Fun: Thanksgiving encouragement

I put a little something together to celebrate the day and to encourage gratefulness on this special day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ken

Kid's Art Made into Masterpieces

Launching this week:

Here's something really fun. It starts with a child's art and through this service, an artist embellishes the child's artwork. It is transformed into a larger, painterly work, as they say, worthy of the Louvre or your living room. It's a great idea. I hope the kids and the artists involved do great things!

View the website:

Monet Filmed While Painting Water Lilies in Giverny

Click to view this film made in 1914 showing Monet being interviewed and painting at his home in Giverny.

Watch carefully and you can see how he takes in the subject, his brushes, palette and paint application. Surely this is not Monet working at full power with his immaculate white coat, but there is plenty to see here.

How did he ever keep from setting his beard on fire? The dangling ciggie ash creates a dramatic tension... it's an art film!

Enjoy this history. We are lucky to have this film of a master at work.

Grateful Notices: November 13, 2013

Heat in the back of the Forest, oil on canvas 48 x 60 inches
Private collection, Cincinnati, OH
Exhibited: Steamboat Springs Center for Visual Arts, CO

My grateful thanks to the buyers and the gallery involved. It is an honor to be exhibited and brought into someone's home.

This is a canvas that went through a lot of changes before reaching this final version. Last year it was a finished oil with a stand of all yellow trees with rounded tops. After viewing it for a few months, I decided the look was too uniform and less interesting.

At the end of my studio time one day, I put it up on the easel and used the left over paint from the day, completely eliminating the all yellow trees. Once they were obliterated, I added more paint and took it as far as I could comprehend. It took under an hour to completely change the look of the work and I called it a day.

For weeks after, I couldn't figure out how to finish it. A number of people came through the studio and it was always their favorite. I learned to go from 'Really?" to "Thank you." About 2 months passed with the oil in plain view every day.

While I was working on another oil, the solutions to this painting came to me. With a few changes and tweaks over the next 4-5 short painting sessions, the oil was complete. The process spanned two years, but at last I was happy with it.

The studio is very different without this big oil... I'll have to make more canvases with new problems and challenges.