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

ECO ART an exhibition January 10 - February 15, 2017

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

I'll be exhibiting two paintings in this group exhibition. It opens next week.

ECO ART an exhibition 

January 10 - February 15, 2017  

Opening Reception Thursday, January 12  6:00 - 8:00 p.m. 

GWC Community Art Gallery

Fine Arts Building, Rm 108 

15751 Gothard Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Free Admission 

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. 

Special viewing appointments may be made by calling the Foundation Office:
(714) 895-8316

Click here to download digital postcard with 

Free Parking Pass for January 12 6 - 8 p.m.

Izen Miller Gallery at The River - Exhibition continues through November 13

Marsh Glow Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 30 inches

I'm exhibiting nine atmospheric paintings at Izen Miller Gallery's inaugural exhibition at a new space. It is located at The River, Suite B113 - directly across from the Theater at 71-800 CA-111 in Rancho Mirage, CA 92270. 

Also exhibiting are Carol Beauvais, Philippe Chambon, John Luebtow, and Barry Orleans.

This is a really nice time of year to visit the desert. The gallery hours are Friday and Saturday 1;00 pm until 8:00 pm and Sundays from 11;00am until 6:00 pm. Private viewings are available by appointment.  

There will be a closing reception on Saturday, November 12 from 5;00 pm until 8:00 pm. It would be lovely to see you there.

Sketch Work from Dreams and Surreal Experiences

Night Swimming
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 10 x 8 inches

Night Swimming 2
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 9 x 8 inches

 I never forgot having an encounter with an owl while swimming at night. My guess at the time, as it swooped very low just over my head, is that with just my head above water I must have appeared to be prey. I'm thankful the owl had second thoughts. I've heard of other owl situations that didn't end as well.

Dream Drawing: Horse 
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 6 x 10 inches

 I've been finalizing drawings and preparing linen for painting. I've been gradually changing from stretched supports to linens glued down to panels. It requires a longer preparation time, but less, make that no, sagging, buckling, re-stretching, tightening, denting headaches down the road.

I've been using Lineco glue for the archival and reversible qualities, but find it a pain on larger sizes. It sets so fast that the glue on one end of the panel is dry before I can finish applying it to the rest. I'm going to try BEVA film next time. It is heat activated, so I may be able to simply iron it down. Either way, I'm finding it handy to have many large format art books handy. They do make incredible weights.

Chair Books Fire Water Dream wip
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen on panel

The same art books appear in this dream based painting shown in the initial blocking in stage. Some of the drawings made to develop this image can be found here: Dream Sketch :Books, Chair, Fire, Water.

Planning, Intuition, Imagination

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success." - Picasso

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress
©2016  Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Do your paintings talk back to you as you paint them?

During Anselm Kiefer’s talk at the Getty last week, he mentioned that he starts a piece with an idea in mind, but during the process the artwork will often transform into something else.

Usually I begin a painting with what I think is a clear intention of what the painting is about; the content, the subject, the mood and also the scale, the palette, and to what extent it will be painterly and textured.

Cloudburst Over Marsh sketch 
©2016 Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

I almost always go to Nature as the source of inspiration. I also make use of the many intellectual rules of composition. You know them: the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci Spiral, the Rule of Thirds, etc. With these ideas in the back of my mind I rearrange the elements of the landscape to align to the framework of the canvas. Clouds up and to the left, tree down and to the right, the curve of a road from here to there, and so on.

Cloudburst Over Marsh study 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Most of the time everything proceeds as imagined, and I’ll think I know when and how the painting will arrive.

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought." - Picasso

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Lately I find that as I approach this anticipated completion, I’ll begin to see something else and if I slow down and let it happen the painting seems to suggest a direction it would like to go – which may or may not be what I’d originally intended. 

Cloudburst Over Marsh detail 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Often the shift is subtle, a part I wasn’t too concerned about starts to become more of a focus point. A section of sky asks to be darkened, a carefully painted cloud all but disappears. A faintly suggested tree demands attention and detail. Other times it might as well be a completely different painting. If I take the hint and follow up, the results often make sense and I wonder why it wasn’t part of my “original plan” – or was it? It’s hard for me to tell where imagination ends and intuition begins.

And yet, I’m starting to like this way of working.

“Picasso was writing about this subject when he said: “I consider a work of art as the product of calculations, but calculations which are frequently unknown to the author himself. It is exactly like the carrier pigeon calculating his return to the loft. But the calculation that turns out to be correct is unknown to him; it is a calculation that precedes intelligence.” - Keeper of the Flame, An essay on Max Shertz and his Art of the Unconscious. By Daniel Kaufman, Artist and Writer

Liquid Sun Splash

Liquid Sun Splash Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

“If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” - Mark Twain

The weather in Hawaii provides a similar effect, or rather than waiting as it changes, a person can experience radiant sunshine and pouring rain simultaneously.

Liquid Sun Splash wip Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

This provides a new challenge for me when it comes to windshield weather paintings. Instead of a soft, misty background as a backdrop for well defined rain drops, the background is bright in places, and parts of the road are sharp along with some of the water edges. 

Connect the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Between the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Counting Raindrops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

It's less about a foreground veil for gazing out from a separate interior world and more about the sudden encounter and the dynamic patterns made.

Liquid Sun Splash wip ©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

I've let the brushstrokes remain painterly, brushy, a little bit textured and slightly raised, particularly for the drops. It's almost there, I think, just a few more touches.

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.