7th Day of Christmas- Santa Series

"Santa 1999"

The face of this Santa was my very favorite!  I just want to pinch his cheeks!  I love how gentle he turned out, and so I decided to have him holding a cat.  I, myself prefer dogs, but I like cats too.  Each to their own.  Anyway, I thought that this Santa looked like he loved cats.  By 1999, I had quite a following who purchased my Santa paintings every single year.  So, you can imagine how surprised I was when one collector actually returned her Santa.  She really despised cats and couldn't stand to look at it.  So, that's my interesting story about this one.  Evidently, some people are very final about their opinion about cats versus dogs.  :)

6th Day of Christmas- Santa Series

"Santa 1998"

I used one of my students as my model for this Santa.  I started my teaching in 1988, at the Minnetonka Senior Center, and I have so many wonderful memories of those retired ladies and gents.  This particular one was always up to mischief, so it was my own bit of mischief by using him for my model.  I thought if he were playing with a puppet, it could remind us that there's always someone higher than ourselves who is in charge.  :)

Days 4 and 5 of Christmas- Santa Series

"Santa 1996"

Santa has to be an artist sometimes, but not without the help of an elf who is whispering an idea to Santa. I'm actually going to post 2 Santas today, since I was busy babysitting all day yesterday. 

"Santa 1997"
This was one of my favorite ideas.  Santa woke up one morning to find that a bird had built a nest in his beard!  And being the really kind soul that he is, he left the nest there for his friendly bird friends.  They sang songs to Santa while he worked hard making toys for all the good girls and boys. All is good in Santa's world!

3rd Day of Christmas- Santa Series

Santa 1995

Yesterday, I told you that I would have to use my imagination for future Santa paintings, so what's better than a book of the girls and boys who made the Santa list?  One of my son's friends noticed a big flaw in this painting.  Do you see it?  Our son was in middle school at the time, and I found it ironic that this friend happened to see the mistake right away.  He wasn't the type to notice such things.  So, this Santa brings a smile to my face every year, remembering that conversation with Jeremy.

2nd Day of Christmas- Santa Series

Santa 1994
 

This was my second Santa, painted in 1994.  It was after this, that I realized that the Santa paintings would have to have a theme.  After all, how many times can you paint a white haired Santa with a hat and not get bored with the whole idea.  So, tomorrow's Santa will be a nice surprise.  BTW, I think I mistakenly said that yesterday's Santa was from 1992.  It actually was featured in 1993.

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!

Flying by the seat of my pants

"Helga, the Housekeeper"

Sometimes, you just need to fly by the seat of your pants!  Upon arriving at my Buffalo destination last night, I discovered that there was no mirror for the audience to see my demo.  So, I held the painting up with my left hand, while painting vertically with my right hand.  Then the audience could see what I was painting.  It actually went pretty well.  I finished the details on the hair this morning, using Tombow markers and permanent black markers.  But otherwise, this was my demo for the Buffalo group.  I was asked when I started painting funky ladies.  I think it was after watching a video by Anne Bagby, one of my favorite artists.  She has been a great influence on my work.
 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. 

Another Wire Drawing

"Heartfelt Wishes"

This was my demo for the Two Harbors, MN workshop on Day 3.  We had a fabulous time, starting out with Funky Lady paintings, then Charcoal Pour bird paintings, and lastly, wire drawings.  I told them how hooked I am in this process, and I think there are several of them that are just as hooked as I am.  This painting started out with random collage pieces positioned in a cruciform manner.  I keep the colors of the fiber paper very neutral. After the collage dries, we add the drawing of the bird, using permanent markers.  Lastly, we paint the background, using neutral colors.  My favorite combination colors for this is neutral tint and aureolin yellow.  It makes an army green/grey color that I really love!   These drawings sometimes lead to abstracts, by cropping into certain areas. 

Another Funky Lady!

"Something Fishy about Karen!"

I'm preparing for another charcoal pour workshop and funky lady workshop that I will be teaching in Two Harbors, MN in 2 days.  I've done 3 of these "Something Fishy" paintings.  I really enjoy the play on words and creating the unexpected.  This particular workshop is my favorite workshop to teach.  We pour the charcoal on the first day, in prep for the bird painting, but since it has to dry, etc., we work on our funky ladies paintings the rest of that first day.  There's always lots of laughter and everyone succeeds!  In fact, the ones who aren't very good drawers actually produce the best ones, in my opinion.  I will be giving a demonstration on Drawing Funky Ladies, for the Buffalo, MN art group on November 17th at 7:00 p.m. It is held at the airport there.  Join me if you're in the area. 

"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.