Murmuration on the Water Sketch

Murmuration on the Water Sketch  Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 8 x 10 inches

Imaginary bird murmuration sketch; a rather simplified composition. I might want to change the ratio. A wider composition seems like it could be more dynamic.

Murmuration on the Water Wide Digital Sketch  Katherine Kean

Grant Street Winter Murmuration Sketch

Grant Street Winter Murmuration Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 8 inches

Another imaginary murmuration, I obtained a photograph of the house we grew up in from my sister, photographed by a friend of hers - and permission to use it as reference - thank you kindly Kris and Mark.

The house, built in 1896, is a historical building and has had some restoration. The enclosed second story sunporch was my first art studio. The depth of the snow and the wintry feeling are as I remember New England winters to be.

Suburban Murmuration 2

Suburban Murmuration 2 (working title) Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 8 x 8 inches

Another in a series of bird murmurations in the skies over suburbia. All made up, of course. The first sketch can be found here, and the finished painting from that sketch here.

Spreading Murmurs: California Park Voices

As you you may know, I've been donating a portion of the proceeds from Murmuration to help selected causes, among them the California State Parks Foundation.  The CSPF - your voice for the parks - is a statewide, membership - based nonprofit, dedicated to California's 279 state parks. Right now 70 of our state parks face closure - that's about one quarter of them -  due to a $22 million general fund budget cut. 


The CSPF blog, Cal Park Voices, has just posted a very nice article, Murmurs of Generosity, about my latest body of work. Click here, or on the image above to read it.

Murmuration Flies North…

Some of it lands in the homes of new collectors, some will roost in my studio for awhile, and six paintings have made their way to the Modest Fly Art Studio Gallery in Tujunga to join the ACAG Mother’s Day exhibition that’s already in progress. This show runs through June 9^th with a closing reception on Friday, June 8 from 5 -8 PM.

Above and below are more shots of the changes people have made to the flight patterns while Murmuration was on display at TAG Gallery. One gentleman visiting from Australia was thrilled with the opportunity to interact with the art. He told me that usually people are told to “stand back” and “don’t touch the art.” He went on to spend some time arranging and re-arranging the paintings. Some of them even ended up upside down or some sideways and worked just as well in these positions.

3 Artists and a Conversation

Just getting set up for the event. Anne M. Bray's work can be seen in
the center background and Betty Sheinbaum's just glimpsed to the right.

We had a lovely audience for Saturday's Art Spoken Here event at TAG Gallery, and so many attended that we ran out of chairs. Here's a recap.

Gallery director Laura Korman began by announcing the exhibition’s three parts: Echo – representing Ann M. Bray’s revisiting of her work from the ‘70s, Eco, for my Murmuration series, and Econ, Betty Sheinbaum’s paintings about local people and our economy.

Laura asked why we choose to work in specific media? For us it boiled down to the benefits or drawbacks of oil versus acrylic, and digital versus hand drawn. I find it really interesting that there are a variety of opinions among us.

We were asked about our creative process in general and whether how or where we grew up had an influence on our becoming artists. And, what is an important turning point in our career? 

We were asked what other professions we've had and how that has impacted our work. Anne works in textile design, Betty was a sculptor, using car parts as material. I feel that my background in visual effects helped bolster my creativity, sharpen my eye and keep my hand skilled.

I got a chance to explain that Spooky Action at a Distance and Quantum Entanglement are both names for the same theory in Quantum Physics, that describes the way things that are physically apart from each other influence each other’s actions even though there is no visible or known connection.

I learned a lot about the other artists, that Betty went back to school in her sixties when she could no longer do sculpture due to physical impediments, that Anne is inspired by the Hudson River Valley school of painters, among others, that Betty’s favorite contemporary painter is Diebenkorn.

Our biggest fear as artists? The pressures of time, for Anne the hours of daylight and productivity versus down time, for me, not having enough time to get it all done, and for Betty, the fear of showing work.

Betty also spoke about the experience of being a founding member of TAG.

Finally, there were some great questions from the audience, with one gentleman asking how artists can deal with the discouragement that can come from frustration. We advocated patience and fortitude, putting the work away and coming back later with a fresh eye, and taking a nap.

More photos here on TAG's Facebook album.

Questions and Conversations on Saturday, May 12

Quantum Entanglement © 2012 Katherine Keanoil on linen, modular 40 x 60' over 8 x 60"

Curious about how the work is made? Questions about the process, the background? Join me this weekend, along with Betty Sheinbaum; 99% & Counting, and Anne M Bray; Pattern Recognition II, for an informal talk with queries posed by gallery director Laura Korman, plus any questions you might have.

 Conversations with the Artists 

Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 3PM

TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station 

2525 Michigan Avenue, D3 

Santa Monica, CA 90404

Murmuration Opening Reception

Thanks to everyone who could come out to the opening reception of Murmuration this weekend. I love this time of year when the sun stays out until nearly 8 pm and this weekend we had some of the nicest weather. I had a great time greeting friends and meeting lovely, new people.

 A part of this exhibition is a modular grid of small paintings that can be moved around to change the choreography of the flock. Next to this hang two pairs of white gloves and this label:

 The Bird By Bird Series can be grouped in sequential order, or re-arranged to suit. Please feel free to change the order. Move any of these paintings within the group, altering the overall configuration as you envision it. Each shift changes the choreography of the flock, the shape of the clouds, and the story of the murmuration. 

 I was pleased to see people step up and don the gloves and set about re-designing within the grid's
configuration.

I hope to get photographs of all of the various configurations people come up
with as the exhibition progresses.

In the meantime, you can see more photos here, on my Facebook page.

Complete Murmuration Preview Online

Bird by Bird 5  ©2012  Katherine Keanoil on linen 8 x 8"

I've finished painting, more or less, although I reserve the right to make last minute changes or additions if so moved and time allows. Sometimes trying to draw the finish line on a body of work for a show is like trying to cap off a well. Ideas continue to flow while I try to ignore them. Still I know that they are percolating beneath the surface, and wondering if they will resurface at an appropriate time.

All twenty paintings are uploaded to the preview site. If you're on my email list you have the access link. If you'd like to see the online preview, you can sign up below.

I'll be posting some of the paintings on Facebook too. Feel free to drop by and join in the conversation.

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Murmuration Sneak Peek: More Paintings Added

Bird By Bird 13 ©2012 Katherine Kean

oil on linen 8 x 8"

I've added more artwork to the online sneak peek of the Murmuration exhibition. This preview is only available for newsletter subscribers. If you'd like to see it sign up by clicking the link below.

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I've also updated a section that allows you to click through a few of the dozens of possible variations of ways the modular pieces can be grouped together. Each change shifts the pattern and the story of the flocking birds.

I'm down to last minute touches, painting edges, and waiting for work to dry.

Murmuration Preview is Now Online

An early sneak peek of the Murmuration exhibition is now online for newsletter subscribers. If you'd like to see it sign up by clicking the link below.

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Do not worry. I will not bombard you with endless emails. Plus you can easily unsubscribe anytime you want.

Or simply wait until the show opens in April!

Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds, Birds...and a Wave

Wave section of work in progress   oil on linen   8 x 60"

I've been painting bird after bird after bird. When I close my eyes I see bird shapes - not necessarily a bad thing!

The image above is the bottom portion of a modular painting - this 8 x 60" section is part of the two piece work, that will be 48 x 60" overall. You can see a detail view of another section in the post below. This part is complete. The rest is still getting some adjustments, and, can you guess? Right! Birds.

Now Smoother and with More Birds

Here's another look at one of the final paintings I'm working on for my next show - only about six more weeks until it's time for hanging it. It's a modular piece so you're seeing part of the top and part of the bottom together. The surface is continuing to co-operate now, lying smoother and flatter; as I wrote about in another post.

Did you ever start working on a project and then start to see signs of a similar interest or subject everywhere? While working on this series I noticed that the murmuration phenomena has expanded. I'm seeing short videos everywhere depicting murmuration events. I've started seeing articles about business and finance that have latched onto the word to describe their system or process and recently I saw a movie that used the idea as a special visual effect, as sort of an apocalyptic vision. I'm not sure if all of these references were always there and I'm just noticing because of my association or if it has simply increased in the past few months.

Smoothing Out the Wrinkles

I’m feeling celebratory this week. A painting that has been a problem child from day one is now starting to take shape. It is a modular painting. By that I mean it is composed of two canvases, a 40 x 60" placed above an 8 x 60". I’m using oil - primed linen, always a little difficult, but this time it was as if the linen was resistant to my every effort - everything except extreme patience. I stretched, waited, tightened, waited, smoothed and adjusted and retightened, over and over, coaxing the linen to flatten out. For a few weeks stretching linen became my number one preoccupation. One night I literally had nightmares about going to the studio to try to paint on surfaces made up of origami folds. What a relief to wake up! What a relief to see this painting co-operating at last.
Here are a couple of detail views from different sections:

As an imaginary composition there have been a lot of adjustments to get the balance and motion of the birds right and then to make sure the top and the bottom sections are cohesive.
It has a way to go yet, but has at last entered fun to work on territory.
Have you ever had a project that seemed to resist all your efforts?

Save the Date Upcoming Exhibition: Murmuration

Bird By Bird 6  ©2012 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 8 x 8"

April 24 - May 19, 2012

M U R M U R A T I O N

TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station

2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit D3

Santa Monica, CA 90404

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11am -5pm

Sundays noon - 4pm

An online sneak preview of the exhibition will be available to email subscribers. Sign up is here.

And More Birds

Clouds, Birds 5 in progress

©2011 Katherine Kean

oil on linen 8 x 8"

There is an advantage to working on these paintings right now. Because of their small size they are easy to illuminate with artificial light. Another plus I've found to painting in winter is that the studio is so cold at night that any paints left out on the palette stay fresh. I can never get away with leaving paint out in the summer!

More Birds

Clouds, Birds 4  in progress 

©2011 Katherine Kean

oil on linen 8 x 8" 

Here's another in the birds flocking series.Since these are small I can often work on two or three in a day, building up layers, and then setting them aside to dry while I go on to others.

Meanwhile a 40 x 60 inch linen is stretched and toned and will be dry enough to work on this week. It was having odd puckering issues, but now, to my relief,it has finally flattened out.

Assembling a Series

Clouds, Birds  in progress ©2011 Katherine Kean

oil on linen 8 x 8" each 

Here are the first three of a series of twelve small square paintings of clouds and flocking birds. I've been working on many diptychs, triptychs, and modular paintings lately. A group of modular paintings can have the visual impact of a single large scale piece but has built in portability and versatility. Much of the time I've found that paintings in a grouping can be completely rearranged while still working together as a whole.  

Work in Progress: Murmuration

Murmuration in progress © 2011 Katherine Kean
oil on linen triptych 48 x 126" overall

Here is what the large triptych taking up all the breathing room in my studio looks like at the moment- click on the image to see it enlarged. It will be getting a few more layers and I suspect the bird formations will change somewhat, but I'm not going to say in what way just yet. What I will say is that I'm glad that I did most of this painting during the longer days. At this time of year my studio seems a little darker every day and I have to start depending more and more on artificial light.

Birds, Branches, and Torn Edges

Separation Anxiety work in progress graphite 4 x 12"

©2010 Katherine Kean

Between Holiday shopping, card writing, parties, and some artwork shipping (more on that later), I found some time to squeeze in this drawing. I've been captivated with the patterns that birds make in the air when they are flocking and roosting, and even more so with the bare branches starting to appear.

This piece is not quite finished, but the changes are so slight you probably wouldn't be able to notice from a the low resolution photograph that you are seeing online. It is composed on three pieces of paper with torn edges and I plan to frame them together in one frame, floating (no mat), with a tiny separation between the three - hence the title. I actually enjoy tearing paper and I usually prefer the way it looks over cut paper.

On another note, would you believe that I just now found the spell checker on blogger? Now I have no excuses left for my typos!