Day 28 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Sunflower Power"          $75
Watercolor        7" x 10"

I did this painting at Karlyn Holman's Paint-in, and showed everyone how to start with the toilet paper roll to get the curved lines.  I'm so enjoying painting sunflowers, and although they are pretty fast paintings, the timing has to be perfect, so it takes a few tries to get it right.

Day 27 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Dragonfly in Gold"     $75
Acrylic, permanent markers, gold foil        7" x 10"

I have to admit that I grabbed this from my stash of finished paintings  Confession: I didn't do this within the 30 Days.  But I'm attending a Paint-in and I want to paint large paintings and try new things.  That's what I love about Paint-ins.  We exchange ideas, and have critiques at the end of each day.  For many of us, its a reunion, only seeing the other artists once per year. There are usually 40 of us attending.  So much fun!!!!  This painting was originally $155, so this price is a steal, specially for this 30 Day Challenge.  I use gold foil paper instead of gold leaf.  It's so much easier.  This process will be shown at my workshop in Bradenton, FL on March 8 and 9th.  It's called, "Painting like Gustav Klimt".  Here's the link:  http://keetonsonline.com/GImages/180308KK.PDF

Day 26 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Overhead View"      $75
Watercolor and permanent marker         7" x 10"

I began this painting thinking it was going to be an abstract.  Then as it developed, I knew that it needed something recognizable in it, so I added the dragonfly.  I used a design study for the initial abstract design. (see below) It was a square format, so I stretched it lengthwise to fit my 7" x 10" size.  I'm so excited to be going to Karlyn Holman's Paint-in tomorrow, so I'm going to keep this short today.  This is an example of part of my workshop for Dillman's Resort.  Use this link to find out more!  http://www.dillmans.com/dcaf/2018/karen-knutson.html

Design study for "Overhead View"

Day 25 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Clara, the Chicken"    $75
Watercolor and permanent marker        7"x 10"

I have been drawing chickens for the past year.  The wire drawing technique works so well for this subject.  Every time I teach this workshop, the students are amazed how much fun it is, AND how it leads to them to develop better drawing skills.  I'm teaching Wire Drawing at 2 future workshops.  The first one is in Bradenton, FL on April 10th.  It is a one day workshop.  Click on this link to sign up. http://keetonsonline.com/theartistscorner.html  I'm also teaching this process at Dillman's Resort in northern WI, at a beautiful location, nestled in the pine trees and a gorgeous view of a lake.  This workshop starts with the process of the wire drawing and then each day, teaches the students how to develop their own designs into an abstract painting by the end of the 4 days!
Click on this link:  http://www.dillmans.com/dcaf/2018/karen-knutson.html
Students can choose to use mixed media or stick with watercolor or acrylic.  It's a great workshop that I'm really proud of!

Day 24 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Roots of Love"       $75
Watercolor and Acrylic        7" x 10"

Trying new colors today.  This painting started with  my new technique of the toilet paper roll, (See blog from February 14th, 2018)  and then I added a "dry brush drag" as I call it.  Analogous colors with a tiny bit of an opposite color. 

Steps one and 2

I then drew in the figures and worked from a previous value study weaving the colors in and out of the colors and lines from the under-painting.  As the painting developed, I saw lots of root shapes, so that brought me to the title, "Roots of Love".  I struggled with my old nemesis, tiny busy shapes, and I actually wonder if the painting is better as a cropped version.  But then, I would lose the meaning of the painting.  These are questions that an artist faces as they are 3/4 of the way through a painting. You decide.  I'd love to hear your comments.  Below is the cropped version.

Day 23 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Florida Palms"     $75
Transparent Watercolor        7" x 10"

Today, I went to another plein air event held by the Plein Air Posse group on Manisota Beach.  It was a really great location, and I quickly found a picnic table in the shade where I had a view of the beach and several palms that intersected the gulf view beautifully.  My new friend, Linda Banas, and I painted side by side and several people stopped to admire our work. :)  I am truly LOVING painting outside and have met so many really nice artists during the process.  I came prepared today with an under-painting done.  (I forgot to take a photo of it before I added the first layer of the palm drawn in.)  The cruciform shape was there, when I arrived at the outdoor site and then my first step was to draw the palm and negative paint around it.  This painting is an illusionary painting, where it's a little ghostly.  I used to teach this process but it was a hard workshop, and so I've taken it off my workshop list.  The one thing that I can say about plein air painting.  You remember sounds, smells, and even conversations so much when you paint on location.  I'm still struggling with the outcome, but I'm loving the process.  Yes!  I found out that if I work on 2 paintings, I can keep switching when the one needs to dry. 

Step one and 2

Day 22 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Summer Day"      $75
Waterccolor        7" x 10"

I'm really enjoying painting sunflowers.  This one makes me think that there is a gentle breeze on a summer day.  I can almost feel the wind blowing by the flowers.  The process of this painting is to wet the entire sheet of paper, then work as fast as you can to paint the petals, leaving a little bit at the tip in white.  Remember, you are working on a WET sheet of paper, so the color "Spreads" really fast.  Then, I negative paint, using a dark thicker mixture of paint.  to carve out the edge of the flowers.  This usually takes at least 3 coats to get dark enough, with rewetting, etc.  I enjoyed the looseness of these sunflowers.  Fun to paint, but the timing had to be perfect. 

Day 21 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Imagine Butterflies"      $75
Watercolor and Collage      7" x 10"

I started this painting several days ago, and then didn't quite know what to do with it.  Sometimes, paintings need to brew awhile to tell you what they will become.  I had tried a new technique when I started, and it really had me scratching my head on where to go.  I had collaged 1/2 of a butterfly, and decided to wire draw some more butterflies to accompany the first one.  Whenever I teach, I tell the students not to use the whole image that is on napkins.  Only use a part of the napkin image and then add your own touch to it.  Make it your own.   Once I added the red unifying color to weave around the butterflies, it all came together.  Just goes to show that if you try new things once in awhile, you might make a breakthrough.  Below is my beginning. 

Step One

#20 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Sunny Side Up"      $75
Watercolor      7" x 10"

These wet into wet watercolors are much faster to do than the watercolor collages and figurative paintings, so you might be seeing a few more of these, cuz I'm running out of steam for this challenge.  This painting started like the other ones, using a toilet paper roll for the underpainting.  I love the random line work in the finished piece. I forgot to take a picture of that beginning, but if you go back to my blog from February 14th , you will see how this discovery was made!  The main thing I have to remember as I'm doing this painting is to keep layering with the darks.  Look at the photo below when the painting was in the middle stage.  Quite a difference when the dark values are painted and then the sunflowers start to pop!

Day 19 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Meant to Fly"     $75
Original Watercolor and permanent marker      7" x 10"

This started as a wire drawing, and then I decided to add color.  Because I'm surrounded by lots of lime green here in Florida, I decided to start with lime green.  I mixed aureolin yellow and antwerp blue to get a really bright lime color. Below is the first step.  After that first layer, in order to make the wings look a little more transparent, I negative painted leaves, going right through the wings.  I will be teaching "wire drawing" in Bradenton, FL on April 10th and will feature "wire drawing" every day of my Dillman's Resort 4 Day workshop in Lac Du Flambeau, WI in mid June.  For me, Wire Drawing has been life changing!

Step One

Day 18 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

I

"Walking Through Time"       $75
Watercolor         10" x 7"

I decided to do a pure watercolor today.  I started this using the dry-brush technique that I've used on 75% of my paintings during his challenge. The first step is shown below.  I again tried my hand at plein aire painting today.  We met at the Farmer's  Market  in downtown Venice  I was concerned that it might be too public for me to feel comfortable, but it turned out to be great since I just sketched and took LOTS of people photos for possible painting in the the future.  I guess that's why when I got home that I wanted to paint people.  I again met many new artist friends and reconfirmed that this area is definitely a great place for us to spend our winter months!  Very grateful!

Step One:  Dry Brush 

Day 17 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Dragonfly Love"     $75
Acrylic      7" x 10"

I'm finding it harder and harder to get my painting done daily.  Today, I actually cheated and picked out one of my half done paintings and completed it.  This process is what I call, "Painting like Gustav Klimt", one of my most popular workshops, where we actually drop paint on the surface and then spread it out, using a credit card.  It's really fun! This painting also has 3D Gold outliner on it for an extra dimensional look.  This also has the Wire Drawing in it, that I love doing so much!  Check my website to see where I will be teaching both of these different workshops next. www.karenknutson.com

Day 16 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Lone Sunflower"    $75
Watercolor      10" x 7" image

Today was such a special day, where I again tried my hand at plein air painting with another group near Venice, FL.  This time, we were on a private farm where there were countless opportunities for great painting ideas.   I really enjoyed myself and again met many new artist friends.  So, the day went by without time to paint my challenge painting for the day.
Before I knew it, the time was 7:00 p.m., so I took the easy way out and painted another loose sunflower.  These paintings only take about 1 1/2 hours to paint, but the timing is such that it can fail really quickly if you're not careful.  This painting again started with my new special technique, where I used a toilet paper roll to get special effects  Read how this happened on Day 14's blog post.  Then I worked wet into wet and painted really fast to keep the loose fuzzy edges.

Step One

Day 15 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Heart on a Stick"      $75
Watercolor and Collage      7" x 10"

"Heart on a Stick" started out as a scavenger hunt.  I cut out words from a magazine and even though I cut off the top and the bottom of the word, "Scavenger", I could still read it.  So, my first title for this was was to be, "Scavenger Hunt".  Then as the painting progressed, I saw this heart shape at the top of the long vertical white strip, so I went with it!  I love the color combination of this one.  My colors were Holbein opera pink, Winsor Newton cad yellow, scarlet lake, permanent rose, Holbein cobalt turquoise light. I love the vibration of the turquoise against the red and orange colors.  Below is the first stage of this painting.  If you look closely behind the heart area on the finished painting, you might even imagine the word, Love.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Step 1- Watercolor and Collage

Day 14 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

I've been painting side by side with my friends, Karlyn Holman and Tammy Kennen for the past couple of days.  Karlyn paints much more loosely than I do, and so I decided to do a "loosey goosey" painting.  I asked if anyone had a brayer so I could so some fun linework.  No one did, so I got inventive and decided to use the side of a toilet paper roll!  The marks that it made were so fun.  I think I will teach a class with this technique!  (The picture is below)  Look closely at the painting above and you will see the linework that was in the first layer.  I painted mostly in the "wet in wet "technique.  Fun to do!

Day 13 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"You Never Walk Alone"     $75
Watercolor and Collage      (7" x 10")

I painted this while visiting a good friend who lives in Sanibel Island, FL.  Every year, Karlyn Holman, Tammy, and I do this.  I started with a watercolor collage just like the other paintings.  (See below)

Then, it's a matter of lots of layering and watching for the bounce of color vibrations.  I had so much fun painting next to friends, lots of laughs, and lots of stories.  This is such a fun workshop to teach.  Check out my website to see a location near you!

Day 12 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Bird on a Branch"      $75
Watercolor and Collage     7" x 10" image
Wow!  I'm over 1/3 done with this challenge.  It has been a tough time crunch for me, as usual.  Right now, I'm visiting a friend who lives in Sanibel Island, FL.  We are painting together during the day and taking a boat ride at sundown.  Yes, it's a tough life.  But, my point is that life does get in the way of these challenges, and you just have to get ahead if you know that busy times are ahead.  For the collage of this one, I used a copy of an earlier wire drawing.  This is part of my workshop for Dillman's Resort, where we use earlier drawings to enhance new paintings.  I'm hoping to do an abstract person in one of the new few paintings.  Time will tell if that happens.

S=Day 11 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Wine with Friends"      $75
Watercolor, Collage, Acrylic painting       7" x 10"

I had started this several days ago, and just didn't quite know what to do with the beginning, so I thought, why not add a couple of wine glasses, since I had collaged the word, "Wine", in the painting.  That's when my problems started.  It's really hard to add something "real" in these abstract paintings without a "plan" beforehand.  But, I stuck it out and kept layering till I got a painting that I was happy with. I actually had to get out my acrylics though and my Molotow markers (acrylic markers) for details.  This is what I call an illusionary painting.  My goal was to have the viewer search a little bit for the wine glasses, so they are partially transparent and ghostly.  Here are my steps, for you to see the progression of this painting. 

Step 1- first wash and adding collage

Step 2- Negative painting around wine glasses
and making a dark pathway to the edges.

Day 10 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Valentine Wishes"         $75
Watercolor and Collage          7" x 10"

Happy Valentines Day a few days early.  I wanted to post this one now, in case anyone wants to purchase this for their sweetheart or possibly for themselves.  The hearts in this painting truly just showed up!  I love the way the big heart seems to be breaking up into little hearts and then they are blown in the wind, as if you were blowing a kiss.  May you all have a special Valentine's Day!  Love yourselves and be happy! 

Day 9 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Looped on Life"       $75
Watercolor and Collage      7" x 10"   

 This is one of  my favorites of this challenge.  I started like usual, and the collage pieces that had loops.  So in the finishing touches, I added line-work, using my wire drawing technique, to repeat the loops from the collage.  I'm teaching this technique at several workshops coming up.  Bradenton, FL on April 10th and at Dillman's Resort in northern WI on June 18 - 21.  It's my new favorite thing to do!  It has helped ALL of my artwork AND I'm a better drawer now too.   Check out my website, www.karenknutson.com  to see my schedule.

Day 8 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Size 10 Dreams"     Watercolor and Collage
7" x 10"           $75

In this painting, I used pattern pieces for the collage, and there it was, "Size 10".  Look in the bottom middle to find it.  Yes, I used to be a size 10, and I used to sew a lot of my own clothing.  Those days are over, but I can dream about again getting back to that size.  We are taking daily walks now that we are in sunny Florida.  Maybe that will help.  Below is the first step to this painting, dry brush watercolor and adding collage.  I used the butterfly napkin as my color inspiration for this one.

First step of this painting

Day 7 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"New World"    7" x 10"
Watercolor, collage, metallics       $75

This painting was the hardest one that I've done so far in this challenge.  I used a wire drawing sketch that I'd done in early December.  I absolutely LOVE doing wire drawings.  The abstract patterns that evolve always surprise me.  Below is the value study. 

I will be teaching a 4 day workshop at Dillman's Resort in northern WI on June 18 - 21st with this process and how I use it in most of my paintings now.  By the end of the week, everyone will be doing a large abstract painting that they attained due to the wire drawing exercises earlier.  I can't decide which direction that I like this best.  My other choice is as a vertical.  Try turning the image to the right, and see which way you like it.  I decided to add gold foil paper as an extra bling. It's so shiny and inviting.  The painting is called "New World" because I think it looks like a magic is happening with the circle and our new world is beyond.  

Day 6 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Trapeze Act"      7" x 10"
Watercolor and Collage     $75

I had a GREAT day today!  Went to Casperson Beach with the Venice Plein Air Club and actually pretended like I knew what I was doing.  I was so nervous to paint with all the pros from this area.  The funny thing was that everyone who I met, immediately stated that they don't know how to paint on location and usually don't like what they do.  I thought to myself, "Who knew?  We are all alike with the same fears and the same feelings of inadequacy."  Anyway, I truly loved the experience.  I did a value sketch first in my small notebook, just to warm up and to figure out my "light Pathway", that I always preach about in my workshops.  It was a beautiful day, 75 degrees, sunny with great long shadows.  I found a shady spot, and painted a quarter sheet watercolor painting of the scene.  It isn't done yet, but so far, I kind of like it.  Anyway, when I got home in the afternoon, I was excited about painting my 30 Day Challenge painting, and this was the outcome.  If you look closely, you will see hearts all over the place.  I did NOT paint them.  They just showed up.  My late friend, Connie Cuthbertson used to collect heart rocks, and now that she is passed on, I know when hearts show up in my painting, it means that she is with me.  I really believe that.  Anyway, after I completed this painting, I thought it resembled a trapeze act, thus the title. 

Day 5 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Tangled Life Story"    7" x 10"
Watercolor and collage     $75

I've been having troubles with my computer, so I apologize for this late posted of Day 5.  This painting was fun to do, because I was learning during the process. My goal was to try new colors and see what happens when certain colors are place right next to other colors.  I have a new love of raw sienna, but only when I use 3 layers to get the richness of the color.  I love the vibration of color against the lime green.  Adding a neutral grey color was also effective to calm certain areas.  And then the Pop of the salmon color was just what this painting needed.  I have never been one to do graphs of color studies.  I like to do a miniature painting and try the colors there! So far, I'm really enjoying this 30 Day Challenge.  I've got some goals for myself for future paintings.  Maybe even some people in these abstract starts!  :)

Day 4 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Hidden Butterflies"     7" x 10"
Watercolor and Collage     $95

Somewhere in the middle of this painting, I decided to add images of butterflies.  My objective was to make this painting abstract first and then if the viewer happened to find the butterflies that was great, but that wasn't what I want the viewer to see first.  I told you that my colors would most likely change after I had been in Florida a few days and it really has!  Our view of a golf course with all the greens and a small pond outside our house is totally influencing my color choices. 

Day 3 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Recollecions"    7" x 10"
Watercolor and Collage     $75

I am a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and my goal when I started this was to get more geometrical angles in this painting.  I collaged with old pattern pieces, which I used back in the day when I sewed most of my clothing.  You didn't know that about me, did you?  Colors used in this painting were scarlet lake, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, new gamboge, and Holbein cobalt turquoise.  It always amazes me how these turn out.  I just let the painting guide me as I go along. Many of you have requested progressive photos.  Here are the steps to this painting:

Step One, Dry brush with watercolor

Step 2:  Add Collage

Day 2 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Flags Waving"       Image:  7" x 10"
Original Watercolor and Collage     $75

This is a companion painting for yesterday's painting, "Bridge over Troubled Waters".  I used Cobalt turquoise, raw sienna, burnt sienna, and quinacridone gold for both paintings.  Limited pallette is one way to avoid color troubles.  We are now in Florida, enjoying our escape from winter weather, so I expect my colors to change dramatically.   Full disclosure: These first 2 paintings, I had done ahead, knowing that I would be traveling for 4 days to get down here.  :)

30 Paintings in 30 Days-2018!

"Bridge over Troubled Waters"

Image:  7" x 10.5"       $75

Original watercolor and Collage

I'm so excited to again participate in Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge!  Click on this link to check out all of the other participants in this challenge.   https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30.html This year, my theme is to paint abstract collage paintings.  I predict that these will eventually have something recognizable in them, but to start with, I'd like to keep them totally abstract.  These colors were requested by my friend, Jennifer Stone.  And since I just returned from the Sedona area,  I was easily inspired to paint in these colors.  Look closely and you will see the collage in this piece too.  I thought it resembled a river with a bridge over it, so that's where the title came from.  All of my paintings in this 30 day challenge are available for the reduced price of $75 each.  Heads up:  tomorrow's painting is a companion piece for this one.  I usually paint 2 of these at once.  It's a win/win.  2 paintings that go together AND it helps with the timing, so no blow dryer is needed.  :)