PET PORTRAITS with PERSONALITY

I have just finished this painting of Leo and Monty ...Monty came to live with us 10 years ago and is a much loved member of our family..Leo is an 18 month old Ruby Cavalier and is my daughters dog..both love a walk by the lake near where we live..I can't part with this painting however I am happy to discuss any requests for orders..I paint in oil on quality gallery wrapped stretched canvas ...

I was featured in Australian Artist magazine No 291 Sept 08

AUSTRALIAN ARTIST MAGAZINE FEATURE

Old House finished

I stayed in all day today and finished off the old house painting. It has come up pretty good and similar to the other paintings that I have done of the house for other members of the family so my client should be pleased with it ..

I am now on to my dog paintings and am planning to begin a painting of our 2 Cavaliers Monty and Leo tomorrow..need to get some other paintings started as well for some exhibitions so will sort that out tomorrow as well ..

here is one of the paintings that I painted 'plein air' while away on the painting trip to Exeter..It is of a house on a beautiful cattle property called Indigo Violet......Hope to get the old house finished tomorrow....later :)

OLD HOUSE continued....

I really got carried away while painting the next few steps of this painting and as usual in my own little world totally forgot to photograph some of the next steps .I took this photo as soon as I realised...so after the blocking in I went back in and strengthened the darks..an important step as this determines how much of the light that I can achieve in the end result as I like my paintings to 'sing' with light...I painted the red roof tiles and will come back later to define this a bit ..then moved on to finishing the boards on the house ...the brick fence on street level and the red stairs..blocked in the footpath (sidewalk) and began to paint the shrubs and Norfolk Island palms behind and beside the house..I simply couldn't wait to add the light to the house (impatient little being that I am !) so got onto the highlights on the windows , door and house boards and railing..in short I am all over the place when I paint but for some reason or other this works for me ..I think that it has something to do with short attention span because as soon as I tire of one section I quickly go onto the next and continually go back and forth until I am pleased with the result.

I worked hard at it all weekend so that I could escape for the day to drive up to Bowral to see a great exhibition of dog paintings at the Milk Factory Gallery..fantastic work..I would like to ask the artist her secret on how she got the dogs to look at the camera as they seem to turn away when I photograph them..I adore dogs but it takes a lot of patience to get a good photo..

Standing back now and taking a good hard look at the house painting I can see that I will have to change a couple of the angles before I am completely happy with it ..still lots to do before it is finished ...catch you soon...

I am often asked about the process of painting a picture and as I have just recently begun a new painting of an old house I thought that it might be interesting to show the steps that I go through to acheive this . Now please note that I am mostly a self taught artist so to any really good artists reading this I apologise for my most likely unorthodox way of going about this....

The painting is of an old house that has now been demolished . It was on prime land that overlooks the Pacific ocean. The children of the owner asked me to do several paintings of the house in remembrance of their mother who has now passed so it has indeed been an honour to be asked to paint it . When planning the paintings I took in to account each of the clients requests of particular features about the house that they remember the most . A bit of a challenge as the house has had many changes and alterations over its 100 year history ..

In these first photos I have jumped ahead and gone straight to the blocking in ..I had previously drawn it out roughly in charcoal and am using quality stretched tara 70 canvas and am painting in oil..I have completed the modern rendered wall which is meant to be a statement about the future taking over the past and strengthened the dark areas ...next ..keep following for more tomorrow

hatbox and scrapbook album

I was asked to paint this lovely antique hatbox with old toys .I have just finished it and posted it off to its owner last week. Also completed this scrapbook for my customer who loves her horses as much as the bears..a great combination !

PAINTING TRIP

Hi all,
Had a great 5 days painting with 'The Plein Air Girls' . Well that is ..in between good food..a little wine ..fantastic accommodation and lots and lots of laughing.. But seriously we did each get 5 paintings done so you could say that it was a successful trip away and I am really looking forward to our next one later in the year to Sofala and Hill End, gold towns out in the west of NSW and a mecca for artists around these parts.
Back home now and getting into some commissions before I can start painting from the great photos that I took while I was away ..also need to do some paintings for a couple of exhibitions with the art society later this year .

kkaras@bigpond.net.au

Ok, I know that I must be the slowest blogger on the planet ! Life has been busy with a capital B since I started this blog but I hope to get better at this and make a concious effort to keep it going . My news this week is that I am packing my art gear to go on a plein air trip with a group of friends to the Southern highlands ..NSW Australia ( not Scotland , altho I wish) We will be away for 5 days of blissful painting in this lovely region and we expect to be painting the beautiful colours of Autumn ..I joined this group of like minded artists a couple of years ago and we go on several trips to different places each year . It is a whole lot of fun and a chance to just paint without distraction ..these 2 paintings above were done from a trip to Jasper Ponds near Colo River on a previous plein air trip.. will be back next week with news of our latest adventure ..