Report & Matisse Quote

Harvest is Underway

Thanks to my readers and patrons for your kind attention to my Flat File Sale.  It isn't over, yet, but the weekend was busy and several framed and unframed works are going out in the mail.  As I said on Facebook, any artist is blessed to have an audience, and I appreciate mine very much.

There will be some topical sets of images, such as Italian scenes, and also a few inexpensive works to show you this week.  Also, I will cobble together an offering of framed works that are available to purchase.  Maybe I will do that twice, since I have different sizes available.  Stay tuned for these, please.

Traffic here at The Colorist has been sky high, and that is because of daily posting about this event, with much art to see, and this popular feature of artist Cameron Hampton.  Also, for reasons I haven't figured out, this post about the Ukranian artist Sergiy Aliev-Kovyka has gotten new attention.  I love his free style with the pencil.

My new web site has gotten lots of attention.  It directs you to this portfolio page, where currently available works can be seen.  Another reason for high traffic here at The Colorist is that university students are back on campus.

Finally, a quote from the master, Henri Matisse:

There are so many things in art, beginning with art itself, that one doesn't understand.  A painter doesn't see everything that he has put into his painting.  It is other people who find these treasures in it, one by one, and the richer a painting is in surprises of this sort, in treasures, the greater its author.

And no blog post is complete without one of these: the kitty.  My sincere thanks to the kind readers of The Colorist!

Harvest Photo: Lorie Klahn.

Golden Sky Triple Play

Pink Haze River
9.25" x 13.5"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Some of the newer readers haven't seen this one, and with apologies to my long time readers, I post this river image just because it has the yellow sky theme.   

Here is some Studio News.  Pour a cup of hot whatever and put up your feet.

This is day 9 of my "month of daily posting."  Will I make it all the way to thirty days without posting the Ultimate Dog Tease viral video?  I'm feeling strong enough to make it, but I may resort to a re-post or two along the way.

The studio is so clean, I hope to actually get Lorie out there to take photos of the 69-70 new works that are sitting in flat files.  We'll get the pics, but then later on this man, who looks a lot like Jack Nicholson, will visit the studio.  He'll carry an ax, and he will cut out maybe half of the works that I, at first, deemed good enough.  It won't be pretty.

This framing will happen soon, since the first art fair is June 3-5th., in Spokane.  It is great to have a close show to work out the bugs on my set-up.  If I forget anything, I will be home that night to be able to retrieve it.  I haven't done the Spokane ArtFest in 3 years, I think, so that will be interesting to see if anyone remembers me.

Loriann recently mentioned re-using frames, and that gave me the push to try to find some first quality black frames to reuse.  The way I am making it work is to tape a note on the frame, make the artwork, then also name the work, and tape the name to the target frame.  Studio organization is the key.

Studio News - Winter 2010-2011

Studio News - Winter 2010-2011

Casey Klahn

1. There are over fifty new artworks in my two flat file cabinets, waiting for the framer. I don't actually expect all fifty to make the final cut - what I do is eliminate the worst third or more after I get a better look at them (and come to my senses). This process I wrote about previously: The Axe Falleth. 


These artworks are also waiting for the formal photographs, and then they go to the Photoshop technician and the archiver. We now have the latest Photoshop program in the house, but I think I'll stick with my old version 1-point-oh. I mean, if it was good enough for Fred Flintstone, then it's good enough for me. 

2. The direction of my art is evolving. I am trying to simplify my colors. That means that I am developing smaller ideas, or maybe I want to say more singular ideas. 


Subjects are the prairie, especially the trees and up the hill, and the Hoquiam River. Also, I am going bigger. I continue to struggle with doing full sheet work, but I am creating many pastel paintings that are in the almost full sheet sizes. Is it the opening dimensions that I struggle with? Possibly. I typically do not compose well with traditional opening sizes, but am prone to work in "custom" sizes. It has to do with my way of composing images - from the inside out. By the same token, I do respond very well to the Golden Rectangle - which is, again, not a standard opening size. I drive my framer nuts.


3. I have been cleaning, organizing and doing minor changes in my studio. The biggest addition is the sheet rock wall, where I have a nice, white wall space that is well lit.  Visitors are expected, and studio sales may become a major part of my vocation in years to come. 


I also installed another track light bar. The biggest challenge has been having too much light from snow reflection. Even pulling the blinds was not enough. I finally hung a blanket over my north windows to cut the harsh light. 


A new microwave oven keeps me in the studio for lunch, which gives me more time for art making.


Did you see Cindy Michaud's new modular custom studio space? It is well thought out and worth your look: New Studio Reveal. 


4. It has been record-cold around here. My studio is nice and warm, except when the wind hits my east or north windows. They may be insulated windows, but there are gaps opened up by the loss of squareness that comes from moving a trailer once or twice. Also, the front door, which opens into my studio, has lost it's weather stripping and I haven't replaced it - as simple as that would be. Good thing there is always Duct tape.


4. This blog continues to be a popular place for readers to find out what goofy ideas are in my head about art and I guess they come here looking for what art I am doing lately. I always say the pictures are coming, and then I post old images that I have on file. New readers like to see these, and maybe my old readers have missed one or two. 


5. On a personal front, I just finished reading a private, unbound  memoir of an American who spent the Second World War as a POW in Japan and The Philippines.  He was an army officer who survived the horrific Bataan Death March and was imprisoned in 5 camps altogether.  His humility and courage is typical of his generation, and it must be said, atypical of people in general.  


6.  If you are someone who comments here often, and yet don't find your blog on my text blog roll, send me a note so I can fix that.  I am not as attentive to that as I should be.  I just found one that made me say, "Doh! How could I not have her on my blog roll?"

River Corner, Red
3.5" x 3.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

My wonderful daughter turns 8 on Monday.  

Photo Credits:  Lorie Klahn

Update - Update

You are owed another update of my studio activities. First, pour yourself a cup of coffee.



The studio is a buzz with framing for my upcoming show in California, the Sausalito Art Festival. I'm a little unsure of the number, but I may have around 35 - 40 originals for my upcoming exhibitions.



Have another cup? Dark roast, I hope. For some unknown reason my statistics at The Colorist have gone ballistic. Almost quadrupled on the best days. Much of this uptick is hits to this page. I cannot figure it out.

Other recent posts include 100 Things I Love About Art, and When Bloggers Meet.



Daily posting of miniature pastels, as well as an occasional medium sized work, is now going on at The Colorist Daily. This is the time to buy a small work under $100.



My search for gallery space and exhibitions may be yielding some fruit soon. I'll keep you posted when dates are firmed up. The Hoquiam River exhibition is penciled in for September 2011.



On the easels, I am developing my voice as a figure artist by studying the masters. Da Vinci and Degas are my current muses. I often post those at Pastel, but you may see some here, soon.

Two books I am reading are: Master Class in Figure Drawing and Degas, By Himself. Hale's classic instruction in Master Class has me drawing various parts of anatomy an area at a time. I am learning more stuff about the rib cage than I ever thought existed. My Nurse Practitioner wife brought home a medical anatomy book as reference material, too.




I continue to thrill at the works of Edgar Degas. His familiarity with proportion and anatomy are only the beginning. I never realized how much he departs from the real before. All because his gestures, forms and movement are so believable. The book - mine is published by Barnes & Noble Books - is richly illustrated, has a woven binding and nice, heavyweight paper. Lovely.

Edgar Degas
Dancer

Finally, in the subject of figures, our blogger friend Astrid Volquardsen, has posted one of her recent figure paintings: Eva in the Bath. Well worth your look.

Coffee Break - Hospitals, WW II, Kittens, and Bears

So Embarrassing.

 There is never a dull moment around here.  I wanted to have a cup of coffee with my readers and bring you up to date.  Much of studio life takes place outside the walls of the studio.  My studio is on my property in rural eastern Washington, and my family life and other country happenings this week have kept me away from art and this screen.


1. My son, Carson, stayed overnight in the hospital last week with a skin disease.  His skin is now almost clear, and he is doing great.  It was hard for the parents of an eight year old, but for him it was like a stay in a luxury hotel.  He missed school all week except half a day, and last night, I took him to the movies.  I have been updating peeps via Facebook.



2. Yesterday, May 8th, commemorated the end of WW II in Europe.  Sixty-five years ago the unconditional surrender went into effect and was dubbed V-E Day.  The US press was absent, for the most part, in commemorating this, but I see that the UK and much of Europe, and Canada did have ample press regarding this important date.  Since my US audience needs remedial history on this, I have prepared a set of five facts you didn't know about V-E Day, which is at the bottom of this post.


3. Let's do the bear story next.  Yesterday morning I found myself in the woods alone with a bear.  This has happened to me a handful of times, but I usually don't get too charged up about it.  The American Black Bear is pretty much like a big, cuddly dog who leaves you alone if you leave him alone.  This one was different. This bruin was very large, and uncomfortably close.  I estimated about 70 yards away, and above me.  His color was an amazing cinnamon brown, but not like the brown or blond that marks the back of Black Bears sometimes.  This guy was head to claw cinnamon brown, and flawless.  Because of the size, and the unusual color, I started doing the checklist in my head that is titled: "Is This a Grizzly?"


He was looking at me.  I was looking at him and doing the field taxonomy that any sane woodsman does in his head. First, you look for the hump at the shoulders.  Since he was above me, I couldn't make one out, but I did note the distance from shoulder to chest was massive.  The head also lacked that dog shape common to Black Bears.  Instead, it was big and round - I would say massive.  He turned his head once, and then gazed back at me.  He had heard me crashing over branches and had come up to see what the noise was all about.  He was calculating his moves, too.  Is this little thing dangerous to me?  Should I saunter off, or give him the growl?  What does he taste like?


The bear's decision was to walk in my direction, which is either the common curiosity of bears, or the run-up to you-know-what.  By this time, I had finished my list, and my new task was egress. He had me tactically, because he was on a level contour, and I had to ascend diagonally to get to the field and "outta there."  As I made my way up, I could see his bright red coat coming through the trees.

So, that was fun.  The neighbor saw a large bear track on the road the other day, too.  A guy looks for this kind of commiseration when he has an out-sized story to tell.  Was this a Brown Bear?  I'll never know.  If he was a Black, then he gets the prize for beauty, and is in my top 3 for size.  I did see a Grizzly in the wild one other time, but it was a roadside event in Banff.  That was a monstrous bear, tearing at roots like a machine, and I would say twice the size of my bear from yesterday.  Except yesterday, I didn't have a car.


4. How to top that?  All the news I have left is the two litters of kittens we have.  My 7 year old daughter finds them much more engaging than my bear story.

Now, all that energy can be channeled into the studio.  See you next time.

Five facts about VE-Day: 


1.  The unconditional surrender document was signed on the 7th of May, and ratified on the 8th.  The allies wanted to avoid the troubles surrounding the WW I armistice by having the German High Command as signators this time.
2. No head of state was present at either the German surrender ceremony or the Japanese one on September 2, 1945.
3. The surrender in the Mediterranean Theater was the 2nd of May, 1945.
4. Susan Hibbert typed the document of surrender in English.
5. The surrender of Italy on September 3rd of 1943 had some wiggle room at first, and only later became "unconditional."


Bear photo: Madfelix.
Kittens photo: Lorie Klahn

New Series Thoughts

Last Year at the Festival

Thanks to the following kind comment givers who wrote on my last post:

Sam Hannaway
Carole Buschmann
Alison Straite
Irina Rekhviashvili
Katherine A. Cartwright
Katherine van Schoonhoven
Trevor Lingard
Jala Pfaff
Mary Anne Cary

Also, a big thank you to Katherine at Making a Mark, where my roll-out of the Prairie Series was noted.

I am just as interested as everyone else to see which direction the new series will take. The reason not even I know the answer is that I started the series with a few works late last year, and have just recently started back on this series. Of course, things look different, now, and so I'll have to make a few and see which elements are speaking to me. When I get it all figured out, I'll post about it. Meanwhile, if you want some wisdom on the artistic process, I refer you to the Katherine A. Cartwright blog where she and her gang of readers are looking at the creative process loop.

For my part, I still await that axe man who comes to cull out my worst paintings. Seems I remember his name was "Johnny."





See a collection of pastels about snow scenes at the Pastel News. Some of us have had way too much snow, and others, like myself, have had way too little. No fair.

Coffee Update

You are owed an update of my studio activities. First, pour yourself a cup of coffee.



The studio sits all a mess after my return from Sausalito, California. Since my two children are, for the first time, full time in grade school, I have time on my hands. What am I doing with that time? Catching up on the home with cleaning, reorganizing and general Daddy duty. The impact of a large art fair is not limited to the 3 days of the event!



Another cup? You drink fast, huh? I promised you a post about how to paint for a first prize, and it is in the hopper. Soon, dear reader. Let's just say the basics are focus, content and heavy doses of self critique.



Meanwhile, I have posted an interview with Stephanie Smith, of the U.K., whose new floral pastel works are very great and worth your look. See this interview at my other blog, Pastel.



New interest in me teaching some pastel classes is causing me to push that forward. I hope to teach one locally, soon. Then, I'll organize for a class that I can take on the road. Do you have an art society or pastel society and want to know my methods for making intuitive pastel landscapes? Contact me and we can talk.

Thanks to my readers for the wonderful comments on this post.

Colorist Studio Update - Bumpdated

Bumpdate! See below for updated items of interest.

Casey Klahn Mugging for the Camera
Photo: Lorie Klahn

Here are a few things for your weekend reading interest. I made the time yesterday to listen to contemporary master, Wolf Kahn, giving a speech at Wheaton College. It is occasioned around a show of his and Emily Mason's works, and he speaks for 50 minutes (fair warning for your Internet time!) on the "Six Reasons Not to Paint Landscapes." Find it here.

Two American artist bloggers are live blogging their European vacations, complete with museum reports. Jala Pfaff, of Colorado, is in London viewing John Singer Sargent, and Kelly Borsheim, an expat living in Florence, Italy, is giving us Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt in Vienna.

Back to Wolf Kahn for a moment. Kahn is known for painting barns, and fine artists realize that that isn't about sentiment if you can help it. I like the formal parts: the negative spaces, the position of the barn upon the land, the color planes, the leading of the eye, the bigness, etc. Bob Lafond has been doing barns at Mark and Remark, and has one here that I really love.

Time for a cup of coffee. I have been busy in the studio trying to finish the last few artworks for my upcoming Sausalito show. Other challenges I'm planning for are framing and making sure my booth is ready for the unusual set-up at Sausalito (they provide the artist's booth - I usually bring my own). Not to mention the long drive to the Bay Area.

Visitors to the Sausalito Art Festival will get to see all of my River Series pastels in one place for the first time. Probably the only time they will appear together, BTW.

The music stage schedule at the Sausalito Art Festival (Sept. 5-7, 2009) has been announced. Always top drawer, this year's Sausalito music venue is themed as a 40th. anniversary Woodstock tribute. Many San Fransisco Bay Area bands were there, and will be on tap for this special event. My faves? Country Joe McDonald, Johnny Winter, and the Jefferson Starship.

Sausalito Art Festival.
Marin County.

Refreshing the River - Studio News

Pour Yourself a Cup of Joe.

Studio News.

After creating possibly my largest series of works done at one time, The River Series, I am hitting the reset button. One series that is helping me recharge has been some tiny still life works. Apples with strong compositions and color notes.

These still life works are going to be my studies for my next few River works. One big change will be the aspect will run vertically instead of (landscape aspect) horizontally. The strength of composition and color in these apple works is giving me inspiration to revive the river.

Since we aim to provide the best quality photos of my art, Lorie and I wait until dark to do our photo sessions in the studio. Finding the time for that, now that the sun sets later, is especially hard. The children are in their final week at grade school before the break, and family needs are making it hard to get to this task. So, with your kind patience, I will tease you with the promise of about 10-13 new artworks to be posted soon. The actual number depends on the axe man.

The family will be on the coast for a beach vacation next week, and I have high hopes of revisiting my Hoquiam River Series. The series is based more on actual observation than most of my work, and so the long road trip is necessary. Other plein air work will be enjoyed also on the nearby Oregon coast.

Pour It Quick. We Have Work To Do.


Random News.

Washington State is known for its wonderful wine crop. Rumor has it that us older men can now enjoy the newest variety of red without the wakeful downsides.
Pinot More.

What's Next?

Preview.

Sorry - couldn't resist that. Tomorrow I will post my lessons learned regarding this past month of daily posting.

Nordic Start

We used to call an early start up the mountain an "Alpine Start." And, conversely, the late start was the "Nordic Start." I am in bad need of some Nordic starts, after the active holiday weekend. Yesterday's studio day was fruitful, but I was all in before evening, that's for sure.

The hot post this week was Sue Smith's music video post of singer Leonard Cohen. I was gobsmacked at the performance, and it was a great pick-me-up. This video system could go viral, IMO. I am now a fan of myplay, but the available media is still a bit thin.

This is post # 16 of 30 for my month of posts project. So far, I am learning more about content and what pleases me (and readers!) the most. Worth trying, artist bloggers. Hint: write some posts a few days in advance.

I want to introduce you to artsetter, a social and commercial community supporting art , collectors and artists. The video introduction and layout of this site are outstanding. The launch date is still to be determined.

Anyway, I am in the studio as much as possible so as to have a cohesive show this September in Sausalito. I need to figure out how to work longer days, so I feel some Alpine Starts coming up...

Cup of Joe Update

Cup of Joe, anyone?

Best to stay warm in this winter of spotty electric power, and heavy snows. I saw my life flash before my eyes the other day when that power pole split! Then, I realized it was just an arc of electricity shooting up from the insulators. Today, the furnace repair man will come to look at our oil furnace. I hope he can get that back up to speed, especially with temperatures under 20 degrees F.

I'm almost finished with Blogging Tips for artist bloggers. I promised to "type" my own blog, which I have done but haven't finished the copy on that post. One blogger friend has The Colorist designated as an "e-zine," which is close, but I have a slightly different take.

More Coffee? What else has been keeping me busy has been my return to the studio. After being sick, I am now able to re-start my productivity. Last year's art had its ups and its downs, but mostly I wasn't that active in the studio. The three months leading up to my December operation saw no artwork created at all.

I choose to see the good in this. Cup half full. No, I mean is you cup half full? Here's more coffee.

I have been in the searching stages to define my art directions, and the break gives a time for reflection. We'll see what happens. I am happy to be getting some blue landscapes finished, as well as some still life works. Photos pending. For purchases please look to my blog, Casey Klahn dot blogspot.

And on the Internet and blogging front, my ArtSlant profile continues to grow and receive viewership. The blog Pastel is featuring a series on how to draw/paint trees. The latest installment, Tree Admiration, takes you on a chef's tour of different artist's styles and how they treat trees.

I found Pam Farrell via Joanne Mattera, and she has a series of studio visits posted as the ISBP (Interactive Studio Blog Post). Studio inspiration, anyone?

Finally, I want to make sure you know that two local pastellists are now writing blogs. I enjoy exhibiting with these two superb artists, and I know you are jealous of my getting to view their art booths at the fairs. So, to make it up to you, I provide you with these links to their new blogs. Marla Baggetta blogs here, and Sheila Evans here. Enjoy.