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"Waiting for Mr. Right" |
Karen Knutson paints in mixed media, trying to make her paintings fun and easy. A wide range of subjects, including landscapes, figures, collage, abstracts, florals, and birds. Many lessons are included on this blog to encourage her art students. Teaching across the country makes her life a great journey.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Goals for the New Year!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Santa Collection- Here's the whole collection!
Happy Holidays to you all! The final 3 Santa prints are still for sale, but the first 10 are collector's items. They are 9 x 11.5 with mats and sell for $29 (matted). I have only a few left that have frames, and those sell for $39 (framed). Contact me at Karen@karenknutson.com if interested.
12th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
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"Santa 2004" |
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"Santa 2005" |
Monday, December 22, 2014
11th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
"Santa 2003" |
Sunday, December 21, 2014
10th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
Saturday, December 20, 2014
9th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
"Santa 2001" |
Friday, December 19, 2014
8th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
Thursday, December 18, 2014
7th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
"Santa 1999" |
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
6th Day of Christmas- Santa Series
"Santa 1998" |
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Days 4 and 5 of Christmas- Santa Series
"Santa 1996" |
Sunday, December 14, 2014
3rd Day of Christmas- Santa Series
Santa 1995 |
Saturday, December 13, 2014
2nd Day of Christmas- Santa Series
Santa 1994 |
Friday, December 12, 2014
12 Days of Christmas Santas!
Someone posted on Facebook that they were enjoying one of my Santa prints that I had painted years ago. Then, several people asked me to post photos of my Santa paintings, so I decided to post one each day from now till Christmas! I actually painted 13 different Santas, or as I like to say, "12 plus one", cuz I'm not a fan of the number 13. Baker's dozen is lots better. This was my first Santa, painted back in 1993. It seems like a dream now, that I ever painted these. It's so different than I paint now! Anyway, hope you enjoy the 12 days of Christmas coming up! Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Flying by the seat of my pants
"Helga, the Housekeeper" |
And I finally discovered what my imaginary housekeeper looks like. "Helga, the Housekeeper" has been my nickname for myself whenever I do my monthly deep cleaning. I just know that this is her! Got her hair all tied up in rags, but she's a bit of a diva, having to wear jewelry while she cleans. And let me tell you, she is a minimum cleaner! I have no idea why I keep her around. :) When I arrived in Buffalo at the airport building, there was a blackboard, so I again flew by the seat of my pants and did the drawing on the blackboard so that all could see, as we did a funky lady drawing together. They all loved learning the tricks! It was a fun evening. Below is my blackboard drawing.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Another Wire Drawing
"Heartfelt Wishes" |
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Another Funky Lady!
"Something Fishy about Karen!" |
Monday, October 27, 2014
"Teaching Design"
Magazine Collage
Through my many years of teaching, the most rewarding workshops are the design workshops. Although it's the hardest workshop that I teach, it's definitely the most rewarding. I love it when several students write me wonderful letters afterwards about how the light bulb went on and they now understand what makes a good painting. Many of them start winning awards and getting into national shows, where they had never been accepted before. It doesn't matter whether you are a traditional painter or abstract painter, the rules apply to both. I just finished teaching a 4 day workshop in Lacrosse, WI and the group were very talented in artistic ability, but lacked knowledge for good design. They were very willing to do the fun exercises that I laid out and several of them stated that they were willing to do 30 minute studies for 30 days, a challenge that I told them I had done. I loved teaching there and we all had many laughs together. A great group! This painting is 5" x 7" and is totally magazine cut outs. By starting with the largest pieces, you lay in the simple shapes in 3 values. Then adding opposite colors and blacks complete the design I loved the students' finished pieces so much! I use these magazine collages as studies for larger paintings. I owe all my design skills to John Salminen. Check out his website.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Another Charcoal Pour Bird Painting!
"Deep in Thought" |
1. Do I have a dominant value? In order to see that, I take a black and white photo of my painting. Then I see the values of each color. In this case, the lights and medium values were equal, so I decided to add more aqua collage paper.
2. Have I linked the center of interest to the sides of the paper?
3. Repeating the busy shapes within the bird by adding the stripes on the side is a good idea!
4. Cropping the picture so that the bird isn't right in the middle of the painting.
5. Added shadows under the feet.
6. Worked on details of the eyes.
By the way, the aqua colored paper was handmade by painting on deli paper and stenciling layers of different colored paint after the main first layer of paint. To read more about how to do the charcoal pour, go to Virginia Cobb's book, Discovering the Inner Eye. I absolutely LOVE this process!
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Monoprint, Patchwork Quilt style
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"In Stitches" |
Gelli Print Mania!
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"Patience" |
Sunday, July 20, 2014
More Monoprinting!
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"Looped" |
Friday, July 18, 2014
My new love, Monoprinting with Gelli printing plate
"I've got my Eye on You" |
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Stencils and Mixed Media
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"Morning Meeting" |
The image is 11" x 14" and is available for $145.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Warm-ups to kick Artist's Block
This is a "wire drawing" of an eye, done while I was up at the North Shore, relaxing. Whenever I have art blocks, I have 3 or 4 tricks to get myself back into the mood. One of these involves sketching anything with a pencil. Then I use an ultrafine marker to connect all the lines, and finally, I add thicker lines with a fine marker. Before you know it, an hour has passed, and now you'll be ready to paint the moon! Another trick is to paint color studies, using only 3 colors, and starting with only 4 shapes.This color study started with a blue square surrounded by yellow. In the middle of the blue square was a yellow olive shape with a red center. Do you see them? I used manganese blue, cadmium yellow, and red rose deep. At the very end, I allowed myself a mixture of alizarin crimson and winsor green for the black colors. Now you have 2 tricks to keep that mean old artist's block at bay! Good luck!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Wire Drawings with my family
Karen's drawing |
Janine's drawing |
Nancy's drawing |
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Crazy Lady Paintings
"Sending you a Big Hug" |
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Healthy Eating
I will be out of town for the next week, without access to my computer, so I wanted to post a new favorite recipe for all of you who want to eat more healthy, plus it is gluten free! It's easy to make and really good!
Cauliflower Crusted Pizza
Nonstick spray
2 ½ cups cauliflower, grated
(about ½ of a large head)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
½ cup tomato sauce
1 cup (about 20) grape tomatoes,
sliced in half
2 cloves garlic, sliced (2 teaspoons minced)
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Italian seasoning
5 slices bacon, (lightly fried and cut up into small pieces)
Fresh basil leaves
Directions:
1. Line
a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 425degrees.
2. Grate
the cauliflower using a box grater until you have 2 cups of cauliflower
crumbles. Place in a large bow and
microwave for 7 – 8 minutes, or until soft.
Remove for the microwave and let
cool.
3. Mix
in the egg, one cup mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Once combined, pat into a 10 inch round on the
prepared pizza pan. Spray lightly with
nonstick spray and bake for about 15 – 20 minutes, till edges look light brown.
Top the pizza with the sauce, ¼ cup
mozzarella, Italian seasoning, garlic, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and bacon. Bake in the oven until melted and bubbly,
another 10 minutes. Top with basil
before serving. Cool 5 minutes before
serving.
*This recipe is a
revised version from the www.fitsugar.com
website.
Friday, April 4, 2014
The value of a Design Sketch
"Family Roots", Acrylic, $1500, Image: 21" x 29" |
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5 x 7 inspiration painting |
Thursday, April 3, 2014
How many tomorrows will I waste?
"Fancy Pants", Acrylic and Collage, $295, image: 15" x 15" |
So now you're wondering about the title of this post, right? That is for my Healthy Eating Challenge Group. I basically wasted this past week, doing little exercise, and going out to eat lots. I made up this saying, "How many tomorrows will I waste, till I FINALLY REALIZE that TODAY is the DAY?!!" Today, I feel focused and ready to take on the week. One thing that I will do is to prepare meals ahead of time. I tend to make bad choices when I just have to grab something on the run. BTW, I haven't heard from any of you who are joining me in this challenge. Am I all alone in this challenge? Reporting in, I lost 1/2 pound last week, bringing me to a total of 2 pounds since I started on March 19th. Please email me and tell me how you are doing, and whatever challenges you've had these past weeks. We can share recipes too! I've been watching Jaimie's 15 minute meals, and there's some really great healthy meals, and easy like I like them too! We can cheer each other on! Have a great week, and we'll report back next Wednesday! Here's a writing that is so profound. :)
Make Small Commitments. Get Big Changes.
Excerpted from Rules of the Hunt
Taking Care of You
Drink plenty of water.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
Eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less that is manufactured in processing plants.
Avoid eating food that is handed to you through a window.
Live the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
Play more games.
Read more books than you did last year.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
Eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less that is manufactured in processing plants.
Avoid eating food that is handed to you through a window.
Live the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
Play more games.
Read more books than you did last year.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Your Outlook
Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey
is all about.Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Don't overdo. Keep your limits.
Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Drawing Challenge, Days 23-30
Here's a recap of the past 8 days. ( I did 2 on Day 28) The last row is my attempt at doing a self portrait. Obviously, I still have a ways to go, because none of these look like me, but I think the last one on the right is getting a little closer. This is my new challenge. You will see lots more attempts of self portraits in the future. Below is all 30 Days.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Darwing Challenge, Day 30
I can' t believe that this is the last day of our drawing challenge by Kathie George. She asked us to do whatever we wished that would be a gift to her, so that she can make a collage of all of our paintings. That ended up being one of my hardest challenges, because Kathie is a dear friend, and I wanted to do something great for her! I looked around my studio and saw my Omi Da statue that I bought years ago, and feel like it brings me good vibes in my studio. It was made by Vern, who I was told, is a member of the Ojibwa Indian tribe. Everything on the sculpture has a hidden meaning. I like to think that the clear ball that he is holding is our world and we are all responsible for protecting our earth and making it better for the next generation. (This is my own made up story, but I like it!) Anyway, there is leather, antler, bones, fur, clay, feathers, and a multitude of other textures on this sculpture. Even though the face of this being isn't beautiful, it has such a good spirit overall. Even my husband really likes this sculpture, and he tends to like realistic artwork. I wanted to do more shading, but tried to keep this to a simple drawing. I want to thank Kathie George for hosting this challenge, and for giving such great direction and lessons along the way. It's been such a fun month! I really hate for it to end!
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Drawing Challenge, Day 29
Today's challenge was to draw something from a distance, where you put the subject shape within an imaginary square or rectangle and then draw the negative shapes that happen because of it. I've always struggled with boat drawings, so I decided to draw Kathie George's reference, but I can honestly say that it was hard for me to see the detail in her photo, so I left it pretty plain. What I do like is that my boat honestly looks like it is floating, unlike most of my other boat paintings where the boats look like they should have legs. They never did appear to be floating. So, I like this drawing for that reason and no other!
Friday, March 28, 2014
Drawing Challenge, Day 28
Today's assignment was to do a gestural drawing. First we get the main shapes in (like circles, or squares) and then very quickly draw the subject. I love this way of drawing, and I actually got the size correct and got the whole subject within the page! Progress! Kathie George asked us to draw with a pencil and to NOT erase. I went by the rules. (Those who know me are raising their eyebrows right now, but truly, I did go by the rules. :) Then afterwards, I used a permanent marker and followed the lines that I liked best. This only took me about 15 minutes to do. I also used Kathie's past lesson about extending your arm and measuring things with your thumb, that's how I got the inside of the cup to be the correct elliptical shape. The rest of the cup was 2 1/2 times the width of the elliptical circle. The sculpture was given to me by Joye Moon as a hostess gift when she stayed with me years ago. I really treasure it! Joye teaches workshops all over the country too. Check out her website. Love her portraits!
Drawing Challenge, Day 27
These attempts of drawing a self portrait are in order from the top down. The first one was done on Day 26 of my blog. I liked the shadows on it, but it didn't look like me at all. So, attempt #2 was done on Day 27, but I truthfully wasn't feeling good, and was babysitting all day, so was out of steam. I learned a valuable lesson about getting the shadows too dark. There's no going back from that. Also, someone told me that my first sketch didn't look like me, because I'm always smiling. So I tried one with a smile. Wow, that was hard to draw teeth! So, Attempt #3 as actually done on March 28th but I wanted to post them all together so that you could all see that I didn't give up! I kept trying and learned from each experience. On the third attempt, I did a gestural drawing, first by putting in circles, and rectangles to get the right shape. Then I quickly sketched, looking at relationships between everything and even had a good hairdo to sketch! :) I don't think this looks totally like me yet, but it's getting closer. Thanks for this challenge, Kathie George. By the way, this collage was put together using the website, www.picmonkey.com It's a great site!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Drawing Challenge, Day 26
Today's challenge was to draw some part of our body, so I picked my face, looking in the mirror as I did it. I have a bad cold, so it's not the best time to be doing a self portrait, but I did it anyway. I've been studying shadows lately, and have found Jan Kunz' book, Painting Watercolor Portraits that Glow, very helpful to remember to connect shadows. Kathie George told us to do a contour drawing, not lifting our pencil, and that really helped to connect the shadows. I don't think this looks anything like me, but I do like it as a portrait of someone.
So, Today was Weigh In Day for those who joined my Healthy Eating Challenge. How did you do? If you want to, you can report back to me privately OR you can just keep it to yourself. I honestly ate my yogurt and coffee before remembering to weigh in, so I'll just go by the weight that I was 2 days ago, which was down 1.5 pounds from my starting weight. I have a bad cold right now, and lately caught myself using that excuse for not exercising. A couple of years ago, I took a Community Ed class about dieting. The leader asked us all the reasons why we were there, and wrote them on the blackboard. I thought to myself, "Finally, I'll get that answer to my problem!" (My excuse was that I always gained weight on trips and with my teaching schedule picking up, that meant for a lot of roller coaster weigh ins.) So, there were about 15 excuses, including winter weather, stress, having too much to do, cravings, etc. The leader then erased all of the excuses and said, "No more excuses! You either want to do this or you don't!!!!" Wow, I never forgot that phrase! So, what's it going to be, fearless group? Are we done with excuses? Do this: Whatever your excuse was that came to mind, find an answer for it, and make this week better than last week. I sit in front of the TV too much and tend to eat there. So, this week, no more eating in front of the TV. There, that excuse is history!!! Have a great week! :)
So, Today was Weigh In Day for those who joined my Healthy Eating Challenge. How did you do? If you want to, you can report back to me privately OR you can just keep it to yourself. I honestly ate my yogurt and coffee before remembering to weigh in, so I'll just go by the weight that I was 2 days ago, which was down 1.5 pounds from my starting weight. I have a bad cold right now, and lately caught myself using that excuse for not exercising. A couple of years ago, I took a Community Ed class about dieting. The leader asked us all the reasons why we were there, and wrote them on the blackboard. I thought to myself, "Finally, I'll get that answer to my problem!" (My excuse was that I always gained weight on trips and with my teaching schedule picking up, that meant for a lot of roller coaster weigh ins.) So, there were about 15 excuses, including winter weather, stress, having too much to do, cravings, etc. The leader then erased all of the excuses and said, "No more excuses! You either want to do this or you don't!!!!" Wow, I never forgot that phrase! So, what's it going to be, fearless group? Are we done with excuses? Do this: Whatever your excuse was that came to mind, find an answer for it, and make this week better than last week. I sit in front of the TV too much and tend to eat there. So, this week, no more eating in front of the TV. There, that excuse is history!!! Have a great week! :)
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Drawing Challenge, Day 25
Today's assignment was to draw something in an unusual format. I chose long and narrow, since my sculpture is tall and thin too. I ran out of room on my 5" x 7" page, so she's a bit shorter than I wanted. But you ignited a new series for me, Kathie George! I think I will do many funky women in this long format on canvases. I have 3 canvases that are size 30" x 40", but that may not be thin enough. Food for thought. The image that I drew today is one of my favorite sculptures by a local Minneapolis artist, Krissy Catt. I am fortunate to own 2 of her sculptures and I really LOVE them! Below is a photo of the real sculpture.
So, those of you who joined me for the Healthy Food Challenge, Wednesdays are our weigh in day. Are you ready? How did you do this past week? I would rate myself about a C+. Still ate a couple of protein bars (processed food) and didn't exercise. BUT, I made pretty good food choices, even with being out of town for 4 days. Make today a good day, everyone! Take a walk, or just move more in your house, if it's too cold outside. I like to walk in the Malls too, but that can cost you, if you stop in at a store! :)
So, those of you who joined me for the Healthy Food Challenge, Wednesdays are our weigh in day. Are you ready? How did you do this past week? I would rate myself about a C+. Still ate a couple of protein bars (processed food) and didn't exercise. BUT, I made pretty good food choices, even with being out of town for 4 days. Make today a good day, everyone! Take a walk, or just move more in your house, if it's too cold outside. I like to walk in the Malls too, but that can cost you, if you stop in at a store! :)
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