Snuggling Sketch

Lavender time

I woke up one morning and just had to paint a lavender field!

Some watercolors

I've had additional time on my hands lately because of my ACL reconstruction surgery and so I've been able to paint a little with my watercolors. This first one is of my friend Irene, who went home to be with the Lord and I've painted 2 paintings of her now for her husband.

I started a series of paintings several years ago of Lily painting a painting. I got to work some more on those. Unfortunately I've misplaced the paper on which I wrote all of her chatter that went along with her painting process as a 3-year-old.



I wanted a little something extra for my father's 75th birthday on May 7th, and so I painted this one for him.

Maggie's Bunny

My book is done--hard or soft-cover available at:

http://www.blurb.com/books/2062032

I painted this mailbox

I was asked to take a white mailbox and convert it to a mailbox with sunflowers on it. This is what it became.

I have 76 greeting cards with my art and photos available for purchase at http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/cardsbykasteen

I have 76 greeting cards with my art and photos available for purchase at

http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/cardsbykasteen

My book is published!

You can purchase either soft or hard cover copies at
http://www.blurb.com/user/fletchers6?profile_preview=true

Painting Progression

I was commissioned to paint a large painting (3 feet by 4 feet) of the vineyards at sunrise in the fall. It took me 80 hours and I am still in the process of getting accurate prints made. Here is the painting by stages.

1. I did an undercoating with burnt sienna. I did the initial blocks with oils--it took quite some time just to coat the canvas one time just because of the size.

2. My focus was on the clouds, the fog, and the hills, working back to front.

3. I started getting more detailed and painted in the branches up close, very tedious work.

4. I worked for hours on the foreground, adding details of leaves, pebbles, and blades of grass. I needed to add more shadows and highlights, as well as a little road to the right.

5. Photograph time: The first is my photo of the finished painting, and then there is the professional photograph of the painting...although I'm not sure if it isn't a little too yellow/orange. I had a difficult time getting my own photograph of the finished project though.

The Sketchbook Project

Here are two sketches from my sketchbook for "The Sketchbook Project." I signed up for it thinking it would be fun and a good discipline to sketch more. My theme was "In 5 minutes..." I couldn't believe that it was so hard for me to find just 5 more minutes throughout these last months, and the sketchbook is due now! This little booklet will be touring and on file with The Brooklyn Art Library. The kids helped out, so there's lots of fun sketches and tidbits in the pages of my small volume.

Here are some of my pieces:

http://www.art4god.com/ncac_07/comments.php?aid=189&eid=A