April | 2013 | The Studio

Archive for April, 2013

A Walk to Remember Mama

Posted in Small Town Life, tagged Bark for Life, Cancer research on April 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A few weeks ago I was invited to be the “Grand Marshall” in today’s Bark for Life Walk. I was honored to say yes especially since the date coincided with a special date for my family. Eighteen years ago today we lost our mother to cancer. Her name was Barbara Chancey Walker and she was a wonderful person and mom. We miss her everyday. So today Mamie and I will walk in the Bark Walk to raise money for cancer research and while we do we will be thinking of Mama.

Come out and join us at Eastham Park (the parking lot to the Dog Park) for the walk and other events starting at 10. Registration is at 9:30 a.m. Hope to see you there.

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Kickstarter Update

Posted in Kickstarter-Painted Diamonds, tagged acrylic, baseball, Baseball parks, daily painter, daily painting, impressionism, Kickstarter project, Kickstarter-Painted Diamonds, Landscape, MLB, Virginia Artist on April 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I have just 17 days to go for my Kickstarter Project to get funded and it’s at 71% this morning. Many thanks to everyone who has already pledged to make the project work. Your help is greatly appreciated. I am so anxious to do this project and really want to get it funded. Many people have congratulated me on the project and asked about it and have told me they are not familiar with Kickstarter. Click here to see my project. Here is a little more about how Kickstarter works:

Kickstarter is a way for creative people to get projects funded. You go to the site and read about a project then click on the green button and make a pledge at the level you wish to help. As you read about the project you see that you get rewards for different levels of pledges. So choose your reward and make a pledge. You can help by pledging as little as $1 and every bit adds up to get to the goal of 100%. I must get to 100% for the project to work. Anything less than that and the pledges will NOT be collected. So I’m asking you PLEASE make a pledge today. Help me with this project. As far as we can find no one has ever painted all 30 Baseball Parks and certainly not in 30 weeks. Help make me the first. Thanks so much for your consideration and I’d appreciate it if you share this with your friends by clicking the Facebook or other share buttons below this post. Thanks again.

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Dogwood Blossom

Posted in Art Class, daily painter, tagged acrylic, Art Class, daily painter, daily painting, Dogwood, dogwood blossom, flowers, impressionism, Virginia Artist on April 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This is a painting I did last week as an art lesson in an adult class. It’s “Dogwood Blossom“, acrylic on canvas, 11″x14”, available for $125. Contact kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com .

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A Look at Hopper at the Met

Posted in Travel, Trivia, tagged Edward Hopper, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Modern Art on April 17, 2013| 1 Comment »

There is so much to see at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as I have been sharing over the last few days, that it’s hard to know where to look. I narrowed down my time there to some galleries I have never had a chance to visit. One was the “Modern Art” galleries.

I found two Edward Hopper paintings there that were interesting in that they showed the range of his subject matter. The first is called “Tables for Ladies, painted in 1930, oil on canvas. It is a good example of the observations he made of everyday life.

The second one is “Office in a Small City” painted in 1953, oil on canvas. He often painted solitary figures that seemed emotionally detached from other people or their surroundings. This is a good example. You can learn more about Hopper by clicking here.

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My Favorite Degas

Posted in daily painter on April 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I love Edgar Degas’s work and there are so many wonderful subjects that he painted but my favorite are the ones he did of hats. This painting, The Millinery Shop, 1882-86, is an oil on canvas measuring 39 3/8″ x 43 5/8″, is in the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago.

According to the information on The Art Institute’s website about this painting, “This canvas is Edgar Degas’s most ambitious statement on the theme of the millinery shop. Although the young woman is presumably a hatmaker examining her handiwork—with her lips pursed, perhaps around a pin—it has also been suggested that she could be a client about to try on a hat, since she wears an expensive fur-trimmed dress and kid gloves. X-ray examination revealed that this figure originally represented a customer, but in his rethinking of the subject, Degas withheld the information necessary to determine her identity.”

Because the date of the painting shows a span of time we can assume that Degas lived with this paintings and continued to adjust it over time until he felt it ready to exhibit. It was so wonderful to see it in person at the recent exhibit at The Met and to get to see some actual hats from that period that were on display as well. FABULOUS!

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Bronze Sleeping Eros

Posted in Little Known Facts, Sculpture, Travel, tagged Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sleeping Eros on April 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

There is so much to see at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that I didn’t have any problem gathering loads of photos and information to share on my blog. I mentioned a few months ago that I have a desire to learn to sculpt so I was so happy to see this special exhibit that the Met had of Sleeping Eros, a bronze statue of Greek origin from the Hellenistic period dating to the 3rd-2nd Century B.C. It is said to be from Rhodes. It is amazing that it has survived in such good shape. You can see the wonderful detail in the work. Read more about this exhibit here.

I still plan to show my favorite from the Fashion exhibit but it will be tomorrow. 🙂

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A Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Posted in Serendipity, Travel, tagged daily painter, impressionism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Virginia Artist on April 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I spent a lovely day yesterday in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I went on a bus trip with a nice group of people who went as a fundraiser for a Relay for Life team and I was told we raised over $500 for them. Yeah!

I went specifically to see the exhibit- Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity. And it was well worth the trip. There were over 80 major paintings of figures clothed in lovely period clothing with actual fashions from the time being shown with the art. It was fabulous! You can read more about it here on the Mets website.

This painting, “In the Conservatory (Madame Bartholome) by Albert Bartholome shows his wife entering a door. Displayed by the painting was the actual dress she wore in the painting. It was fascinating to see.

If you have an opportunity to get to New York before the show closes on May 22nd be sure to stop into the Metropolitan and enjoy this wonderful exhibit.

Tomorrow I will share my FAVORITE!

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Reen’s Birthday Paint Party

Posted in Art Class, tagged acrylic, Art Camp, daily painter, flowers, impressionism, Paint Party, Virginia Artist on April 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I had the most delightful evening leading a Paint Party for Reen’s Birthday. This was a fun group of ladies and they painted some wonderful dogwood paintings. Everyone was so enthusiastic about painting and it came through in their work. Great job everyone….and Happy Birthday Reen!

And the little cutie in the front middle is Cassie. She was the life of the party. 🙂 For more information on Paint Parties click here.

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Luzia’s and the Leadership Class Paints

Posted in Art Class, tagged acrylic, Art Class, daily painter, impressionism, Landscape, oil painting, Virginia Artist on April 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Luzia joined our art class last night and this is her first painting. Great job! And the best part, she had a great time. Painting is fun. Why don’t you come join us too.

Yesterday was a day of firsts. I was asked to work with the Front Royal-Warren County Leadership Class during their Art and Tourism Day and they all painted their first landscapes of the mountains and did wonderful work. And they had fun too. I think there is a theme here: PAINTING IS FUN!!!