I conducted a watercolor journal class today for a great bunch of talented ladies. One of them set up the whole thing, hosted it, and arranged for us to paint in two very pretty and interesting gardens.
Everyone brought a dish to pass and we had a delicious lunch with a beautiful view. Can you tell I had a good time? I hope they all did too. They sure had some nice journal pages to remember the day, and I hope they also have some inspiration to keep painting.

Here is part of the group at Kauffman Flower Farm

- all cozy on the porch, journaling. I always say it never rains on my journal classes, however, it has rained twice this year on our journal classes up at the flower farm. The view from the porch is beautiful, there are nice little groupings of pretty things on the porch, and it smells like lavender. Everyone was a good sport and they all painted up a storm - they had some beautiful journal pages to remind them of the day - which I think was a nice day in spite of the rain.

HOT HOT HOT These journal pages were done at Three Pines Studio and Gallery in Cross Village. It was unbelievably hot - for Northern Michigan anyway. We were in the shade of a canopy and there was a great breeze, but the heat did, eventually drive us indoors.
These small journal paintings were done as a demonstration. A nice group of people showed up - Thanks for coming!
My show will hang at the gallery until August 19th.

The Show is Ready

Walk by the River

No, I did not take off on vacation after doing the Flower Farm Luncheon/Journal Class. I have done 5 watercolor classes, 4 afternoons of advanced drawing classes, an afternoon of poster signing, AND I got ready for my show up at Three Pines Studio and Gallery in Cross Village. I have the paintings finished, framed, delivered, and they are hanging. The show opens tomorrow (Saturday, July 29th) at 2:00 - until 7:00. I'm wearing a cute little (it's all relative) summer dress and non-birkenstock sandals.

There was an article in the local paper about my show and opening, but to tell you the truth, I haven't read it. Those things make me really nervous! AND the pictures! How disappointing to see (and have the whole world see) that I should have had my hair trimmed, I should have smiled more, and I should have been 20 years younger! They (the newspaper) used a file photo. A FILE PHOTO! You know you live in a small town when the local paper has your photo on file.

Actually, I am very grateful for the publicity, and someday I will actually read the article instead of just taking my husband's word for it that it was okay. But that will be after the fact, when it doesn't matter anymore - everyone else will have forgotten it.

I will post pics of the show and of the painting demonstration I will be doing to promote it on Monday afternoon, July 31st.

A Wonderful Day

This is a beautiful spot to spend the afternoon.

Monday afternoon I held a watercolor sketchbook journal class at Kauffman Flower Farm north of Harbor Springs. Mary Kauffman and her daughter served us an absolutely delicious luncheon on the porch (top picture). After lunch we painted out in the gardens, but took shelter back on the porch (middle picture) when a thunderstorm moved rather quickly through the area.

In spite of the heat and a little thunderstorm action, the group painted a lot of beautiful journal entries.

I would just like to say thanks to the class for making my day such fun, and to the Kauffmans for their fabulous hospitality.

POSTER SIGNING

Celebrate the beauty of this season Up North and the inaugural printing of the Kauffman Flower Farm's annual poster featuring the watercolors of Catherine Carey.

Saturday, July 22
1:00—4:00

Kauffman Flower Farm
2897 North State Road
Harbor Springs

I will be signing posters from 1:00 to 4:00 at the Kauffman Flower Farm and would love to see you there. If you have been out to the Flower Farm, you know how beautiful it is. If you haven't, you are in for a treat!

Hope to see you there Saturday, the 22nd.

The garden next door is always beautiful, but right now I especially like the blue bachelor buttons in front of the red hot pokers (the orange spiky flowers).

I've been working to finish up some more paintings for the art fair - Petoskey Art in the Park - this coming weekend. If you are in the area, it is certainly worth attending. It is a well juried show in a beautiful setting.
It is a one-day show, Saturday, the 15th, from 10-6.

I am also getting ready for a show at 3 Pines Gallery in Cross Village on the 29th. I will be doing a watercolor demo there on Monday,the 31st.

And . . . Monday the 17th, is the luncheon and watercolor journal event at Kauffman Flower Farm
I will also be doing a poster signing there on Saturday the 22nd.

Well, I just wanted to post something new, and I got a little carried away ( with a little bit of panic creeping in) looking over my calendar as I make lists so I'll be ready for everything. It'll be fine. I do have six classes this week also. Yes! - it'll be fine.

Another Beautiful Day

It was too wet this morning for the watercolor class to paint outside. I brought in a few pots of flowers and the class did a great jog of painting with analogous colors and applying rich, juicy colors.

In the afternoon the Watercolor Journal Class met at Memorial Gardens in Bay View. There are lots of things to paint there - flowers, birch trees, cottages, the Bay . . .

The small journal page (above) is the demo I did today. We worked on "Blob and Smoosh" (it's in the book!) and talked a little bit about composition. The people in the photo are the wonderful artists in the journal class.

SUMMER CLASSES ARE IN FULL SWING

I have it all mapped out so I know where to go and when. If I lost my color coded calendar with all the little stickies on it, I'd be sunk. Or if the stickies fell off!!!! Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I have forgotten anyone - forgotten to return a phone call, didn't answer an email.

Anyway, I'm having a great time with a wonderful bunch of talented people, and I hope they are having as much fun as I am.

These are watercolor sketches from my journal done as demos in this week's Watercolor Sketchbook Journal class in Bay View This class is doing some great little paintings! They will have some nice painting memories to take home. My Tuesday morning watercolor class painted in our backyard. The weather was perfect, and they were really tuned in to it. Nice job!

This is a quick little sketch of some poppies next door. They lasted quite awhile - we hadn't had rain. They are gone now, and so are the giant iris.

Watching the flowers come and go remind me of how precious some things are. How fleeting. Each flower has its time to blossom and then another takes over. If they never changed, we wouldn't pay any attention to them.

This was done on hot press paper which doesn't seem to scan as well as cold press. Some colors wash out as they soften.

After a long day of planting I just plopped my weary body down in my periwinkle-blue Adirondack chair with my sketchbook. It was fun, and I like the drawing, and I really enjoyed the process. And sometime next winter when I look through my sketchbook, I will be reminded of the warm sunshine on my back and that wonderful smell of the soil.

Have you sketched a memory lately?
I used a fine Pitt pen on Bogus Rough sketch paper.

It was a beautiful evening to take supper down to the waterfront. This little painting in my Moleskine is certainly a contrast to this one done only about six weeks ago. While we were sitting there we were watching the gulls as usual, when we realized they were not gulls. They looked like gulls, but they didn't act like gulls, and then we noticed that they had orange beaks and black caps. When we got home I looked them up in the bird book, and they were definitely Terns. I know absolutely nothing about terns, but am very curious to know what kind of tern they might be. For some reason, I need to know this! So - if you happen to know what kind of tern we have here on Little Traverse Bay, please let me know. Are they common here? Are they migrating?

LOOK OUT, SUMMER - HERE I COME!

I wrapped up my Spring classes this week, and will start the summer ones in a couple of weeks. I will try to use the time wisely - getting the garden ready for painting, ordering supplies for summer classes, packaging up prints and cards, and getting some small paintings done for the summer sales opportunities. Bring on the opportunities!

This is yet another small painting of our back door. I love painting this door (it actually does NEED painting. It is sanded and ready to go. Should I paint it white again or a color this time - maybe periwinkle?) I couldn't wait for the flowers to bloom. This spot in the sun in my big Adirondack chair was just too inviting, so I used my artistic license (you all have one too) and threw in the blossoms that will be there soon.

Okay - this is what I mean when I say the little paintings I bring home in my sketchbook are much more meaningful to me than any photograph I could take. My friend, Karen, and I took kind of a quick trip up to Mackinac Island yesterday. My first trip up of the season. The day started out with a forecast of fog and possible thunderstorms, but by the time we got off the boat, the sun was shining and it was beautiful all day. I painted this in my Arches Carnet de Voyage, hot press paper 6 X 10. I just used my tiny Altoids paint tin and my water brush. The photograph doesn't turn me on. The painting has everything to do with the way the sunshine felt on my shoulders, the sounds of laughter coming from the Grand Hotel, the smell of the flowers, and the dappled shadows along the path. It was just a beautiful place. We had a great day!

Lilacs

It is that time of year - the promise of summer, but what's with all this RAIN!!!??? I am SICK of it.
I picked these lilacs for my Wednesday and Thursday classes to paint. They did a wonderful job. Some started out with wet paper, some with dry. Some of them did one of each to compare the two techniques. This was my demo, done on dry paper - it is done on Fabriano paper - something different for me. I always use Arches and I'm not sure where the Fabriano came from, and I'm not sure if I like it. It is okay to paint on, but I don't really like the look of the texture. It's just different.

These lilacs grow beside our house along the curb, and the neighbors say they see lots of drive-by-pickings. They are irresistible, and as long as they leave the blossoms alone on our side, I won't complain too much.

When I was a kid daisies and sweet peas were in such abundance at the cottage, that I still have trouble realizing that all of the sweet peas and daisies in the world aren't mine for the picking.

More Yupo

Yes, I know - I say how much I dislike Yupo "paper", and here I am posting more little paintings done on it. It's plastic, for heaven's sake - we aren't supposed to like it. How tacky. But is it ever fun to push the paint (watercolor) around on it! It lifts, it pushes, it smears . . .

On the one hand it is too easy, with the way you can just wipe it off and start over. On the other hand, it is really not that easy to work on - subsequent layers lift previous layers, and then what do you have? Well, I don't have much, but I have seen some nice things painted on yupo. Just like everything else, it has a learning curve.

Right now I am working on a commissioned painting and I am laying it out on yupo - trying out colors and shapes and moving them around as I work out the composition. Anything for a little distraction, huh.

Trillium

I am playing around with some trillium sketches and paintings.

I'm just doing some very small experiments. The one on the left is done with watercolor on Yupo. Yupo is a plastic "paper" - it's not really paper at all. I don't do well with it - it looks as if I am painting on PLASTIC. The middle one is prismacolor pencils on Bogus rough sketch paper. I like the look, but I don't think Bogus is acid free, so it isn't what I would consider a "keeper". However it is in a sketchbook and I will keep it as long as it will keep. The third one is done with gouache on coffee stained Indian Village paper. Of course, this is also acidic with the addition of the coffee.
So what have I accomplished? To be continued - I have groceries melting on the kitchen counter.

Strawberries

This is the last of the toned paper paintings. I think it is a good exercise in negative painting, layering, and wet into wet mixing. However, I just don't like painting on an underpainting instead of sparkling white paper. I know some people like to paint the background first, but then there is no way to retrieve the sparkle that only white paper gives you.

The mat around the painting is an old mat cut into two pieces that I use for cropping. For some reason it is easier to tell if a painting is finished when there is a mat around it. It also helps us see what else the painting might need at the edges - and where the edges should actually be. And sometimes, it just plain helps us get rid of the crummy parts of the painting. There is often some area in an "unsuccessful" painting that could really be a nice little painting. So make yourself some "croppers", pull out some of those old not-so-great paintings, and see if you can find some good little paintings.

Something New

Here are a couple of paintings I just finished up - I think. I always have to live with them for awhile to see how I really feel about them.
The smaller one is a little different for me. This week's classes are going to be working on toned paper, so I thought I would have a finished product to show them, and then I will demonstrate also. I did, more or less, random bands of primary colors, and then did the painting over the colors. The reason (ONE of the reasons) I like watercolor is because of the sparkling white paper, and there is no sparkling white paper in this painting. I could have masked out some white areas before I started with the under painting, but masking looks so . . . masked. Stencil-like.

These where done from some sketches that I posted awhile ago.

California Poppy

This California Poppy greeted me at the back door yesterday when I came home from running errands. My friend, Karen, had left it there "because it is your color". I LOVE California Poppies - the colors are so varied and the texture so papery, and the leaves and stems are so wispy.

I did this in my Moleskine with colored pencils, in my jammies, in bed.

Tomorrow I am holding a Tree Workshop from 10:00 to 4:00, so today I'm getting things ready - like running off some handouts and cleaning the bathroom! I have a good group lined up - it's going to be fun!

My first trip of the season to Willsons Greenhouse.

They don't have a lot of color yet, but, boy, did it smell good! Heliotrope, primrose, heat, and dirt. Wonderful!!!

If any of my students are reading this - this is our lesson this week. We'll be painting it with triads. I know at least one of you will hate these colors, and I think it will be fun to see this painted using your favorite triad.

I painted this in my Moleskine using watercolor, a little gouache, and a very little colored pencil.
I sat in the sun on the porch, but the girl at the greenhouse warned me to keep the flowers out of the sun ( I did). In fact when she saw my list of errands, she said, "You'd better take those home before you do those errands. They should not be in the hot car. And when you plant them, be sure they are on the north east side." Hmmmm, so that's what has happened to all my other primrose.

Sketching Outside

Is it Spring yet?
Yesterday was a wonderful day to sit outside sketching with friends . At last the grass is green! It happened, literally, over-night. That green grass, a few little blue flowers, and the sunshine get us all excited to get out there. I am not quite as excited to get out there and clean up all the winter debris in the garden, but it'll be okay. We were sketching in a friend's garden, and she had done a MUCH better job with her Fall clean-up than I had. I somehow feel more ambitious about cleaning up the garden when there is promise in the air - not when there is snow in the air.

We had a great time comparing sketchbooks, pens, brushes, all kinds of colored pencils . . . cookies.

This is a quick little sketch in my Moleskine, done in watercolor with my water brush. I'm getting used to it - I am determined to like it - it is SO convenient.

Crocus

This is the first crocus I have seen in our yard this spring.
What a beautiful day here today - very warm for April - a little over 70 degrees! It felt soooo good to be out there.

This is done in my Moleskine sketchbook with watercolor, gouache, and a Pitt pen. The pen was really too fat for this little drawing, so I washed over it with white gouache to tone it down a bit.

Ice on the Bay

"Release your ego's desire for perfection" Danny Gregory

I am even releasing my pride by posting this for the whole world to see (don't I wish). It was a sunny day, and I could see from my windows that the ice had broken up on the Bay and the water was very blue. I painted this in the car, with my water brush, my little tiny tin of watercolors, some white gouache, in my Moleskine, and my feet were wet (that's another story - you won't have to hear it) . I am not real comfortable painting in the car. I don't like my water brush. Maybe I'm just not used to it. My tiny tin of watercolors is a little awkward - I can't tell what I'm mixing because I don't have a white mixing area. I am not at all used to working with gouache, and I'm still getting used to the Moleskine paper. But all in all, I really had a good time! I didn't come away with a great sketch, but I did come away with the satisfaction of being able to go down there by the water and spend some time doing what I love to do in the wonderful place we live in and just be a part of nature that is bigger than life. How fortunate I was to be able to record that in my way.

Sketches

I've been working on sketches - getting some compositions ready for painting. I am going through my watercolor journals, trying to refine the compositions ("refine", meaning make them OK, half-way decent) and do larger paintings of them.

I can't seem to get the lower right sketch to work out. The path leads us straight into the center of the page, to the center of the house that's in the center of the page, that's . . . .

I'm still working on it.

Looking for color?!

These little sketches were done as an experiment using markers and colored pencils. I read somewhere about someone using markers for the base colors and colored pencils for the shading. Bright, huh! The colors, I mean - not the idea. Well, the idea isn't bad either.

I was using the kids' Crayola markers, which are, of course, very basic, bright colors. Someday I'll get some Prismacolor markers and give it a try. Someday.

I didn't do these recently, but I was looking through my sketchbooks for COLOR - it is gray and icy and snowy here and I'm sick of it! Well - this is Michigan - tomorrow could be 70 degrees.

Three Little Paintings

These are three little paintings for a friend. I thought I could talk myself into posting them as my "painting of the week" - Yes - OF THE WEEK. How do those people do a painting a day, you know the ones listed when you search for "a painting a day"!?!? Anyway I must admit that I only painted the upper one recently. The others I had done quite awhile ago for a friend and she wanted a third to go with them.

The reason I wanted to post them was so I could see that I had done something! I have been feeling bogged down and unproductive lately because I came across an old journal in which I had kept track of finished paintings, and I was SOOOOO productive. But now I am painting less, teaching more, sketching, planning, and experimenting more, and I like this better. I think my paintings are better, and the journey is a lot more enjoyable.

So, okay. I guess I'm alright. It's the Sunday night blahs - you know, I-Didn't accomplish-anything-but-I-didn't-enjoy-relaxing syndrome.

Color in my Moleskine

I am playing around with color again in my Moleskine sketchbook.

The page with the lamp and geranium was done using Pitt Brush Pens, colored pencils, and watercolor pencils, with just a damp brush to smush a little of the color around.
The fruit was done with watercolor, and as suggested in the comments on another Moleskine page, I used less water than usual and more pigment. Another suggestion in the "comments" was to use just a little soap on the brush. I am going to try that next.

I had intended to put in some shadows under the fruit, but the light changed, and we ate the fruit. Yes, I know - I am not above faking the shadows.

On The Back Porch

On The Back Porch

I am going to have to live with this for a few days to see if it is finished. I have been playing with it too long, and I am having trouble being objective. I posted the sketch awhile ago, and have been trying to get a lot of other things accomplished in the meantime.

This is a painting of the geraniums that I brought in when the first freeze of the Fall threatened. I sat out there on the porch this afternoon with a cup of coffee in the sunshine - first time this year. The storm windows are still closed and I didn't open the doors, but the sun felt wonderful. We will probably still get some snow, but everyday is a little sunnier.

The painting is a watercolor, about 16 X 22, on 300 lb. Arches paper.

Spools

I wanted to post this sketch because . . . well, because I have yet to finish a painting this week. Still working on last week's painting. But that's okay. I've been busy and it isn't all about the finished product anyway - it's the journey.

It has been a busy week. I have taught three classes, one all-day private lesson, shipped out some promo things, have worked on setting up the next session of classes and have committed to some summer workshops and I need to narrow down those details for publicity etc. I had to digitally send a picture of a painting for a post card for a solo gallery show I will be doing this summer. I'm not sure how to do that, and I was a little worried about how it looked at the other end of cyber space, but the graphics designer for the gallery emailed and asked for the dimensions and title of the painting. She didn't ask for the dimensions and title of my crummy, fuzzy, huge-pixeled painting, so I guess it was okay. I spent some time painting with a couple of friends, and was a spur of the moment babysitter one day. . . . I made a pass through the second hand shops, but I have found my bargain of the year - a fabulous lamp for TEN BUCKS. Maybe I should have been working on that painting instead of looking for a bargain.

Oh, this sketch of wooden spools - it is done with number 6 and 9 drawing pencils and white Prismacolor pencil on Aquabee Bogus Rough sketch paper. I had my drawing class doing this subject this week, and they really hung in there (for two hours) and did a beautiful job! After they left, I worked on it a bit, but I just couldn't do it for two hours. That paper is fun. It is a different experience to think of the paper as the middle value - still working on that concept. As rough as the paper looks, it takes pencil or ink surprisingly well.

Backporch Sketch

I AM WORKING ON IT. I had hoped to have a new painting to post today, but I am still working on it. In the meantime I will post the sketch I am using as reference.
For some reason the painting is going slowly. Yes, that's right, it's the painting's fault.
I just can't seem to get as gutsy (spell checker says "okay" to gutsy!) as I need to with the values - lights and darks, contrasts. The door frames need to be pretty dark because of the light behind them, and the shadows on the floor need to be very dark.
Tomorrow I'll get gutsy.

Drawing Class. This afternoon my drawing class did contour drawings of bookcases and all the STUFF in them. They all did a beautiful job, and I wish I had their drawings to post here. This is one that I did. It is on Bogus Rough Sketch Paper.
It looks and feels very rough, but a fine Pitt Pen feels pretty good on it - not scratchy and it doesn't feather. I had it spiral bound with some very smooth, creamy drawing paper.
The class ended a few minutes early, they were all pretty tired after two hours of contour drawing. I figure if my drawing class doesn't go home exhausted, I haven't done my job. I'm pretty tired too.

This painting is watercolor on clayboard. I have done this scene previously as a sketch and as a small study. This isn't very large either - 8 X 10 on cradled textured clayboard. I took a picture of it at this angle so it would show the side of the "cradle". It is just a piece of flat "masonite" or hard-board with a textured coating, and is "boxed in" on the back. The advantage, to me, is that when the painting is finished, it's finished, ready to go. It doesn't need a mat, glass, or frame. AND it's fun to paint on.

I am posing here in black and white with my colored pencils - I was probably about five years old. They were wonderful - the nice, rich colored, waxy kind. I wouldn't use crayons, in fact I actually felt sorry for the kids that didn't know the pleasure of owning a big set of beautiful pencils. I have never been a colored pencil artist, but those "sticks" of wonderful colors are nice to have in my life. You can still buy these (and I do) in sets or individually.
My bike, my doll house, and my colored pencils were the outstanding possessions of my childhood. I don't care for bike riding anymore (we live up a hill!), my doll house is in the attic, but my colored pencils are still with me! I just bought a couple sets of Pitt Brush Pens - very colorful - and like the pencils, they are just nice to look at whether I am using them or not. Of course, using them is what it's all about.
Look at those bangs!

Just finished this watercolor. It is an 11 X 15 of another Mackinac Island Street. Can you tell I am thinking summer? Other paintings of Mackinac Island are here and here. The thought of going to Mackinac Island right now is chilling - literally. You wouldn't catch me driving a snow mobile across the straits on the ice. Well, I don't own a snowmobile, but. . .
Today I am starting an 8 X 10 watercolor on clayboard. It is a larger version of a scene I posted previously.

And Speaking of Color . . .
(Which I was in the previous post)

This is another sketchbook page with some drawings of the little Altoids Chewing Gum Tin paint palette that I made. I just fastened in some empty half-pans and filled them with tube paints. Don't ask me why it has to be this small - just 'cause. This isn't original, I saw it someplace on the web, and now I am seeing all kinds of small containers being used. The half-pans aren't that easy to find - I found these at Daniel Smith, but in a larger city they might be available at art supply stores.

Okay. I need to post something. I want the whole world to know I have been working. Yes, I want the whole world to know, but I will settle for the few people that visit here daily.
This is my first sketch in my new Moleskine (mole-a-SKEEN-a) sketchbook. I am still trying to find the best way to get color on the pages. They are pretty slick and watercolor beads up. Colored pencil and watercolor pencil work pretty well, but . . .

A Summer Still Life. This was actually a summer set up for a class. I started the painting as a demo, but I rarely finish demos in class because I don't want to cut in on the participants' painting time. I will get things started and then do demonstrations as needed and requested. So - I lived with this for a few months, concentrating on it every now and then, trying to determine what to do with the background. I have a little streptocarpella (!!!) plant blooming and it seemed like the perfect thing to just kind of fill in that middle space. I set up the pots, bowls, etc. again and finished it up with some stronger shadows and the little purple plant. Even though it is a still life very much like I would do in the winter, it brought back the bright feeling of summer and the wonderful group of talented women in the Thursday morning summer class. This was actually set up "in the round" on a table outside.