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Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Grinnell, Iowa, and this week's edition of Painting of the Week.

While I consider my work to be impressionistic and figurative, I also consider it to be narrative, and so this week's painting of priority is Good Story. And you betcha, it covers all three parameters.

The scene:  Bykhanov Cad park, a beautiful summer day, no jackets required.

I have mentioned before but I will say it again, there is always lots of activity in this park. Sitting down to read a book is pretty much commonplace, and this painting focuses on that very activity.

When I went back over my notes about the painting, I found a little line drawing. Not much detail, but when you put it together with the rest of the reference material, that's how the painting happens. Let me show you, please.

This is another artist's painting, but I kept the image close by while I was painting Good Story - I wanted it to remind me to paint the park trees and undergrowth loosely defined.

For almost the same reason, this artist's painting was also in my reference material - I wanted it nearby to remind me that it's okay to paint hair messy.  And sometimes it even makes the painting feel better.

And there you have it. A Good Story.

Thanks for stopping by!

Later, Karen

and a pair of handy links:   the painting and info with a zoom view  (link)

and the link to the ongoing Painting of the Week column  (link)

Greetings, 

Welcome to the Cooper studio and this week's painting of the week.

Did you hear about the big blizzard? It's currently blitzing our family members who live in NE Nebraska. Wow.

But when you commiserate with the ones getting walloped, it makes one want to decide that the painting of the week needs to be one with blazing sunshine:

это City View. Shokolad Veranda.

Surely you can feel the sunshine? I remember the day well....

"I was sitting on the veranda at Shokolad (кафе "Шоколад") enjoying a perfect cappuccino, just as the scene for a painting develops. How convenient! And what a perfect thing to happen on this summer day.

City view, Lipetsk"

The pictorial inspiration? But of course. Here we go:

IRRA, Vitaly P VlasovKlimov, Sunny Day 2

IRRA, Vitaly P VlasovKlimov, Sunny Day 3

And your Painting of the Day:

City View. Shokolad Veranda, Lipetsk

And I will be ever so happy to share the link that takes you directly to a zoom-able view, with the painting's pertinent info. (link)

AND the link to the ongoing Painting of the Week column.  (link)

Enjoy. And thanks for stopping by.

Later, Karen

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, GRINNELL Iowa! Yes! 

But that's not what this post is about.

I must be feeling slightly guilty about not giving you a "Painting of the Week" yesterday. Maybe it will happen yet. Did you remember that I had written to you about my soon-to-be-new-studio? It can't get finished any time too soon. Yesterday I moved the easel from the basement (impossible location to paint in) to a corner of the kitchen (almost impossible location to paint in) but I painted all day today anyway. Believe it or not, I am reworking an old one. See, that's what happens when we paint in weird places!

And that's not what this post is about either.

So let's get started. You do realize that with a two paragraph preamble, I am getting ready to bash someone's work, right?

I have had occasion to peruse the member pages of Oil Painters of America. There's some very inspirational painting going on there bytheway. You should look too:

[Oil Painters of America]

And oh my gosh, there are a LOT of artists in that fine group. Alphabetically, I am only to the C's, and already it's page 10. Yup, lots of artists.

But I have a question for you:

If you are an accomplished enough artist to join a national arts organization that charges a $70 annual membership, wouldn't you try your very hardest to take full advantage of that membership fee? 

I thought so.

May I tell you that not everyone thinks like we do?

Because as I survey those pages of artist listings, I have noticed something, that to me at least, is quite curious. There are 4 or 5 artists on each of those pages of about 80 artists per page, whose website links don't work.

I know, I know! Who would have thought it??

Many of the malfunctioning simply go back to their GoDaddy (or whoever) host which means they lapsed.

Yet I found several others whose front pages won't open, or the link to their portfolio page won't work, or a malady like that.

I suppose we could list a few possible reasons why an artist might intentionally have this happen?

- they are just so freakingfamous that they really don't need their website to work, because people flock to their front door anyway?

- they died last year?

- they've been hacked?

- they are too busy taking care of all their social media accounts?

- they paint just fine, but organization is beyond them?

But still, aren't we told every time we turn around, that if we are going to have a representational website, it HAS to be current? And well done?

And if out of about 80 artists listed on a page, 70 of them have viable links to get you to their website and images of their paintings, what does that say about the handful who don't?

What good is an artist's name on a page if there's not an image of a painting you-the-viewer can get too?

I guess this is just deep-thought-Tuesday in Grinnell, Iowa.

Thanks for stopping by.

And if you are an artist with a FASO website, OR one of the fine folk who work to bring we-the-artists the wonderful commodity known as the FASO website, pat yourself on the back. Because on those pages of 80ish artist's names, those with FASO websites shine. And I mean beautiful shine.

Later, Karen

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, working at getting situated in the new place in Grinnell, Iowa!

It occurred to me that this week's spotlight painting really ought to be the one I finished just before leaving Lipetsk and heading for the US on December 21.

And now it's confession time, because there was an even more recent - one started in Lipetsk, transported in the rough :( and finished here in Grinnell. What a history for a painting, eh? And it's not photographed yet either, so patience there, please.

As for today, your Painting of the Week, January 8, 2018 is (drum roll)

Park Bench Reader. Pleasant Drama.

The day of inspiration brings back lots of good thoughts to this painter! The park, sunshine, and people enjoying both. Yes, once again, the setting is Bykhanov Cad Park in Lipetsk. I recall looking out the apartment window at the beautiful day and thinking I needed an excuse to go out into it. The camera and the sketchbook are my favorite excuses. Someday I will also tell you about the process of taking my sketchbook out for coffee  :)

On this specific day, the camera and the sketchbook turned out to be excuses with benefits.

This reference is from another summer day, and another Lipetsk park (Nizhny Park) but the feeling of the day is the same, and so I borrowed these "models" and placed them in Bykhanov Cad Park  :)

And now if I could just find the sketchbook I was working in at the time, I'd show some of that as well. We are at that stage of "I know it's here somewhere...."

For today, it's photo references, and the painting it turned out to be:

Yes, Park Bench Reader. Pleasant Drama. No denying the pleasant, eh?

And while we are on the subject of photo references and inspiration, I am feeling a strong pull from that 4th photo in the line. Stay tuned?

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

a link to my website portfolio for info and a full screen view of  Park Bench Reader. Pleasant Drama.  (link, click)

a link to my ongoing Painting of the Week column    (link, click)

Greetings,

Welcome again to my painting  of the week column.

Yes, it is titled January 1, and this IS January 4th.

BUT!

Extenuating circumstances or the weather, take your pick, and that leaves us with good cause for a slight delay.

Extenuating circumstances: did you note the adjusted preamble to this column? Did you??? We are Iowans once again! The apartment in Lipetsk, and living there, is now a piece of our history. As I'd mentioned earlier (somewhere?) husband's contract completed December 16th. We began the transition and arrived in Iowa December 21, just in time to start enjoying multitudes of family Christmas gatherings!

And if you choose to accept the weather for my excuse and/or reason for delay in posting, well then, there's really no explanation necessary, is there?! I know silly people who think living in Russia has to be the ultimate experience in cold. No. It was 40 degrees in Lipetsk when we left, and the temps are still in the balmy 30's. Oh for some Baltic Sea breezes in Grinnell...

Anyway, onto the painting of the week.

You, my faithful readers/viewers know how I feel about snow.  I don't like it much, and I don't paint it much. But as I look out the window at it (and revert to the above paragraph regarding weather) it seems appropriate to pick a painting that at least hints about winter.

And so, your painting of the week: We Dance.

Do you remember when we talked about Festival Keys (link) earlier in this column? We Dance happened that very same day. Yes, it's the festival called Maslenitsa, when all good Russians prepare for Easter AND celebrate impending spring by burning Old Lady Winter.

In the painting Festival Keys, you see the accordion man and his impromptu solo, but if you look closely at some of the accompanying photos I gave you with that post, you'll see today's model with no apparent resistance to the kick-up-your-heels music. Yup, she succumbed to the music and it's well obvious  :)

We've talked many times about how the painting is always better when you see the real thing, rather than a copied image, and I contend music shares that factor. How many of us would listen to accordion music played on a radio? But I can assure you that the Festival Keys guy will pull you in with his music, now matter what your preferences.

Time for some color on this post, eh? I give you We Dance.

And for your full screen look at the painting, here's the link to click:  (link)

And regarding that better-in-person factor of a real painting, We Dance is currently at the Pearson Lakes Art Center, in lovely (but cold) Okoboji, Iowa, where it is a part of the Wanda Skogerboe juried exhibit through January 27th. A link to my events page for further info on the Skogerboe exhibit ( link)

Thanks for stopping by. And keep warm  :)

Later, Karen