings were to be hung without frames, as they would ruin the image, which is why I chose the deep gallery wrapped canvas.

Then I made a step that is not normally done until after the painting is complete. I wired the backs of the canvas for hanging. And actually hung them unpaintined, getting that 1 1/2 spacing correct on the wall in my gallery.

Next was to start the painting, but I'm going to save that for my next blog entry. At the top of this entry you will see the finish "Salute" as it is currently hanging in Parklane Gallery (size 3 1/2 ft wide, 7 ft. high, price $3,900), and I'll post how it got to that stage in my next entry. Bye for now, Karen