Happy 2023 and My First Ever Newsletter!

New Years’ 2023

KathyCalhoun.com  classroom

Got a suggestion for topics or mediums you would like to learn more about and think I could do a decent job teaching? Then please send me an email about it!       For more information on these classes just hit the link below https://kathycalhoun.com/classes-workshops/upcoming-in-2023

Welcome to my first ever newsletter thingy!  Not sure if this is gonna be a regular deal or not, but hey, new year new stuff, right?   Workshops for Spring 2023                                         (and bonus question~what would you like to see as topics for other workshops?) Doing that Longwood University adjunct thing again but can still offer a few classics + one new class this Spring.   Introduction to Watercolor Class Visual Arts Center on Fridays January 27th-March 3rd Value to Color in Painting Weekend Workshop VMFA February 18-19th Color Theory with the Masters at the Visual Arts Center Tuesdays March 28th-April 25th *NEW* Plein Air Intensive Class VMFA Wednesdays May 10th-31st   Want to insert a picture from your files or add a shape, text box, or table? You got it! On the Insert tab of the ribbon, just tap the option you need.

 

	KathyCalhoun.com exhibits
Fun fact:  The VMFA Faculty Exhibit is up until January 13 in the Studio School Building	Double Exposure!   This fall I had recent work in two group shows, both for artist faculty: one at Longwood University and the other at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Having my work the featured for the PR for even one of the exhibits was more than I hoped for; but finding out I was the featured work for both was a real mind-blowing honor!! Thank you Alec Grabiec at the Longwood Cultural Arts Center and Mary Holland at the VMFA Studio School for selecting my works.
	KathyCalhoun.com studio
Thanks for allowing me into your inbox and hope you enjoyed what you saw and read. Still don’t have a real mail service so there is no unsubscribe button. In other words, you are trapped on my mailing list baah haaah  (evil laugh;) Well not really, just send me an email asking me to drop and consider it done with no hard feelings (which is better than most unsubscribe buttons anyway) Wishing you and yours the best year yet in’23 Just remember no matter what, no matter how, keep creating!	Inspirations: PEOPLE   PLACES   COLOR/VALUE  Like many of you, I have been cautiously celebrating the ability to get out and about by traveling. Stops have included Florida, Quebec, Italy, the “rivah” and all around the Northeast.  So of course, these delightful places have found their way into my sketchbook (aka my travel buddy) and is now meandering into my larger work. But I still enjoy putting the human figure into a space with objects. I like that it combines all the major painting genres (portrait, figure, still life and landscape) and love the challenge of creating a “just enough” narrative without feeling too constricted (I hope).  The play of color and value also keeps me intrigued and am exploring this by creating several thumbnails of the same image. Work in progress above is of my husband reading in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puerto Rico Auction Wrap Up

Thrilled that I was able to help raise $850 in relief for Puerto Rico with my 5 day on-line auction.  It was also a great way to see who is really interested in my art and what they are willing to pay for it.

But really it is about helping such a vibrant and loving community bounce back from some really back luck and  bureaucracy.

Even these color planning sketches sold!

And an extra commission came out of it, which I also donated 100% of the proceeds to Hispanic Federation 

"Sunset Condado"

watercolor on arches 

16"x12"

Tuesday's painting 

"Proud, Kind and Alert"

watercolor 

8"x8"

Wednesday's Painting 

"Los Fantasmas de la Casa de Maria" 

(The Ghosts of Maria's House)

watercolor 

8"x8"

 Thursday's painting (and the only oil) 

"El Yunque"

Acrylic and Oil on Gessoboard

12"x9"

Friday's Grand Finale

"Encanto:Sunset at Condado"

watercolor 

8"x8"

I so enjoy being able to tie art creation to a good cause. I also loved being able to connect with the buyers and many others during this auction.  Think this may be an annual things for me.  Gotta check out my business plan and reality on it. 

Puerto Rico Auction Item #1

Water at San Cristobal

8”x8”

Watercolor on Paper

The round object is a cistern that collects to rainwater and filters it into limestone caves underground. The fortress at San Cristobal was one of the first in the world to realize the vitality of a fresh water source during long sieges. 

 Ironically now that Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria and now several earthquakes, water may become scarce again.  

Your donation to buy this painting will 100% be sent to charities who will  be sending fresh water along with other needed supplies to the island.

Puerto Rico Relief Auction

Dusting off the blog for what I hope is a successful way to help others

Having experienced two of the major earthquakes while in San Juan last week, I wanted to do something to help.  So I am auctioning off paintings based on images from that trip.  


 
Starting my first piece to auction for Puerto Rico relief. Based on a photo I took the day in between the bigger quakes. Ironically-since drinkable water is now a concern- of a water cistern in the San Cristobal Fortress.

It will be an 8”x8” watercolor UVB spray protected and framed under glass.
100% of the money raised will go to American Red Cross/ Puerto Rico or Unidos Hispanic Foundation. Auction winner gets to choose which one.


...

work station

work in progress

New Steps to New Goals Combining Abstraction Realism at (Hopefully) the VCCA

Thought new goals would not be as scary as I got older...

think that are maybe even a touch more....

Self Portrait: The Artist as Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun

2019

Oil on Canvas 30”x 24”

But I guess that scarcity cat feeling is a sign of getting out of own lazy comfort zone, right?

Happy Bobby in Action

2019

Oil on Canvas 12”x9”

But I feel like I need that concentrated time to work out some studio challenges that I have been wrestling with for ab out three years now...

Figure Study 30 Minute Pose

2019

Charcoal, White Conte and Pencil on Paper

So this is where I am applying...the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts (VCCA) 

with the goal of combining that type of recent work from above with my mono print and color field studies from a few years ago...

'Memba these guys?

Looking forward to the challenge and keeping my fingers crossed to being accepted!  

But if not, this is still what I will be working on...guess it is my new studio challenge for 2019

ON THE EASEL Glazing, Fat, Lean & Local while Going back in Time 200 Years

So here is the completion of my Memory Project guy, what a 5 year old cutie? (you can see last post for earlier steps)...

Austin

oil on canvas 11 1/2" X8"

2019

Also finished this from sitting and photo...she might dog sit my pooches sometime...

The Luminous Miss M

Oil on Stretched Canvas 16”x12”

2019

She was double lit with red and blue lights so that made for some fun play of light shadow and color!

LOCAL GLAZING

Learned a new process for these that I am in love called Lean over Fat but I don’t like the name because it is misleading.  Really fat over lean leads to cracked painting, so I am renaming it Fat Over Local Glaze.  How egotistical of me, right? ;)  But what can I say? I like direct labels, makes for better comprehension for my students.

BACK IN TIME and LONG DUE RECOGNITION

Anyway, this new assignment is a copyist and self portrait combination...reminds me a bit of Kehinde Wiley’s Work.   I decided to go with an incredibly prolific lady artist who is about 200 years past getting her due!  Elisabeth Vigee La Brun.  

Well off, crazy talented (both thanks to support from Daddy-o), and real hardworking - this chick painted for the French royalty right before the guillotine showed up.  In fact Marie Antionette once canceled an appointment to just hang with EVB and even picked up her paints when EVB spilled them all! So when the revolution came, EVB and her kids (yup working mom here) peaced out for what she thought was going to be like 6 months tops but turns into 13 years! Don’t stress though, it all worked out okay for EVB and co. since she was able to just bounce and paint around all the royal courts in Europe. 

Hit the link on her name above to read all about it...

Anyway here is her self portrait painted in 1800 when she was she was about 45.  

Dang, I wish I looked that good at 45! 

A little artistic license perhaps, EVB?

So I went ahead and found an (oldish) photo of me around 35ish and began my work.  Here is the work in progress after the first pass using my newly named technique of Fat over Local Glaze...

So this is just glaze haven’t gone lean or fat yet...

The watercolorist in me loves the way I can keep the contour lines (at least in the beginning) and do not have to commit to the base color necessarily to the work ...I like how this technique keeps the some options open while others are tight and intact.  

PS the biggest oil I have done in a while...think might may be my new go-to dimensions, its not a monster yet I am truly digging all the extra real estate.

Memory Project Portrait Beginnings

What a fantastic undertaking to be a part of!  The Memory Project is an organization that connects with artist from around the world to have them paint realistic high quality portraits of young children who are living in less than ideal conditions.

As a part of Colin Ferguson’s class at John Tyler Community College, I get to work on painting this little guy...(who BTW loves ice cream and the color blue)

This is my first pass with this cute as a button boy...

and this is my second pass.

Colin is teaching a great new technique in which he calls “Fat Over Lean” that has to do with glazing in local color from the beginning while reserving the whites of the canvas.  Looking forward to the progression...