If You Love Color...

Do you remember this photo?
I took this last month when I was walking in Tinley Creek Woods. I really love this spot which actually came as a surprise the first time I spotted it. I couldn't see the creek nor hear the creek until I was on top of it. Now, I'm not even really sure this is the official creek of Tinley Creek Woods, because the area is so large.


Inspired to paint this picture, I had a very large dilemma...there is NO color! The scene is very monotone on a cloudy afternoon. Well, I'll just have to create my own color. That's where the fun begins!


Using Wallis Museum Grade pastel paper, I decided to make an under-painting wash to set the mood. I usually block out shapes with pastel and then with a brush and turpenoid (a turpentine without smell), move the color around once wet. Today I decided to make a watercolor under-painting instead of a pastel under-painting because watercolors have such a mysterious look when allowed to do their own thing and I wanted this to show through the final painting.

©2008 Christine Kane Art

Here is the final painting which is titled: "Deep Forest Secret" 16x20 Pastel.
Can you see the watercolor drip marks on the bottom left corner of the painting? That is the watercolor paint showing through. I love it! These drip marks can represent a physical thing like tree roots, or it can convict a feeling like mystery or an oddity, which is what I was aiming for.
I used oranges and pinks which are clashing colors to represent excitement and that is exactly what I felt when I discovered this creek. Now, as you can tell by my photo, I had no color to start with. As an artist you can make up whatever colors you choose. They don't have to be realistic! What's your mood like at the time? How were you feeling? Were you happy, excited, depressed, sad? Let those colors set your mood...it's fun!

"Deep Forest Secret" will be matted and framed and made available at ChristineKaneArt.com in a few weeks.
Hope you enjoy.

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

Here is the latest pastel, which is titled: "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe....Moe Has a Seed"


This painting was done from a picture that Joan from Appalachian Journal took of a real bird line-up in her tree by her feeder. Click here to see the original picture and read story.
I love Joan's nature blog and was trilled when she gave me permission to paint this picture! For her generosity, she will receive a print in the mail shortly. :)

It has taken me since the end of January to complete this painting and I am super happy with it.
Why do I love this picture?

Well, first, I love Meeny's butt. That's the second bird. I must admit I did a good butt. This backwards bird drove Gary, my pastel teacher, nuts! Every time I brought it to class he asked, "Does that bird have to face in the opposite direction?" Every time I replied, "He must!"
Moe is the last one on the right and really does have a sunflower seed in his "mouth".
Eeny is a molting American Goldfinch. Do you see the bit of black on top of his head? In the spring/summer the top will become completely black.
Miny steals the show and just happened to receive an appropriate female name!

Secondly, I love how this painting breaks the rules in art world. You are never, NEVER, supposed to have an even number of subjects in a painting or picture. He, He, He....
That is why Meeny had to remain facing in the opposite direction like the real photo, it makes the composition work even when it's not supposed to.

Lastly, I love how the lighting is coming from underneath the birds and branches, highlighting all their bellies and one butt! Their big round bellies!

This painting is rather large at 23x14.5" and is framed with a 2" wood frame the same color as the highlight in the branches and is currently on display at the LaGrange Art Gallery until May 2nd. If it does not sell, it will be made available on Christine Kane Art after May 4th.

Celebrating Spring with birdies!
Thanks Joan!!!

End of Day Pastel

© 2008 Christine Kane Art

This pastel was created after I was driving home through the country, passing many farms, trying to get on the highway and suddenly fell in love with these trees against a setting sun. I pulled off the side of the road, ignored my family's moans and groans about having to stop, and took a beautiful picture. "Nature doesn't wait for us...." I explained to them, "You have to be ready or else it's gone!"
Well, I'm ready!

What is it about this winter picture that I liked so much?
The best feature is the dramatic skeleton shape of the trees against a warm sunset. I love warm sunsets (reds, oranges, yellows) in the winter time, it's such an ironic contrast. Next, you can still see the rows that the farmer left behind after harvest....proof of man. The cool colors (blues and purples) accented on the field, I placed to represent the cool night quickly approaching. "Hurry home!" It says, "Before the cold night takes over!"

This painting is titled, End of Day. It is available at Christine Kane Art on the pastel page.
Hope you enjoy

Class Painting

Last week in Gary Wick's pastel painting class, he had everyone paint from the same picture and had us finish it in 2.5 hours. Even though the size is pretty small (9x6), that's still pushing it, to complete a painting in such a short amount of time!
Well, he must have taught us something right, because everyone did finished it.
When Gary was in Italy taking a bus tour, he took a picture of a field and made copies so that everyone can have one.
Here is my painting:


Gary made just one restriction. You had to paint the picture upside down. From start to finish! Now, I can handle a few twigs upside down, but the whole entire thing? That's really hard!
The trick is just to look for shapes. Don't think tree, sky, mountains...think block, oval, and squiggly lines. It's like painting blind, your brain doesn't really make sense of what you're looking at.
Here is what I was staring at:

You really can only be sure of shapes and colors to succeed at painting in this manner.
It was so much fun at the end of the class to turn them right side up and see all of the beautiful variations the students came up with. No two paintings were the same, all of the colors were slightly different and some students decided to leave a few trees out. It was so fascinating to see the differences, I wish I had brought my camera!

I have decided to name this painting, Italian Countryside. The painting is 9x6 and mounted to fit a 14x11 medium wood frame with a 2.5" off white mat. It is currently not for sale right now, because I'm in love with it. He...he...he.
You might find it for sale in a few months at www.christinekaneart.com

You can tell Gary that was proud of us and I think we were surprised ourselves!

Gallery Approved

I am happy to announce that the LaGrange Art Gallery has accepted my work to hang in their gallery! Whooooo Hoooo!
Downtown LaGrange is a very charming area with an old world feeling. It has many specialty shops and classy restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, yesterday a few spaces from the gallery is Cafe 36 where they are currently filming a cooking show!

Remember this painting of Sunset Fire? Click here it see the step by step post. This month's theme at the gallery is "new light". I thought this painting was fitting for the subject. It looks really good framed, however I take really bad pictures of paintings after they have glass on them!


The second submittal is this painting titled, Dancing Shadows. This is also a pastel painting and was inspired by a visit to Maple Lake East early in the morning when the sunlight peaked through behind the trees causing shadows to dance on the grass. It was a great sight and another good "new light" theme.


For all the locals, you can visit the LaGrange Art Gallery and find directions by clicking here. The paintings will be on display and for sale from 03-03-08 through 03-29-08, the gallery is open M-Sat. 10am-5pm. I viewed the many paintings from various artists yesterday and they're all really good!

Still Holding On

Who loves nature?
We do! We do!

This is a picture I took at Tinley Creek Woods when it was much warmer and the snow had melted. What did I love about this scene? Many things:

First, this picture was taken this January, notice all the trees in the background have lost their leaves. This little guy held on to his. I stood there and thought about all the wind storms that came through this winter and I'm pretty impressed with the tree's strength, especially because he's standing in an open field all alone. Perhaps it is because of his youth that he is able to hang on or maybe the background forest is his shield, a row of soldiers. Maybe the forest is looking out for this little guy? The tree probably is still holding on to it's leaves because that's just the nature of an oak tree (boring), but it's much more fun to think of all other possibilities. I'm sure there's a life lesson in here somewhere.

Secondly, the detail in the trunk made me say, "Ooooo." I love it's "arms" reaching out near the bottom, searching for all possibilities in life.

Thirdly, warm colors in the dead of winter rock! My interpretation exaggerates this feature...I'm just whipping out my artistic license here.

Here is my translation of what was actually there. My main goal was to keep this little guy the focal point and not get him lost with a busy background, notice the blue forest (represents distance) and is shorter that actual photo.
I had a super difficult time attempting to draw any trees in the background, it was just shades of blue. I really thought I was going to ruin it by painting trees. Gary, who is a wonderful teacher, challenged me and said, "Do you always want to be stuck at this level?"
WOW, no I don't...growth is good!
Gary taught me to turn the painting upside down and get loose with the background. Dandy! It worked!

This pastel took a total of 5 hours to complete over a period of 2 days. It will be made available in a few days at www.christinekaneart.com

Hope you enjoyed!

Pastel Step by Step

Well, because this weekend was so cold it just happened to be perfect for hibernation and artwork. Every weekend is perfect for artwork, but when the temperature dips below zero, instead of looking for inspiration outside, you start digging out pictures from warmer memories.


I thought I would show you the materials and a little bit of the process of creating a pastel painting. Oooo it's so much fun! Here is my setup. The tan paper to the left is Ersta pastel paper, made in Germany, bought on line. Ersta is just like sand paper, it holds the soft pastel pigment as you grind it into the surface.
My subject is to the right, a sunset picture I took last November. All around I'm surrounded with beautiful, beautiful pastels....


Oh such lovely colors! You can never have too many colors, however they're not exactly cheap, so you must cherish them to the last speck of crumb! These are Rembrandt landscape soft pastels, notice how much I like the blues they're almost gone! How can a Chicago artist not like the blues...hahahahaha


Here is the painting, which I've named, Sunset Fire, in progress. I usually start at the top and work my way down. Meanwhile, I start with underneath layers of color and work my way to the top. It's so much fun and I believe anyone with training can do this!
Speaking of training, once a week I will be working under the direction of artist Gary Wick, who creates amazing art. He's just a neat, creative artist whom I admire a lot and a swell guy! Lets hope he can transform me into something!


Just working my way down...adding the sun's highlights to selected clouds. Yellow is the complementary color to purple and orange is the complement to blue, that's why these colors look so good next to each other. Nature has it all figured out!

©2008 Christine Kane Art

TaDa.... the finished painting. Foreground trees silhouette in a mixture of dark blue and dark purple...never black...too harsh. The cloud "holes" were softened lightly with my finger and the highlights in the horizon are left strong. The mood has been translated into paper.

This painting, Sunset Fire, is now available on Christine Kane Art on the autumn pastel page because this picture was taken last autumn.

It is so neat to see my nature friends become artists themselves. We all must have that desire to take what we love and in our own "language" show our version of a moment in time.
Click on links to view art.
Tom with Ohio Nature has attempted his first painting after many years and he did a super job, I love it!
Tom at Monarch's Nature, takes breathtaking photos which is artwork in itself. It's too hard to pick a favorite, but I love his frost photos.
Jennifer at A Passion for Nature has been adding beautiful text to her photos, creating a wonderful piece of art.
Drowsey at DrowseyMonkey has pick up her artistic skills after many years also, such great talent cannot be left unused!

I'm happy to see talent not waisted! I encourage everyone who has had a love for art in their younger days to polish off the brushes and develop your skills where you left off. Don't worry, It's not as hard as you think!

Mr. Cardinal in Pastel

Here is Mr. Cardinal painted in pastel as a vignette. A vignette is a design that has no definite edges, to put it simply. I love them because the subject is never in question and the viewer has the ability to finish off the background in his or her mind.
You may recognize Mr. Cardinal's pose from a watercolor I did earlier. I used the same picture to create this pastel. Pastel paper is so much fun to work with because it feels and looks like sandpaper. It holds the soft pastel's pure pigment and there is such satisfaction scraping the pigment into the paper....oooooo, it's so much fun! Everyone should try it.

In a few days this original pastel will me made available on Christine Kane Art
Hope you enjoyed!

Bear Lake

This is a Christmas present for my dear friend Sharon. Shhhh...it's a surprise. If she's reading this before Wednesday, well, she stumbled upon her own surprise!
This is a pastel painting I did today of her cottage on Bear Lake in Wisconsin. She loves this place and I don't blame her. What a peaceful setting. I was kinda missing autumn lately so I decided to give this picture a try.
Why this place looks so pretty that it could be used for a movie location! Maybe a nature movie!!!
I would like to spend some time at this cottage in 2008. Hahemm...Sharon...hint...hint!


I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! A happy and healthy one.

I also want to leave you with a saying from Saint Therese of Lisieux, that really helped me out when I was feeling low. Use it for 2008.

"May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts you received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us."

Saint Therese of Lisieux

She rocks.
Happy New Year!

PS Prints for this painting will be made available sometime in January at Christine Kane Art.