Colour Harmony! 02/02/2010
  I had a lovely few hours looking at modern furniture and home decor, today in a little side street store. I came home with three beautiful plump soft pillows with exquisite ruched, cream beige, velvet covers. These will ‘work’ in either my caravan interior, which is cream white and beige, base colours with sky blue and a pin stripe of yellow as the accessory colours. I love this fresh sun and sky colour scheme. My lounge room in my summer retreat is cool, blue grey walls and ceiling, with a cobalt blue curtains and cream, creamy beige and an interesting, beige grey stone colour that ties these colours together well. I think this is one of the most important aspects for a painting, a room, an outfit of clothes, to look good, having a colour harmony that works beautifully. The picture I will illustrate this post with, at the top, are of two cards from my art work, these are in colours that would work well, in the decor of my summer studio, they are painted using split opposite colour harmonies which work well with the colours I have described Below are pictures of the bare interior, before my soft furnishings are added, to my caravan.      The Giveaway: In conjunction with Mummified Times Five, I am giving away up to $1000 worth of Maimeri Classico oil paints! Each prize pack includes 10 tubes of Maimeri Classico paints valued at $9.55 each…so with free postage, that’s a prize pack valued at over $100!! And we have 10 packs to give away!! To enter, all you need to do is: -comment on any post ON EACH of Kathy Shell’s blogs (listed in my blog side bar and below): http://mummifiedtimesfive.net/2010/02/01/spotlight-on-kathy-shell-giveaway/ and say why you would like to win a 10 pack of Maimeri Classico paints. (Both steps are mandatory to be in the running to win this prize) Giveaway finishes 15 Feb 2010 This blog post has been illustrated by postcards from the art of Kathy Shell. These can be orderd through the artist's postcards-art web site or purchased 'direct from the artist', in her caravan awning studio     Fat Art! 12/21/2009
 Visual images speak louder than words. "If you don't move, you get fat”. That is a message that as a creative person I need to keep in mind. Painting and writing are mainly sedentary activities and I need to find ways to make them more active. I do this by painting on my feet, walking back and forth to view my work from a distance. I get out on my feet to research stories I write. Even so, a lot of the work is far more inactive than is good for me and I need to plan activity breaks in my day and not allow my obsession for my creativity to take over and deprive me of exercise, or for that matter sleep. Therefore, once I post this fabulous visual image and reminder of why I strive to remember to be active, I will say goodnight :-), Apparently this statute, and another of Lincoln grown portulant just sitting all these years in his chair at the Lincoln Monument for too long, was part of an advertising campaign by Advertising Agency: Scholz & Friends, Hamburg, Germany Stay-Wet, acrylic pallet to make yourself. 12/18/2009
      I made a stay-wet pallet for painting the landscape, when I travel, by putting the grids from two smaller containers in the bottom of a shallow square container. I cut wettex sponges to fit over this grid, and then I covered these sponges with wet strength paper towels with part of the paper towel going under the grid to the base of the container. When in use I will have a shallow layer of water under the grid, I will have the wettex sponges damp, the paper towel will remain damp and the paint goes on top of the wet strength paper towel. The air tight lid will then hold the moisture in and any unused acrylic paint left over from a day’s painting session should stay wet until the next painting occasion. When is an art work finished? 10/17/2009
 I remembered a lesson I was taught and always remembered and use and have passed on to my students, like many lessons in one medium. you can apply it to any art form, and life itself. I remembered this technique, the other day, when chatting with a friend about how we go through periods of indecision and lack of motivation in life. I use it when I lack clarity in knowing what to do next. It’s a simple technique; it simply requires you to ask yourself questions. Just make sure your asking the right questions. ‘Ask the right question and you usually get the right answer’ If I relate this for a moment to how I learned the technique and taught it, as an artist, it was in response to ‘How the painter knows when a painting is finished?’ Explanation: - The average unskilled art student and self taught artist, overworks a painting and ruins the potential it had with excessive work. They keep finding more that can be done, to do in the work and they are never content with it, never feel it is ‘finished’. As a writer I am learning to apply what I have long known as a painter, to get to the point quickly and not ruin what I’m saying with excessive waffling. In life, it’s recognising what needs to be done and when it’s OK to step back and rest. When you look at a work in front of you, don’t say, “What more can I do”, because there is always more to be done, you could put birds in the sky, rocks on the ground, another blade of grass, there is never an end to the, ‘What more can I do’, question and the project goes downhill, looses the breath of fresh air, enthusiasm it started in and the multiple layers of paint result in a work that simply, cracks. In life, If we keep looking at life with a ‘what more can I do’ question I think we become what is in danger of cracking. Sometimes the best thing to do, is nothing. J. Be patient with yourself. Try this question next time. It makes for great artists and some brilliant art works. Step back and look at the picture from afar and ask the right question the question that on reflection should bring forth the right answer:- 'What more does it need'?. What more does it NEED?If while you look at the work, the project on hand, you do not hear it ‘speak to you’, to tell you clearly, something it ‘NEEDS’ to have done to it, then STOP. Towards the final phase of every great art work, of every life project, you reach the point where the plan has been made, the block in has been done, a little refining has been done and your now at the detail, fiddly bits stage, this is the stage when a good art teacher instructs you to do ‘more look than put’. I think that advice I learned can be used in all the art forms, including life. Most of my life mistakes have been from wanting to rush in, over commit and try to ‘fix things up’, rather than step back, observe, do a lot more looking on than putting on and asking, 'what more does it need', not 'what more can I do'?. Using my observations tool and looking back over my life, using that tool would have made me a better parent, and certainly have spared me the stroke, workaholism gave me, now that’s another story about someone who tried to fix everyone else’s problems instead of realizing if she didn’t care for herself, she would be no use to anyone. J. Today I try to observe and make corrections before things reach that sort of breaking point. An artist learns to put the brush down, take your mind off the project, walk around the block, get the mail, look at and smell some roses, sleep on it, turn it upside down, look at it through sun glasses, lol, J, take long breaks and come back and take a fresh look at it again, leave enough time after the block in and refinement stage so that you stop seeing the brush strokes you put down and see the overall picture. Then, only when the work speaks to you, DEMANDS that it NEEDS something, do you know what finishing touch, detail, you can do to ‘lift’ the work and have it ready for your signature, COMPLETED. Painting the Clydesdales. 09/30/2009
I received a great commission and some original photo material from Tracey, at the the Heavy Horse Stables to complete some original art works using images of thier Clydesdale's and to reproduce these into art print form. See my art cards, art postcards and art fridge magnets pages above for the links through to my art print stores.         I had such fun painting this pair of personality plus, Clydesdale and the painting lent itself so well to print reproduction, I used it to make large and small fridge magnets, car size magnets, caps T shirts, pens, key rings, gift cards and larger folded cards with envelopes, small and large postcards and small and large size prints. The original oil painting is 12" x 16" in artist quality oil paints on stretched canvas and is now available for viewing and purchase. | Kathy Shell on Facebook What is RSS
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