Passion and Serenity

There's been a lot happening in my world the past week - and its going to get a little more hectic. Baby Boy Harrington, third grandson, is set to arrive in the next few days and I am the Grandma on call. So a calm, serene painting is called for. This ACEO of a path along the river is pretty mellow/yellow calm spring green.
And I was so happy to receive this lovely"Passion for Painting" award from Ann Gorbett. I need to write 7 things that I love and then pass the award onto 7 other artists. Watch this space!

Ewe Asked For It... LED ART

....this ideo is HOT... I received an email link to it from three people today....

Counting Sheep

When I said I enjoyed the books of Jon Katz, my friend Lynn who trains border collies said I should read "Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching through Scotland for a Border Collie" by Donald McCaig, so I did. I enjoyed it and if you love dogs and well told travel stories you will too. So with border collies on my mind I painted this aceo of their well tended charges.

Crocodile Rock

I had a painting of an elephant that I gave to my grandson. He's 4 now and decided that a crocodile would be a good addition to his collection of Grandma Kathy's art.
I did this aceo as a study -now I'm ready to paint a large canvas for him.

ACEO Favorites

Different Stroles Image

So our challenge this week was to paint this beach scene. the original along with all the entries can be seen here...Click
I'm wokring on my figures.. thats the tough element for me.
I did a 5x7 painting. I'm not too happy with the comp - specifically, I don't like the man looking outward....of course, its my painting, I could have changed it. But thats what people do at the beach, isn't it?

Waterfall in the Stream Harrington ACEO

I painted this as part of a group paint out on WetCanvas! in the Open Critique Forum. This is a great place to post your work for thoughtful critiques from artists around the world.
I chose to paint it small - an aceo - but we were free to do any size or medium we wanted.

Morning Hike

OK, one more snow painting

Who can resist all those whites? At first some of the trees had those butterscotch colored dead leaves on them but I thought they were distracting... now I'm wondering about that line of dark blue in the foreground trail.... hmmm.... often I just dont see things till its up on the monitr.

The Neighbor's Place

ACEO Acrylic on board

I recently heard from an old friend and he has been sharing his fabulous collection of photographs with me.
Many of them are from New York State, especially the Hudson Valley and Long Island. This is his neighbor's house, perched on a cliff overlooking Long Island Sound. I have the feeling I'll be painting this area a lot!

Fowl!

I guess the term is suppose to be a Spring Chicken but here you have your traditional Spring Duck.
Painting white subject matter is so much fun becasue there are so many variations of white. And when you get to add texture like feathers, well it doesnt get much better ;-)
This fellow is an ACEO, acrylic on board.

St Patrick's Day

Shamrocks

2.5 x 3.5"

Top of the Morning to you all.
March 17th was always a very special day for the Harringtons. When I was in high school we would go to the Parade on 5th Avenue - or march in it. There was a traditional boiled dinner waiting for us at home. All the Irish girls would be sure to wear a green ribbon in their hair (and two days later all the Italian girls wore red ribbons for St Josephs Day). It was a day for family and for church and then parties. I hope you all are having a great day!

Early Spring

We're at that time of year when the snows are mostly gone and theres mud everyehwere but the leaves have not started to come out yet. There is a different feel to the air, a bit of hopefulness.This ACEO was painted after a long walk with Casey in the park.

Irish Weather

Cold and raining. I don't need the authentic climate to get me in the mood for St Patrick's Day.
But thats what we have in North East Ohio today so I thought I would post a couple of little ACEOs I painted for the 17th.

The first is a broad panaromic view of the green fields of Ireland with a bit of rock wall, a single cottage and some puffy clouds. This is listed on eBay now... click

The second one is of a single cottage by the sea. The Harringtons came from Bantry Bay and maybe this is just the view they saw each day. I'll be posting this on ebay soon.

All ACEOs are 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

We had a great time this weekend at the opening of the Hudson Society of Artists Mid-Winter Show. We've posted some photos on their blog I think someone should paint the photo of that fruit plate!

Collages as a Fund Raiser

Saturday I participated in a group workshop to make collages to be donated as raffle prizes in a fund raiser for the American Diabetes Society. The theme for the night will be Las Vegas Casino so we worked with lots of paper and items based on the theme. Shirely Saxe posted a slide show on her blog of the artists.

Sushi

This was insired by the photo on the Different Strokes blog. I painted my version on shell paper which is really made of ground up seashells. Its thick and textured and has little reflective bits embedded in it. I added the shopsticks as a design element.



....and later that weekend..... I thought I should paint another version as an ACEO....so I did ;-)

Loose and Carefree

ACEO - Acrylic
I love painting the play of light and shadow in ocean scenes. I also like stretching the palette to very dramatic colors; orange in the sky, purple in the sand. Why not?
But it all comes down to just warm and cool. All the light values are center and just right of center with a triangle of dark values to pick your way thru.

Falling Snow

This ACEO was inspired partly by the unrelenting cold and snow and partly by a Guy Wiggins painting. The little spots of color carry this and the falling snow is so much fun to do that it almost makes up for enduring this zero degree weather.