Kathy Prince Art Blog – Kathy Prince Art

September 2023

An artist does what an artist does mainly because of a frank need to create something. It is a uniquely human pursuit but linked to the divine. And in this way, art is an expression of the individual’s soul. Creating art is the most individual thing you can do as a human because it is your individual expression of an idea. That imagined, planned and implemented idea is no one else’s conception of how to express a creative thought other than your own unique internal spiritual spark.

While a singer, musician, dancer or actor gets the benefit of feedback with his or her audience, it is not so immediate or clear when a visual artist or writer shares his art with others. How great it must be to be on a stage and feel how your words and actions impact the concertgoer, the theatergoer. The laughs. The gasps. The applause. The tears.

Visual art is so varied in expression and in its utility or destination. From animation to graphic design to portraiture to impressionism, abstraction or 3D design, the destination of visual works of art could land in a book, in a gallery or show, or increasingly on social media. And, as we all know, social media can be an addictive form of approval-seeking behavior as we chase the followers, the friends, and the likes of this strange cyber world. But, it can also give valuable feedback to the artist if we use it in that way.

I am no less drawn into this game than anyone else. As a maker of art, I want to know how others perceive or value what I do. I honestly care little about sales or financial gain because I don’t earn a living from making art. “Likes” mean less and less to me. But I am envious of the reward system of the musician on stage. I most certainly crave feedback. It is as much of the reason I paint as any other. Am I getting better? Am I improving in one way or another? What works? What falls short? Can anyone else see what I was trying to evoke? Why I used this composition or color palette or pattern of light and dark? How do I know the answers to these questions in this online cyber world?

This month I made this small oil painting of a festival tent. As I have lived with it for a few weeks, I have started to see it as an unconscious expression of the concepts I am writing about here. The tent stands isolated and alone with no festival goers strolling past. Missing are the inquisitive faces. The art is there, vivid and bright, looking out… but who is looking in?

I so often wonder if anyone sees the things I post? Who reads what I write? Is my art similar to those suggested paintings depicted in this lonely festival tent: there, ready to be seen, but who is looking in?

When my web manager recently told me that 76,000 hits had been registered to my website this year so far, I thought my head would figuratively explode! How could that possibly be true? I wondered who these mystery guests were. If you care enough to follow my journey as an artist, please care enough to let me know. I don’t just want to know you “like” something, but I sincerely want to know what you see in my work, what appeal is has for you, is there a particular aspect of a painting that speaks to you in some way. If you give me the gift of feedback, you will become my concertgoer. My theatergoer. And it will mean more than you will ever know.

And, I want to resolve to do the same as a viewer of the artists I “follow”. “Like” is no longer enough. I want to make a commitment to always comment, engage, interact and be that source of feedback that I know fellow artists crave just as I do.

August 2023

My pet portraiture has begun an evolution. Dogs and cats are, without question, my very favorite subjects to paint. But I am less and less inclined to spend a week or more painstakingly rendering every single strand of fur in a detailed colored pencil pet portrait, although I can be persuaded to do so if the reference photo lends itself to that. Rather, I am increasingly drawn to the essence of the dog or cat spirit as it is embedded in a scene. I want to create portraits where the dog or cat is an element of a larger story. A face or paw sticking out from a patterned blanket or an alert silhouette backlit against a window.

A friend and former client posted a striking photo to social media that caught my eye, as photos often do. The image immediately spoke to me, and I took a chance. My mind began to envision the painting I would create from this photographic inspiration and knew that I ultimately would have to paint what I imagined. The most regal and aloof black and white cat stood, as cats often do, alert and completely still, partially hidden in a patch of garden flowers, emerging as if he grew there with the Stokes Aster cornflowers. The bright flowers emerged from the dull dark background creating the effect of a woven floral tapestry. Here is the reference photo for Tuxedo Cat in the Garden:

My idea was to begin with an acrylic underpainting in dark and varied shades. This was a fun part to develop. It could be loose and free since additional layers of paint would be placed on top. Here is that underpainting stage:

In the next two photos, you can see the marks I made with an oil pastel working out the placement of blooms in a pleasing composition. At this stage the blooms are loosely painted in fast-drying acrylic only as a foundation. It is still possible to make adjustments at this point when the final flowers and shadowed areas are painted in oil. I am trying out the composition knowing I can still adjust it as I go.

Strokes of oil paint against the dark create this stylized and whimsical portrait of Corney, the tuxedo cat in the garden. I love how it turned out and that it is exactly what I envisioned when I began. My chance paid off and when Corney’s mom saw it, she had to have it. I love it when that happens! Here is Corney and his forever depiction on canvas.

July 2023

My retirement journey suddenly takes a turn. Apparently, it’s not all about creating art. Fate has placed this challenge in my path, and it seems like it was meant to happen. And, just like that, starting a new local Arts organization is being written into my script

https://cahabasun.com/community/opportunity-meeting-need-cahaba-river-inspired-art-sought-for-juried-art-show-in-trussville/

June 2023

My neighbors’ young dog sadly faced an untimely death this month. The photos poured out on social media. River was a most beautiful heap of golden fur and the face was sweet beyond measure. A photo cried out to be be turned into a painting to honor the life of River for the grieving family.

I was challenged by the mounds of golden hair but saw the potential to further explore the use of an acrylic underpainting to establish the value structure. I used acrylics to create the deep color of the undercoat to contrast against the more superficial topcoat of fur. Compared to the topcoat, I knew the undercoat would be both darker and cooler. Therefore, my acrylic washes shifted the golden local color to deep reds. As for the background, orange washes went in to serve as a contrast to the final teal-grey background in oil.

Onto the top of the acrylic base went the topcoat of fur in golden hues of oil paint. I tried to look for color variations and place brushstrokes boldly pushing the color to reds cooled with viridian in the shadows and golden fur highlighted with sporadic flecks of bright Indian yellow.

The background was given a spontaneous sweep of loose brushwork for this final depiction of a beloved canine named River.

June 2023

May 2023

This is just a story needing to be told. Recorded and remembered. It illustrates why I love being an artist. Every painting that is given as a gift, painted as a commission, or sold to a person because they fall in love with some aspect of the work is added to the list of memories I will have forever. This one is in its own special category.

A few years ago, a friend from my local art club painted a watercolor of a pewter pitcher and tomatoes on a tablecloth backlit with sunlight. I loved her version, but wanted to use her reference photo to make it my own. I reimagined a composition set on three blocks of background: sunlit grass peeking through porch rails, plant leaves agains a dark wall and the tablecloth with horizontal blue line design. The focal point would be the tomato reflected in the pewter. Kitchen-y and Summer-y. I painted it and put it away.

I almost didn’t bring this one to display at Art in the Village this month. But a small painting of jelly jars I was showing needed a companion piece, and I saw this one as another potential kitchen painting that might just help catch someones eye at the show.

Indeed it did. In a most unexpected way.

My high school was big and lots of graduates have gone on to do a variety of things with their lives. I was quiet and bookish in those days. Martie Bosshart was a vivacious, outgoing tomboyish teenager in my class. Martie Duncan went on to find her voice as a Food network star, battling it out on cooking competitions, writing cookbooks and working on television shows with famous chefs like Bobby Flay or Guy Fieri. On May 6, she was checking out the art show after finishing up a book signing for her latest book at a nearby book store. I recognized her. She recognized me. “I only buy paintings from people I know”, Martie said. “Well, you know me”, I said. And so, it happened that Martie bought my watercolor painting I call “Summer Shade.” She will be displaying it in her kitchen right next to a print of a painting by someone else she “knows”. A world famous celebrity chef who also happens to be a pretty famous artist, French Chef Jacques Pepin!

True story. All true, every word!

April 2023

I am not a portrait painter. But sometimes a photo and the subject matter just screams to be painted. That was the case with this one.

Two friends of mine — mother and daughter. Each is each other’s best friend. Inseparable. One helping the other through life hurdles, the other being inspired daily by the other’s inner strength and determination. Both living life to the fullest. With hope and joy.

March 2023

Preparations for my tent at the Mountain Brook Art Association Spring Show are beginning. This will be my first outdoor art show. Apprehensions about the weather and tent set up start to creep in, but the feelings are balanced by the excitement of creating new art and showing to the public.

Everyone loves flowers and what better time than Spring to showcase what blooms. Thus, my Spring floral collection was born. My idea was to pull lots and lots of floral images from free photo sharing websites such as Unsplash, then scan through them, cropping and zooming in on different parts of the photos looking for interesting arrangements of shape and color. I looked through dozens and dozens of photos and ultimately narrowed down my choices to nine photo inspirations.

My approach to painting from these nine photos was to paint loosely while maintaining an underlying compositional structure, capitalizing on vivid color and abstract shapes. My idea was to create nine identical 6 x 6 squares in a 3 x 3 tic-tac-toe pattern that suggests purchasing the grouping as a full wall display or smaller sets of two or three. Here are some of the in-progress photos of the ranunculus emerging from shadow creating a vivid pop of fuchsia against a dark background, showing the progression from thumbnail conception to final painting in oil.

Tent display at the Mountain Brook Show, Art in the Village 2023.

February 2023

Following up on last month’s post, I decided to do another still life in a similar technique with a bolder approach: jelly jars in sunlight. Having learned that acrylic glazes can create dynamic and smeary, uneven color, and that many acrylic painters take advantage of this effect, I wanted to try it with these sunlit jelly jars. I thought the subtle shifts in color observed by the light passing over the lemons and illuminating the more translucent strawberry preserves would lend itself well to this aspect of the glazing process.

I told a friend recently that acrylic glazing is a technique best suited to painters who are “fixers” in their painting style. This is because acrylic paint in washes dries in about five minutes and a second layer painted to adjust (fix) the color or value can be applied without mixing with or disturbing the first layer. And adding medium to the paint will make the adjustment very subtle at the same time as creating interesting translucent and streaky effects. Trying to do this in oil isn’t really possible. While layers of oil paint that have been thinned with solvent can be adjusted with a layer that is significantly thicker, repainting repeatedly or failure to adhere to this “thick over thin” rule in oils will just cause the paint to mix and get muddy. This is the reason many oil painters use the alla prima technique: they will place a single brush stroke and then leave it alone. That has been a challenge for me in oils. I guess I am too much of a “fixer”.

In this painting, I feel the “fixing” added a loose impressionistic effect almost by accident.

My reference photo is courtesy of the Unsplash website of copyright-free photos:

My process:

January 2023

I wish I was an artist who just knew clearly which medium and style and subject matter was her niche. I’m not. Not at this point.

I’m jumping into acrylics for a while in 2023. Acrylics are a unique medium and a learning curve is required after any time spent painting in oils. Oils are buttery and workable and blendable But for oils to exhibit that hallmark alla prima quality they need decisive brushstrokes. My natural tendencies are towards a more deliberative process and I enjoy making reevaluations that necessitate time to percolate in my brain.

So, enter acrylic glazing. Acrylic glazing is forgiving. A value that appears too dark can be painted over in a wash of titanium white in glazing medium. A green that is too cool can be glazed over in a wash of yellow in a glaze. The glazing creates uneven color that adds interest and transparency in washes that mimic watercolor paintings in the way all transparent media allow the layers of color to create a depth as the light passes through the layers to the painting surface and then back to the eye of the observer. As a painter in this style, I can walk away and come back later and see things I want to adjust and do that through another layer application. This is not the case in oil painting unless one uses the slow and time-consuming techniques of the old masters such as Rembrandt to paint in multiple applications of thin oil washes in Imprimatura style.

Here is a painting I did in acrylic glazes: Look at the way the colors glow as they are built up in layers!

12 x 12 acrylic on Ampersand panel ~ original private collection ~ giclee prints $75

Biscuit at Anna Maria Island

And here is series of stepwise stages of a demo for my art class. We start with a value block-in applied in a fairly neutral but colorful wash using a minimum of values to lay the visual foundation. This is followed by thin washes of underpainting in a complement color in comparison to the final color. The final layers modulate in temperature and value to create the effect you see in the finished painting. I want to explore more of this in 2023. Stay tuned!