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Archive for April, 2012

Cliff walk

Posted in Travel on April 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Went on a beautiful walk this morning .  Cliff Walk at Newport.

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Boston Museum of Fine Art

Posted in Travel, tagged on April 28, 2012| 1 Comment »

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Yesterday I got to spend the morning wandering around the MFA in Boston.  It was glorious.  I can’t wait to get home and download the photos to share. 

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An Unusual Commission

Posted in daily painter, tagged , , , , , , on April 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes as a painter you get requests for commissions, paintings specifically ordered by a client.  Sometimes they are portraits, like the pet portraits that I do and sometimes they are scenes, locations that a person particularly likes.  But every once in a while you get an unusual request.  This was one of them.

A client approached me several months ago about painting a scene that he had envisioned.  There was no photo…just a description of something he had seen in a vision.  He described it in detail and basically it was a mountain that resembled a hand.  This is what I painted and he loved it. 

The hardest thing for painters to do is commissions.  You want to do the photo (or in this case vision) justice.  You want the client to be happy with the work.  There are expectations and you really want to meet them.  It’s a lot of pressure and it’s difficult to paint under pressure.  But it’s part of the way we make a living so we do it.  I’m glad this one turned out well but I have to say I would much prefer a photo to work from than a vision’s description.  🙂

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Strasburg’s Last Tuesday Art Workshop

Posted in Art Class, tagged , , , , , , , on April 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

On the last Tuesday of the month we have an art workshop at Buggy B’s in Strasburg.  And this past Tuesday we worked on this painting, a glorious summer day with hay bails.

 

Here is Gloria and Francis getting a good start on their paintings.

 

 

And Tammy joined the mix as well painting the scene.  We all worked in acrylics and it took about an hour and a half and in the end we all had a nice finished result.

We are planning our next gathering.  It will be the last Tuesday in May.  Just let me know if you would like to join us.

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Toulouse-Lautrec at PMA

Posted in Travel, tagged , on April 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

At the Moulin Rouge:  The Dance, painted in 1890 in oil on canvas by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French 1864-1901), is an amazing painting that I saw recently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The artist wrote in pencil on the back of the canvas identifying the subject as Valentin le Desossee, a well-known cabaret performer shown rehearsing a new dancer at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris.  After the painting was exhibited it was acquired by the owners of the Moulin Rouge where it hung over the bar for several years.  You can learn more by dialing 267-519-5646 and use #390. 

 I saw a couple of other of his paintings there including:

Carriage, 1881, oil on wood. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, one of my favorites by Toulouse-Lautrec at the PMA is  Follette, 1890, oil on cardboard.  It reminded me of another painting that I love of his that I saw at the National Gallery.  You can see it here.

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Sign up Today for the Plein Air Workshop

Posted in daily painter, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Have you wanted to try your hand at painting out-of-doors just like the Impressionists painters did but aren’t sure where to start?  This workshop is your opportunity.   Sign up now by contacting me at kwalker@kellywalkerstudios.com for the Plein Air Painting Workshop on  Saturday, May 12, 2012,  9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Fee:  $79  

Pre-registration required.  We’ll find a great location to develop our skills and learn to paint outdoors in a fun, relaxed environment with a helpful instructor who will share knowledge and tips for getting a great painting. You can see more about the workshops here.  

 

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Young Artists Paint and Draw

Posted in Art Class, tagged , , , , , , , on April 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Wednesday’s Young Artist created these beautiful paintings of lemons this past week.  Didn’t they do a great job?

Young artists, ages 7-12, paint with me each week on Wednesday or Thursday, from 4:15-5:15.  We create something new each week as they learn about color mixing, composition, the use of painting equipment and much more.  If you have a young artist that you would like to paint with  us just contact me at kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com to register them for class.

 

I also have young artists who are a little too old for the Young Artists classes so they join us for adult classes on Wednesday or Thursday from 5:30-7.  These classes allow students to develop their skills while working on a subject of their choice while receiving individual instruction.  This is Liam, a new student who had excellent drawing skills, working on his fantasy drawing.

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Leadership Class 2012

Posted in Art Class, Small Town Life, tagged , , , , , , , on April 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I was invited to teach this year’s Adult Leadership Class a lesson in art.  Leadership is an excellent program that the Chamber of Commerce offers that studies a different aspect of our community each month.  They study in-depth government, education, industry, tourism, law enforcement, art, and much more over the course of the year.

So, of course, for my session on Art, Culture and Tourism day, we all painted. 

 

And everyone embraced their inner artist!

 

 

 

And at the end of our session we had seven new artists!  Great job everyone.

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New to my Blog…

Posted in daily painter, tagged , , on April 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

I have been painting and blogging about it now for over 4 years.  I was at a luncheon recently when someone asked why I blog.  I explained that it’s my job.  I’m an artist.  And in this economy an artist takes advantage of every opportunity that comes their way to try to make a living.  I sell my paintings at my shop, Delilah’s;  I teach art three days a week at The Southerlands and the Blue Ridge Arts Council; and I blog. 

Blogging has been a terrific way to promote and sell my art.  And because all of you have been following me faithfully for these years my numbers (clicks on my site) have gotten high enough that I can now put advertising here.  I know some people don’t like that idea but from the point of view of the blogger trying to make a living, “Every little bit helps!”  So I hope you won’t mind seeing an ad or two appear here.  The look of the blog will pretty much remain the same although I have a few new ideas that I plan to add soon.  So stay tuned…and thanks so much for following my blog!!!

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Cezanne at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Posted in Travel, tagged , on April 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Gustave Courbet, French 1819-1877, painted the “Still Life with Apples and a Pear” in 1871 with oil on canvas.

 

 

Paul Cezanne, French, 1839-1906, painted his version of Still Life with Apples and a Glass of Wine” in 1877.   It is also an oil on canvas.

 

 

 

Another Cezanne that we saw while at the Philadelphia Museum was this “Still Life with Flowers in an Olive Jar” that he painted in 1880.

 

Cezanne painted a variety of subjects from fruit to flowers to people.

 

 

 

 

 

And you can see that he worked in a variety of styles.  The Large Bathers, painted in 1906, just before he died, is a large oil on canvas painting.  You can hear more about it by dialing into the PMA cell phone program at 267-519-5646 and this painting is number 932.

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