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

Did you hear that?

It’s not very loud. Just a faint scratch on paper, or a soft blerp or splat or splosh or slosh of paint, and perhaps an occasional sigh. The sounds of the art studio and work being made with pencil and paint.*

First the thumbnail sketches...

 Then the studies.

Eventually underpainting begins.

And at last the first color layer.

That's not the end of it. There is more to come, so stay tuned.

"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks". Plutarch

*onomatopeia - a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.

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.

New Work

I've updated my website with new paintings. I finally got the "stay inside" weather I needed, just not in the form I expected. This year we had a spectacular spring with regular rain and a nice mixture of sunny and overcast days, not too hot, not too cold. The garden displayed a sequence of color for the entire season, daffodils, hyacinths, foxglove, amaryllis, allium, jasmine, hydrangeas, gardenias, and roses. A nice treat considering how many seasons past the flowers have come out only to be withered and blown away by Santa Anas. But not this year. This year it was just too nice to be inside and working on websites when the weather was so perfect for digging and trimming and mulching (and sneezing). It finally came to an end, right on schedule by the calendar, with a heat wave - just too hot to garden or hike, but perfect for staying inside and working on websites.

A Very Busy Ring of Fire

Coastal Pines Overlook II    ©2011 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6"

 The weather here has warmed up allowing for improved drying time. Together with the longer days, that's good news for painters. I've been able to make progress on new paintings and finish this pair. These are imaginary scenes reminiscent of the California Coast near Big Sur. Although they weren't intended as such, they can work together as a diptych, yet I prefer them to be separate.

If there's a competition for our attention, it seems to me that Nature continues to win. It hasn't been a month since an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. As I was updating webcam information to post about the newest eruptions of Kilauea in Hawaii, the 8.9 earthquake hit Japan, followed by the massive tsunami. Just before the quake activity Japan's Shinmoedake volcano also began erupting again.

In Hawaii, the world's youngest and maybe most active volcano, which has been erupting continuously since 1983, has developed a new fissure developed between the Pu'u 'O'o and Napau craters on Kilauea. Here is a temporary camera set up to record the new fissure eruption which started on the afternoon of March 5, 2011 about 2 km WSW of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater. This panorama is a composite of eight images from a research camera positioned on the north rim of Puʻu ʻŌʻō's crater.



Coastal Pines Overlook I    ©2011 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6"

 Just as it is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of destruction that parts of the world have been experiencing, the images broadcast over the Internet and the airwaves have been unbelievable as well, including the most recent coming from Japan.

In the midst of it I was grateful to find this list of charities on Charity Navigator that are organizing relief efforts. The opportunity to contribute something to help out aids me in feeling a little less powerless.

Artist Statement: Revised and Updated

Converging Conditions oil on linen 48 x 60"
©2010 Katherine Kean

It has been awhile since any updates to my artist statement have been made. To get started I followed the journaling process outlined in Alyson Stanfield's ebook. This process provided results and numerous insights available to be called on at any time. However, my resulting statement, although bearable, was a tongue twister. With the meaning unchanged and using largely the same language, the expert skills of a professional wordsmith smoothed out the bumps:

I am enchanted by the curl of a cloud as it unfolds across the sky, how the wind’s energy traces the edge of a storm. In turbulence or tranquility, my work explores the natural forces that surround us and shape our lives as they call to mind the fluctuations of our experience within life’s larger patterns.

By combining memory and observation, I reach for an essential mood as nature’s ever-changing forms are edited and rearranged. Paint, applied in layers of decreasing opacity followed by glazes made translucent with wax, allow for unexpected variations in color and tone. The viewer is thus invited to share experiences that engage the eye and evoke a state of mind.

This video of penguins in a zoo chasing a butterfly illustrates what the process of writing feels like to me: Penguins chasing a butterfly

Happy Memorial Day

Coastal Pines - SOLD - 3 x 3" graphite
© 2010 Katherine Kean

This weekend does feel like the unofficial beginning of summer, having warmed up suddenly. Perhaps I can finally put away the space heater and take the winter comforter off the bed. Have a safe and happy Memorial Day.

Passing Through

Passing Through
4 x 7" graphite © 2010 Katherine Kean

This drawing, of an imaginary migration, is headed for the gallery this week. I suspect I'll end up doing a larger version of this in oil since I've explored this theme more than once in the past and keep returning to it to try and discover a bit more.

On another note, one of my recent paintings has been accepted as a winner in the May Showcase Awards, which is Art Slant's online competition. You can see it on the Art Slant 3rd 2010 Showcase page of their website.

Suburban Renewal

Laze 10 x 8" oil on canvas

© 2010 Katherine Kean

I'm bringing this small painting in to the gallery to hang in the loft area. This painting has been adjusted and then reworked and then readjusted and reworked again bringing it almost full circle back to where it started. I like the colors, the surprise of the blue on yellow, and this got me to exploring the effect of yellow in other work.

Speaking of color, I feel like I'm involved in an ongoing suburban renewal project. It started with a few minor repairs and then blossomed to include car repairs and inevitably having the car repainted. My car is old to begin with and it got sandblasted by the wind storms after the station fire with all the loose dirt and ash blowing off the mountains. It runs too well to trade in though so instead is getting tuned up and renovated. In the meantime I'm carless - except for rentals - for two weeks! It's a good thing I've got plenty to keep me busy in the studio.

My house is due to be painted too and I've been mulling over color choices. I'm leaning towards a deep, earthy green for the body, with dark crimson and warm white accents and trim. Every time I think I've got it all worked out I'll see another variation that I have to check out. There's still time for decisions though, because winter hasn't quite finished with us yet and there may still be rain.

Finding My Missing Cadmium Orange

 Grey Surf Under Summer Storm SOLD
24 x 30" oil on linen
© 2010 Katherine Kean

Last week when I reached for some cadmium orange paint and came up empty I was confused. I'd recently bought two tubes and I don't have any orange paintings, so where did it all go? The answer is qute simple, not that I realized until after looking high and low, through every paint drawer and box, and on every shelf that I might store back up art supplies. I use cadmium orange in underpainting, especially under green grasses like this marsh painting and also to mix darks. I mix it with ultramarine blue and a bit of alazarin to get a deep color that is nearly black, as in the new painting above. Fortunately I happened to be going by the art store the following day and I was able to restock, because one can't get cadmium orange from mixing cadmium red and cadmium yellow.

Some say we are lucky to still have the cadmium pigments to paint with. In the 90's legislation was proposed to ban all the cadmiums due to health and environmental hazards. Amid great outcry from the art community paint for artists' use was excepted from the ban. This article, from the Golden Paints website mentions that even though it is still allowed for art use, it may become increasingly difficult to find as widespread manufacture declines. I sure hope that isn't true.

Outdoors: Santa Monica Beach, National Parks - and in the garden

First Day (of 2010) 16 x 20" oil on linen
© 2010 Katherine Kean

I didn't mean to, but I spent the whole of Sunday gardening; which means pulling up the dreaded grass, trimming branches, and mulching. I had the kittens out for probably the longest they've been outdoors so far. Bear too, and he's a great kitten sitter, rounding them up whenever they looked like they might be getting to close to jumping over the fence. The rain has been so abundant this year that there are flowers all over. The scent of daffodils, hyacinths, and orange blossoms is overpowering. Just wait until the gardenia, jasmine, and roses kick in.

I happened to see this post from the Judson's Art Outfitters blog that mentions artist in residence programs in National Parks. I'm not usually interested in artist residencies. I know a lot of artists who love to go to artist residencies, but I just never got the point. It seems like an extraordinary bother to pack up art supplies, lock up the house, and board the animals just to go to a different studio somewhere else. However, a residency in a national park is another story and until now I had no idea that these existed. Some of these places are extraordinarily beautiful and it makes perfect sense to me that it is beneficial, even necesary to immerse oneself into that environment for a period of time to get the feel for the place and discover the features that make it unique.

Here is the list of National Park Residencies. I will be looking into some of them.

A Smaller Stormy Sea

Stormy Sea 8 x 6" oil on canvas
© 2010 Katherine Kean

I brought this new small painting to the gallery yesterday. This is a smaller version of the wave action for a larger piece. Both paintings have a violet underpainting, which still shows through in the clouds and on the water's reflections. It will be hung tomorrow in the upstairs gallery at TAG Gallery.

Shallow Water, Deep Sky

Shallow Water, Deep Sky 6 x 6" oil on linen
© 2010 Katherine Kean

Here's another small piece from the Great Marsh recently completed that I just brought into the gallery to replace one that sold.

I'm still at that point where I'm completing final touches (and sometimes revisions) on work and painting edges, wiring, and titling, while making forays and explorations into new work. I enjoy both, and even enjoy the slight tension of going back and forth between the two, although at times I feel a little divided.

I'm sure to feel this even more so as we head into spring. I've got two apple trees to plant and lots of new seeds ready to go into the ground. The daffodills are already up and blooming.

Making Titles for New Art

Trace in the Sky 30 x 40" oil on linen
© 2010 Katherine Kean

As mentioned in a recent post, I've begun to think about titling artwork. Unfortunately this thinking too often occurs to me just as I've uploaded an image and realize I need to call it something and at the very least something that's different than what I've named the last 3 or 4 paintings.

There are a lot of different opinions on what titles should be. I tend to like titles that add something to the meaning and I appreciate if it can be descriptive. I found a few interesting articles representing various viewpoints and methods of titling that I'll share with you here:

From "Subjective: The Artful Life": Titling Artwork: Part 1 Part 2 and Part 3 . I found this three part series of articles to be among the most thoughtful and in depth on the subject.


How to Title Your Work: Seven Steps
A wikiHow article that guides you through a titling process.


Robert Genn discusses painting titles in one of The Painter's Keys articles.


Title generator
This abstract art title generator is fun and who knows, it might spark an idea.


The painting above is making a return appearance on this blog as it is having it's final retouches complete. The title came from a little searching I did into weather sayings and their meanings.

Related Post:

Trace in the sky the painter's brush, the winds around you soon will rush.

A Plan on Paper

For a while now as I've been working I've had an idea in mind of what my next exhibition might look like. Except for one, almost all of the paintings are finished, and I have a sketch for that new one and there are some details left on several of the others. Now that the gallery these will be showing in has settled in to it's new location, I have a better idea of how much wall space I will have and it's a good time to lay out what it might look like to hang them all together. I'm hoping to exhibit about 12 paintings and I also want them to have a flow and cohesion; laying it all out on paper will help me to see if everything works as a whole, and if I need to fill in any gaps.

In addition to making the Photoshop image above I also created a document listing each work, the dimensions, the spacing allowed between them, and notes about what still needs to be done, the date I plan to do it, and whether that is painting, edges, wiring, labeling, or signing. The exhibition is not until November, so there is more than enough time, however I'd also like to get onto new work without having to think about if and how it fits into a planned exhibition. It will feel good to nail down the last details and get on with writing the accompanying statement.

Related Post:

Some Guidelines for Hanging an Exhibit

TAG Gallery Opening

Sunland Sky 16 x 20" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean

I had so much fun seeing familiar and new faces at TAG's opening Saturday night. The new gallery space looks great. Plus, I feel that I got wonderful feedback on the piece I exhibited (above). A thank you to everyone who came by!

This exhibit runs through December 26th, at TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station D3, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404. The hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11am - 5pm.

New Place

A Small Look at the Great Marsh -SOLD-6 x 6" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean

I'm prepping work and updating my portfolio this week. Saturday is TAG's official opening day at the new location and I'll have one small piece as part of a group exhibit that opens December 5th and runs through December 26th.

I went by on Tuesday - which was move in day. The movers happened to have an irresistably adorable little puppy with them that someone had given one of them that morning while they were on the way to our location. Luckily someone had some spare dog supplies in her car and a box with a blanket was prepared. The puppy slept through the morning in her box, but later when she woke up I ran out and got some puppy food. Feeding her and taking her for a little walk was a fun distraction from moving.

When I left the painters were already making good progress even as furniture and office supplies were being moved in. It looks like everything will be all set for the opening on Saturday.

Ways to Check Your Work

Point Lobos Path 10 x 8" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean - Available at TAG Gallery

The first method I ever learned for checking artwork is to squint your eyes. Look at your work through half closed eyes and the details drop away leaving the values and composition. Or use a Reducing Glass – I mentioned this before. A Reducing Glass is particularly helpful with large paintings. My favorite way to check for errors is to hold a painting up to a mirror – or for a large painting I bring the mirror to the painting. Right away weak areas stand out and if there is a drawing or perspective error it will show. Another method I use is to turn the work upside down – the composition is quickly revealed – strong and weak areas, value problems, and so on.

Jacqueline Gnott talks about how she checks her work in this post on her Contemporary Realism blog.

I have another, more complicated method for checking work – and for moving it along. I’ll post it soon.

How do you check your work? Answer in the poll to the right, or if you have a different way to check your work, let me know in the comments.

Why I Like E-Prime

Slow Release of the Day 18 x 36" oil on linen

© 2007 Katherine Kean

One of my favorite topics is English Prime. E-Prime is a modification of the English language that abolishes all forms of the verb to be: is, am, are, was, were, etc. A few reasons why I am such a big fan follow:

The elimination of the passive voice creates less confusion distinguishing statements of opinion from statements of fact. “I feel cold” instead of “It is cold.”

As well as providing clarity using E-Prime lessens conflict. “I feel I have finished” instead of “It is done.”

This type of communication alleviates a bit the hypnotic power of metaphor used so effectively by advertisers and politicians. “It appears to me that we should take action.” instead of “It is clear that we should take action.”

A change in language brings a change in perception, including how a person thinks of himself or herself. Instead of “I am sad”, I feel sad.” The sadness still exists, but seems like less of a permanent condition.

Although I find it difficult to remember to write and speak in E-Prime in most situations, I do find it an effective tool to have when listening to others.

Related Links:

Toward Understanding E-Prime

E-Prime - A Layman’s Perspective

E Prime - English without the verb to be

Progress

It’s a new month and I’m looking at what I want to accomplish in July. Out of the eleven paintings that I’ve had in progress all but two are nearly complete. One of them, a large one, is taking longer than I had anticipated, which is okay since it looks like it’ll be worth the extra effort. I suspect that I’ll be abandoning the other one altogether. It doesn’t have any major flaws, but when I look at it, or think about working on it, I just get a blah feeling and I just have too much to work on that I’m excited about to continue to spend time on one that feels so lackluster to me right now. I’ll keep it around for awhile in case it seems like it might come back to life later on.

I have canvas ready for three new ones and have started sketches of the compositions, which I’ll post as they progress.

Thumbnails of six that are all part of the same series are shown below:

works in progress
© 2009 Katherine Kean

Related Posts:

Lava Haze: Work in Progress

Unabandoned Paintings

Waves Coming to Shore: New Work in Progress

View of Halema`uma`u Ash Plume