My Art

As promised, more art....

My Art....
I thought I'd start a new regular item on my blog. I've not updated my regular website, katesalenfriend.com for quite some time, essentially because it's not set up for maintenance by me. Since it's complicated, I've taken to starting this blog. Well, four or five years go by and blam!, I haven't posted much new art and I'm mostly posting a whole lot of blabber.

So, here goes. This'll be a regular feature, since I do, uh, paint every day. So, you can assume that I am also producing finished work as well.

Once posted, this category will land over there on the right column under the "My Art" header. Hope you'll come and visit!

tools of the trade

I enjoy visiting another artists work space, whether here at the studio where there are 4 others or out and about in Napa, Sonoma or San Francisco.

When we have shows here at the studio, many visitors either peer into my mysterious cauldrons of varnish, poke at the many paint brushes or ask questions about my tools, some dull and obvious, others slightly more exotic.

The end justifies the means.

I'm a scissor freak. I use scissors of course, but the freak part comes because I need to always have a pair available when I want them, where I want them. So, I have many scissors...everywhere. And, when I see a particularly good deal on them, I buy in multiples, about half a gross at a time. Cause that's what scissor freaks do. Duh.

My rolling cart.
I'm an advocate of the big purse/small purse rule. The bigger it is, the more you put in it and carry around. Not necessarily stuff you need.
Rolling carts are the same. Do I need to have at hand every darn little thing in my studio supply arsenal? Of course not. But the daily supplies? Hell, yes. So I choose a compact albeit simple rolling cart. Enough shelves for efficiency and options, sides to drive in a screw or two to hang an odd tool and adequate height as to not have to lean over to mix paint, or just work. I'm not a tall person by any means, but I've had tables that I've leaned over and they've quickly been shown the door.
The second item in the photo, although in the foreground and not given the credit it so deserves, is my chef's mat. Life at the studio changed for me once my chefs mat was in place. These pricey buggers can get up in the hundred dollar range, but of course I found mine at a home decor discount store and scored this 2x3' number for forty. I spend much of my work time in the studio on my feet and this is a life (feet/back) saver.

Paint tube storage/organizer thingy. Oh, how I love good organization.Gone are the days of rooting through a drawer for a particular paint color or trying to figure out if a particular color needs to be replenished. This little shelving number was free, ehem, found on the sidewalk and is truly one of the best tools in my studio. I put a dot of paint on the white cap of the paint tube so that at a glance I know what colors I am running low on. I blend my own colors from a basic palette that I don't often stray, so to me it's imperative that I always have these basics on hand. It makes me happy. And what's better than a happy artist? Nothing.

And whilst we're on the subject of paint tubes, this little gem is how I squeeze out 200ml's of paint at a time. I create a fair amount of art that is large format and for large format work, large quantities of paint are needed, not little dime size squirts on the palette, but rather large heaps, akin to a fair sized potato. Since my hands take a beating using many tools and I've subjected myself to hand surgery, I look for and use tools that will assist me in the avoidance of strain. An this little squeezie-outie does just that.
I've really got my technical terminology down.

And lastly, from top to bottom, coated copper wire, 5/8" wood screws and d-rings. The un-sung heroes of art for the wall, they hold it all together in the back of your painting and make it all right with the world, or at least your wall. Yes, fairly boring stuff, but to not finish out a painting with the correct hanging hardware is just stupid. Oh, and lazy. If and artist wants to sell his/her hanging wall art (I'm only addressing paintings as that's what I am, a painter) they should darn well take the extra step and make that art hanging ready. I can't tell you how many artists I know that don't do this and think their painting is finished once that signature goes on. Geez. When someone falls in love with your painting and wants it in their life, do they really want to take it home and hunt down hanging hardware? uh, no.

Before I launch into a vein popping diatribe about sloth and the artist, I'll leave you fair reader with the aforementioned list of favorite studio tools. Use wisely.
Any favorite tools of your trade?

Favorite colors: five greens that I love

I love the color green. I use it in every painting and I use it generously in my life: the clothes I choose, my home decor and of course, my art.




I thought I'd compile a list of my top five favorite greens. The five most used and enjoyed by me greens. They live with me everyday.




1. gardening.

this pic is taken in my backyard of planted green beans, working hard at growing. gardening brings me contentment like nothing else.







2. sap green oil paint. Hands down my favorite hue of green.

not that sap green is some superior strain of pigment. No, it's more that it's a familiar friend. I come back to it time and time again as it's familiar and I like that about it. I know how it'll mix with others, I understand when it will be transparent and when I can count on it for cover. It's dependable. It's the potato of the paint world for me. This is a thumbnail image of a painting called "order from chaos" This painting started my long relationship with sap green.







3. Money. Duh.








4. my puccini painting.

no false modesty here. i love this painting of giacomo puccini. there is so much green in this painting, sap green, that when you get close, his skin is like a big fresco of layers upon layers of color and under it all and through out: green. the painting measures in at five feet high by four wide and hangs over my sofa.







5. Verdigris. From Wikipedia: The green patina that forms naturally on copper and bronze, sometimes called verdigris, usually consists of a mixture of chlorides, sulphides and carbonates (copper carbonate, copper chloride or copper sulphide). Atacamite is another name for the patina compounds. Verdigris can be produced on copper by the application of vinegar (acetic acid). Such a verdigris is water-soluble and will not last on the outside of a building like a "true" patina. It is usually used as pigment.
One example of a patina is a green surface texture created by slow chemical alteration of copper, producing a basic carbonate. It can form on pure copper objects as well as alloys which contain copper, such as bronze or brass.
Often, antique and well used firearms will develop a patina on the steel after the bluing, parkerizing, or other finish has worn. Firearms in this state are generally considered more valuable than ones that have been re-blued or parkerized. The patina protects the firearm from more damaging rust that would occur were the patina to be polished off.


The Statue of Liberty gets its green color from the natural patina formed on its copper surface.
A patina layer takes many years to develop under natural weathering. A copper roof will patinate faster than a copper facade, due to the longer dwell time of water on the surface. Buildings in coastal / marine locations will weather and develop a patina layer faster than ones in inland areas. For example, a new copper facade in central London will most likely not develop a "typical" green patina until after 50 years.
Facade cladding (copper cladding) with alloys of copper, e.g. brass or bronze, will weather differently than "pure" copper cladding. Even a lasting gold colour is possible with copper-alloy cladding, for example Colston Hall in Bristol, or the Novotel at Paddington Central, London.

wasn't that interesting?

So there you have it. There are loads more greens that I'm just as madly in love with, but for the purpose of right now, that's the list.

oh wait, I almost forgot.




I have another green love that I can't shake: this damn couch that I must one day have.

of course it's got dings and rips, the legs need replacing because they're so out of date, but it's just one of those pieces that I can't get out of my mind. It's at Ma(i)sonry in Yountville, coincidentally where I show and sell my art. The image was lifted from katydid who was up in Yountville for an event and captured the essence of this chesterfield. (Do chesterfield's have an essence?) don't answer that.

I heart cupcakes

between the birds and the landscapes I have been working away at my open studio offerings for this year. The best part of course has been the stops around Napa to buy my "live models" also known as cupcakes, in order to have of course precise accuracy with relation to the final painting. Uh, yeah. I like to eat them too.

random thoughts

Oh, how I love a good craigslist score. I have long been a craigslister, and a good one at that. I look, I contact, I schedule, I show, I buy. If you know what you're looking for, like I do, declining after you've seen what you want on the list would be surprising. I've had such great luck with craigslist that I've even had people that've posted something free deliver it to me! Isn't life great?! So, my latest score are these flat files for the studio.

Here, locally in Napa so really all the effort was to pay my cash and carry fifteen drawers and the bases up and down the stairs....20 times. So worth it. For work on paper, oil paintings and sketches this flat file is invaluable to me as I can now store them as they should be- not under my work table in a pile along with wood, trash and an old printer. My organized self is a happy self. A fellow blogger that I read on a regular basis, La Dolfinaposted on a trip to Yountville recently and featured Ma(i)sonry where I show my art.

Thanks so much! Always a small thrill to see my own paintings show up in different places with a new audience!

a little bird told me...

Once again, the Napa Valley is going to celebrate the artists of the valley with the 25th (!!) Open Studios to be held in September, the last two weekends....
September may sound like a long way off but to a full time working artist, this show adds another dimension of excitement! (panic)
but healthy excitement: what to paint?? new work? new direction? find inspiration? uh....

but don't fret...the artists of Napa Valley always deliver! nearly one hundred painters, glass artists, sculptors, even custom leather boots (I die!)
find us here at this link, and start planning your trip to Napa Valley, last two weekends of September! Best time of year!