Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A couple of cows

Sassy, 8 x 8 inch oil on panel
© 2011 Kathleen Coy

I'm working on a large commissioned piece right now of two horses. Unfortunately, no photos until after Christmas. You never know who's going to see what you post, and I would hate to ruin the surprise for my client.

But I can show you a couple of cows I painted recently. I found this cow in Oklahoma on a very windy day. (Aren't they all windy in Oklahoma??) I loved the way the wind blew the hair on the top of her head straight up. It makes her look like she has an attitude.

And the next one is a different sort of cow. I painted a still life of the Fisher Price Cow. It brings up so many good memories for me; the Fisher Price Farm was one of my all time favorite toys as a kid.

This is actually one of my favorite paintings I've done to date.

Fisher Price Cow, 8 x 6 inch, oil on linen
© 2011 Kathleen Coy

Hope you enjoyed them. I see more cow paintings in my future, because they are so much fun to paint!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Reentry


I'm not sure what happened to my blogging frequency compared to previous years. Somewhere along the way I had days where it felt more like work than fun and I needed a break. And of course, when you get out of the habit of something, the longer you wait, the harder it is to start back up.

Facebook may be another culprit... it's so quick and easy to post pics and updates there. Question: Is facebook is making blogging obsolete? People seem to want quick info these days, and it can be hard to find time to read (and write!) long blog posts.

But in the end, blogs and facebook are two different animals. There's a lot I miss about the blogging world, and feel it's time to reenter.

Due to my lack of posts this year, it may look like I haven't been up to much, but in truth I've been pretty busy with my art. One of the things I've been having fun painting is still life's. Here's a still life I painted of some of my husband's pottery. Shino is a type of glaze.


Shino, 10 x 8 oil on linen
© 2011 Kathleen Coy

Here's another I painted at a friend's house. She made bronze castings of her face and turned them into art pieces around her home. I thought they were so cool!

Still Life with Cast Bronze, 8 x 8" oil on panel
© 2011 Kathleen Coy

I'm finding that still life paintings are a great exercise to really learn to see colors and form, and is a lot different than working from photos. I'm painting a couple small still life's a week as a way to keep improving my work. We'll see where it takes me.

Cloud is doing great. I can't believe he's 10 years old now. Here's a photo from this morning.