Multiplicity: the Eye of the Artists at Izen Miller Gallery

Scattered Glow Katherine Kean
oil on linen on panel 42 x 52 inches

I'm excited to be in this group exhibition at Izen Miller Gallery's new location on El Paseo in Palm Desert.

Artists include Carole Beauvais, Carol Bishop, Ilana Bloch, Catherine Bohrman, Philippe Chambon, Michael Davis, Downs, Vivian & Ed Flynn, Ruth Gonzales, Marcy Gregory, Katherine Kean, Masha Keating, John Luebtow, and Barry Orleans.

 
Opening Reception: 

Saturday February 18th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm 

For more information, please contact Deanna Miller: 760.898.0223
deanna@izenmillergallery.com  or visit IzenMillerGallery.com. 

Izen Miller Gallery

73-740 El Paseo
Palm Desert, CA 92260

Sheltering Cloud, Restless Land, Desolate Tree

Sheltering Cloud, Restless Land, Desolate Tree 
©2015Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 16 inches

Driving the Chain of Craters Road, that starts at the volcano and ends at the ocean (for now) is one of my favorite drives of all time. I find it as amazing as driving on Highway 1 heading to Big Sur, but far less crowded.

As you descend you follow the trajectory of past lava flows, and as you go the weather changes. On this trip it was cool and misty at the top, then rainy, then partly cloudy, then sunny and hot and windy, and back to warm and mild.

There are many places along the way to turn off and follow trails, see vistas, explore lava tubes. I love that there are no services of any kind until you go the 18 miles to the bottom. You're on your own here. Just you and the wild.

Someone's Desert Sunset

D's Desert Sunset ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Every now and then someone will send me an image, usually a sky, that strikes them in a particular way, and ask me to paint it. I'm happy to do that when the subject is already aligned with what I have set out to do. The painting above is one such painting, with a few details added from my imagination.

Beach Day's End

Beach Day's End ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 20 inches

“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” 

 - Rachel Carson

Deck the Walls at Segil Fine Art

Bird in Brush Katherine Kean
oil on linen 8 x 8 inches

I will be taking part in Laura Segil Fine Art's Annual Holiday Small Works, Deck the Walls! Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, December 6 from 5 -8pm.

Deck the Walls

Holiday Small Works

Saturday, December 6 - Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Opening Reception

Saturday, December 6, 5-8pm

Segil Fine Art Gallery

110 West Lime Avenue

Monrovia, CA 91016

626-358-5563

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 1-6pm

Showing Metal

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint, aged one month

I have been wanting to try drawing with silverpoint for ages. An artist friend suggested it to me years ago. I have a light touch, which serves me well in watercolor and oils, but for which I must compensate by using very soft pencils. With metalpoint drawings it doesn't matter so much how hard one bears down - the mark will be about the same. 

I decided to try it out with a tiny drawing of very familiar subject matter.

All the marks one makes in silverpoint are indelible. There is no erasing. Metalpoint drawings are ethereal at first and darken with age as they oxidize. You can see a slight difference in the early drawing above, compared to the same drawing photographed again about a month later.

A quality I like about metalpoint is that one piece of metal lasts a long time and I don't find myself taking trip after trip to the sharpener. Without a stylus, metal to work with can be found in the silverware drawer or coin pocket. I also like that the finished surface has a silvery sheen when the light hits it. Silverpoint is difficult to photograph - the scans here are blurry from the light bouncing around, and the drawings look better in person, which I think is true for much, if not all artwork.

The Weight of Air

The Weight of Air Katherine Kean
oil on linen   48 x 48 inches

A combination of a Cape Cod marsh and imaginary - and much hoped for - rain clouds, this painting has fun details that are hard to see here. The foreground grasses are slightly impasto brushstrokes, as are some of the wind tossed 'debris' in the air.

As I was settling on a title, I looked up many weather terms: downdraft, microburst, wind shear, outflow front, to mention just a few. I finally went with the title that's been in my mind since I started.

Suburban Murmuration Drawing

Suburban Murmuration Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

I made this drawing in preparation for a painting. It's an imaginary landscape, although I am using local homes as the basis and making a few changes. The swirling flock of birds is entirely made up.

Marsh With Snow

A Little Snow on the Marsh Katherine Kean
oil on linen 8 x 10 inches

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” ― Rachel Carson

Hazy Skies With a Touch of Green

Hazy Before Thunder Chatham Beach © 2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 12 inches

This painting is about the feeling of when the beach is the only place to escape the heat and humidity mere minutes before the thunderstorm breaks. 

Have you ever noticed how the sky sometimes takes on a greenish cast right before a storm? People have noted this phenomena for centuries and modern scientists don't deny it, although there is no consensus on what the cause is. It could be the mixing of yellow sunlight scattered by particles in the air that makes the blue sky a greenish color., but who knows?

From Cloud to Cloud

From Cloud to Cloud ©2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen  16 x 20 inches

"We used to walk up in the sky 
Up where the air is rarefied 
Went hand-in-hand from cloud to cloud...."
Darwin Deez, Up in the Clouds

Small Boat on the Great Marsh

Small Boat on the Great Marsh ©2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 8 inches

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I seem to be doing a lot of marsh related work lately. Earlier stages of this painting can be found here - the sketch, and here - the underpainting and initial color layers.

Purchase information available here: Small Boat on the Great Marsh.

Chasing Clouds

Cloud Chasing ©2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 40 inches

 "Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them." -William James

This is one more of the selection of paintings going to Palm Springs this week for the 3rd annual Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, taking place this coming Presidents' Day weekend. There is still time to email me for a free pass, if you act today.

Fog Lifting

Fog Lifting ©2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 40 inches

“Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness.” ― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

Here's another of the paintings going to Palm Springs next week for the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair. Come see the work in person if you'd like. The 3rd annual Palm Springs Fine Art Fair is this Presidents' Day weekend. For a free pass. email me, or sign up for my newsletter.

Billowing Clouds Go By and By

Billowing Clouds Go By and By ©2014 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 16 x 20 inches

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." Rabindranath Tagore

This is one of the paintings that I'm planing to take to the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair in February. If you're in the area and you'd like to come to the Fair and see it in person let me know. Email me, or sign up for my newsletter..

Palm Springs Fine Art Fair 2014

I'm pleased to once again be participating in the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, which takes place President's Day weekend at the convention center in Palm Springs, CA. Full details below. I can send a limited number of complimentary passes to newsletter subscribers. Please sign up here.

IZEN MILLER GALLERY

Booth 210

PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR

Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs, CA 92262

V.I.P. Opening Preview Party

Thursday, Feb 13, 7 - 9:30 PM

(Requires pass)    

             

Friday, February 14, 11 AM - 8 PM  

 Saturday, February 15, 11 AM - 8 PM 

 Sunday, Feb 16, 11 AM - 6 PM

www.palmspringsfineartfair.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reaching Through © 2013 Katherine Kean
diptych, oil on linen   12 x 16 inches each

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Is It Done Yet?

Marsh House 2013 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

How do you decide when a painting is done?

 For me this has always been something that's mostly intuitive, but as I go along I realize that these days I spend a lot more time thinking about it - especially as I'm approaching the end. Lately it seems to be a matter of whether I feel 've reached clarity on what I think the painting is about.

What do other artists say? Here are some quotes on the subject:

"To put it as simply as possible - and this is a simple answer, not a total answer - I know when a painting's finished when I understand why I wanted to do it in the first place." James Elkins

"The painting is finished when the idea has disappeared." Georges Braque

"One always has to spoil a picture a little bit in order to finish it." Eugene Delacroix

"That's the terrible thing: the more one works on a picture, the more impossible it becomes to finish it." Alberto Giacometti

"When a painting is done I feel it actually recedes from me. Everything coalesces and moves away, and I can no longer focus on a single part of it. It suddenly does this gestalt." April Gornik

"It can be difficult to assess when a painting is complete. For this reason, I often set aside the painting to prevent overworking it. When I am unsure, I ask myself if doing more would add or take away from the purpose of the painting." Mary French

"I paint until I become the audience staring at the painting staring back at me. It’s how I know the painting is done." Eric Fischl

"When nothing is wrong anymore, then I stop." Gerhard Richter

Watching Clouds Float By

 Clouds Sailing Over Tweed River Valley ©2013 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."

John Lubbock

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability." Sam Keen

Cloud watching is high on my list of ways to not waste time, along with reading, bird watching and gardening. What are your favorite ways to not waste time?

Any proverbs about weather....

... are doubly true during a storm. 

~Ed Northstrum

I Stop for Drops 2012 Katherine Kean

(work in progress) oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Here's a progression from drawing through details.

As you can see I ended up with much more description of the background and less focus on the drops.

Above are the first three (or so) layers from a beginning coral/pink, next a minty, pale green, and then shapes suggested in transparent brown tones. I could almost have begun with the drops at this stage, however I got carried away.

It was so much fun painting the distant urban landscaping, the trees, and the car that I just kept on going.

When I got around to adding the drops I worked from left to right, only working with the largest shapes at first.

This is what it looks like close up.

I'm undecided now. I can just finish this up with a few more glazes, or I may decide to paint over the bottom, this time taking away detail, or perhaps paint an alternate version. I'm not sure - what would you do?