Summer Art: Boys, Cars, and Experimental Ceramics

"Little Boy in Summer" oil paint by Katherine Lehr,  2016

I had hoped to complete a few paintings this summer, mainly focusing on a large canvas painting of each of my twin boys and then going from there. As some travel and the aforementioned boys (now both 15 months old and getting into and on top of everything) took up plenty of my summer break, I ended up only completing one painting of M. I've outlined the second painting of Q, but given that it's also a relatively large canvas and the new school year has started I don't foresee that being completed any time soon. 

About the painting:  This is oils on a 20x28 canvas. We went to a birthday party for M and Q's friend who was turning one. In the yard Milo discovered this little plastic car and played with it for almost the entire party. He was obsessed! I snapped a photo of him with the car and looking at it later gave me a nostalgic feeling for my childhood summers. So I decided to use the photo as a reference for this painting. I'm not well practiced in portraiture, especially children, so this was a challenge for me, but hopefully I'll improve as I do more.

And then, the ceramics......

                             a close-up of the ear

I also took a ceramics class over the summer. This is definitely not my medium of choice as I tend to struggle with getting the outcomes I envision when working with clay. However, I did have a fun time doing a Raku firing with this creepy looking, vaguely Salvador Daliesque head that I created. I haven't done this type of firing before and was pleasantly surprised by the unique, metallic glaze effects. I used Pale Aqua and White Crackle Raku glazes. You can see a photo taken after the Raku firing process was finished and we began to uncover the pieces (my piece is the bottom center) at the end of this post. 

Additionally, I made a few functional pieces. I liked how this triangular dish with fern texture on the bottom (not Raku fired) turned out.

bottom of dish

 

top of dish

Flamingo-Summer Painting

Summer is here! I finally had some time between chasing two one year olds around to actually finish a painting. As I hadn't painted in a while, I chose to work on a relatively simple image in oils to get back into the swing of things, as they say. I went through a phase in elementary school where I was obsessed with flamingos and chose them as the topic of various reports and projects, so this is also kind of a nostalgic piece. I've now moved on to a larger, more challenging painting, which I'll hopefully finish in a few weeks.

"Flamingo Blues" oil paint by Katherine Lehr, June 2016

A Portrait and Some Nursery Paintings

It's been a long time since I've uploaded images of my art, but that's what happens when you have twins! So here we go: 

The first image is an oil painting of my twins at five months old practicing sitting up on their own. I like capturing the moment of them sitting together and practicing a new skill while also leaving the viewer to consider what they might be observing so intently. It definitely takes longer to finish a painting these days, but the boys are certainly helping to provide some inspiration for my art.

The next set of images are acrylic paintings of children's animal illustrations that I created for the twins' nursery. These are not serious works (though truly, I wouldn't categorize most of my art as "serious" anyway) but I had fun thinking of the babies while working on these.

"Turtle and Friend-Nursery" 2015 by K. Lehr

"Giraffe Family-Nursery" 2015 by K. Lehr

"Elephant's Red Balloon-Nursery" 2015 by K. Lehr

"Owls-Nursery" 2015 by K. Lehr

"Monkey Twins-Nursery" 2015 by K. Lehr

Snail Painting

"Gastropod with Shell" oil paint,  2014

A few weeks ago we had a little snail friend who kept showing up on our front porch (much to the delight of our dog Zoe). I know that a snail is really just a gastropod with a nice spiral shell (those without shells are commonly referred to as "slugs"--eek!), but nonetheless I think that their little squishy bodies are visually interesting and full of texture. The shell almost looks like a large hat that doesn't really belong, which in my opinion makes the snail a whimsical creature. Of course the actual colors of our snail, along with most of the snails that I've seen, are significantly less vibrant than the ones I decided to use in my painting--but this is part of the whimsy! Moreover, while we're still having beautiful sunny summer days here in Colorado, I just wasn't feeling the neutral colors and pale "pukey" shades of green that would have been a more realistic snail color palette.

Bull Moose Painting

"Moose in Lake" oil paint, 2014

A few weeks ago we saw a female moose and her calf while hiking on the Isabelle Glacier Trail near the Brainard Lake Recreation Area. While I've lived in Colorado for about seven years, this is only the second time I've seen a moose in this state (seems like they were everywhere in Maine). Our "moose encounter" inspired my most recent oil painting. However, since I love the antlers on bull moose, I decided to paint a male rather than the female moose and calf we saw while hiking (see photo below). I had some fun playing around with the colors and slightly abstracting the markings and shadows on the moose's body.  The dark lines of the shadows around the bright colors on the body vaguely remind me of stained glass windows, which wasn't my initial intention, but I like how it turned out. 

More Summer Painting: Owl #2

"Short-eared Owl" acrylic, 2014

Since I enjoyed working on my first owl painting (a barn owl as seen below), I thought: why not do another owl painting? There is something about owl faces and the line of their wings that really draws my eye. I am not a bird-watcher or raptor expert, but I believe that this one is a Short-eared Owl, which are more commonly seen in the UK. 

Here are the two owl paintings together:

 

Nantucket Painting and Photographs

A stay on the island of Nantucket a few weeks ago inspired this painting.  Living in Colorado, I admit that I do miss the beach and the ocean. After a few cloudy days, the weather chose the day that we left Nantucket (of course) to give us a beautiful day with blue skies and sunlight shimmering off the water. I took some photos from the deck of the ferry as we slowly made our way past the anchored sailboats near the harbor. This painting is based on a shot of the Brant Point Lighthouse with two anchored sailboats in the foreground. There were some other details (beach goers, buoys, etc.), which I chose to eliminate to keep the image more simple.

"Green Sailboat" acrylic, 2014

It's interesting how different the color of the sea can look from different angles or in different lighting. Below are a few photographs that I took of the water from the ferry when we got further away from the island. It went from looking dark blue to a luminescent sea green color. Composition-wise, these aren't the most amazing shots, but I love the colors!

"Green Sea" 2014

"Green Sea 2" 2014

Below is a photograph of the ocean at Sconset Beach.

"Dunes at Sconset" 2014

African Elephant Painting: for Tanzania Trip Fundraiser

My husband and two other teachers will be taking a group of high school students on a trip to Tanzania in June. They plan to climb Kilimanjaro and then volunteer at an orphanage in Tanzania. As the trip is expensive, they are doing some fundraisers to offset the costs for the students. I painted an African elephant to donate to their silent auction fundraiser. I titled this one “Les Larmes d’Eléphant” (elephant tears) because it looks as though the elephant is crying. Although, the part of the painting that I'm drawn to the most is actually the smooth contrast created by the light hitting the ear and the shadows around it rather than the eye of the elephant. So why is the title in French? I prefer how the sounds of the words flow together in French versus the more chopped up sound of the title in English. In some ways, this painting goes with the elephant painting (view here) that I did last summer. However, I think that this has much higher contrast and less of a pastel look.

"Les Larmes d'Eléphant" acrylic, 2014

Painting During the Flood

We've had a lot of flooding in Colorado, but luckily my studio stayed dry and I had the opportunity to work on a painting while we waited for the rain stop. I love the iconic "Tree of Life" image-I even do a "Tree of Life" sunset painting project with my students based on Gustav's Kilmt's painting of the same name. So, I decided to create my own "Tree of Life" themed painting while the rain was pounding on the windows and creating rivers across the roads.

"Tree of Life-Deluge" acrylic, 2013

Portraits... of People

I don't have much of a background in portraiture--and by this I mean that I have no training in painting portraits and almost as little experience. Consequently, I've hesitated to choose this as a subject matter for my paintings. I do enjoy painting animal portraits, but here I'm referring to portraits of my own species rather than my beautiful dog Zoe. I can't say that I remember what inspired me to try it out this time, but I actually enjoyed creating these two portraits. This may be the start to a series. We shall see....

"Somnio Mons" oil paint,  2013

"Laetitia Surgit" oil paint,  2013

Trip to New Mexico: Classic Truck Painting

It seems like every time I go to New Mexico I see at least a few of those old classic pickup trucks; some are really rusty, while others are in pristine condition. I'm not generally into classic cars and trucks, (nor any vehicles, to be honest), but there is something sculptural and nostalgia-inducing about these trucks. It's not uncommon to see classic trucks, which clearly don't run anymore, displayed as sculptures (either intentionally or inadvertently) in yards and driveways. The classic 1950s Chevy pickup truck in a field with weeds sprouting up around the tires, or in front of an old adobe house with a bright New Mexico sky in the background is an iconic image of the Southwest. There were certainly some great paintings of this sort of iconic scene in the Santa Fe and Taos art galleries, but they weren't exactly within our budget. So, after taking some photos of a classic 1951 Chevy pickup truck that was painted an amazing shade of "light sky bluish-turquoise" in Taos, I decided to create my own "classic truck in the New Mexico landscape" painting. I also love the New Mexico skies and adobe buildings, so of course I had to sneak those in as well. This was also the first time in months that I've used oil paints, and I really enjoyed working with oils again.

"Taos 51 Chevy" oil paint, 2013

Here is a photo that my mom, Susan Flook, took of a really interesting classic pickup truck displayed as art on a small side street in Santa Fe. Too bad I missed this one when we were out there.

"Santa Fe Truck Art" digital photograph by Susan Flook, 2013

Bighorn Sheep Painting

Fun fact: bighorn sheep have oval-shaped pupils.

When I was looking at various reference images of big horn sheep (I've seen them up close, but it has usually been while driving up to ski, so I don't have any of my own close-up photos), I thought that the eyes had been photoshopped. Apparently, they really do have pupils that look more like a jelly bean than a circle. Actual bighorn sheep are better camouflaged in the Rocky Mountain landscape, but I wanted this guy to pop out, so I enhanced the contrast by making the sheep more colorful than any bighorns you might see up in the mountains.

"Colorado Bighorn" acrylic, 2013

Beginning of Summer Paintings

I just completed a fairly large (30"x 24") tiger painting, which I like, and a very small koi fish painting which I didn't really enjoy. I've decided that I seem to prefer working on larger canvases more than small ones, although what I consider "large" is probably much smaller than what some painters prefer. We went to visit the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado and I took a ton of photos of the tigers, lions, bears, and other rescue animals. The tigers seemed to be the most visually striking, so I decided to start with this painting.

"In the Grass" acrylic, 2013

"Koi Fish Ribbons" acrylic, 2013

Experimental Elephant Painting

"Elephant Sunset" acrylic, 2013

I originally planned on doing a realistically colored elephant with some plants and other nature details in the background, but of course I got pretty bored with that approach. Instead, I played around with adding color to the elephant in such a way that it almost looks like I used chalk pastel instead of acrylic paint. I decided to do a fiery sunset background because I liked the contrast it made with the pale pastel colors on the elephant. I'm not sure that this painting turned out exactly as I would have liked, but it was certainly an interesting painting to work on.

Barn Owl Painting

I have my mom to thank for inspiring this painting. She sent me photos of some animals that she had seen while out in Tucson, Arizona. I was immediately drawn to the photos of the barn owl and decided to make this the subject of my next painting. I kept the colors fairly close to the real owl rather than adding or exaggerating the color as I often do in my paintings of other animals. I liked the contrast of the bright white owl glowing against the blue sky, so I tried to keep that feeling in my painting.

"Tucson Barn Owl" acrylic, 2013

New Dog Portrait: Jackson

I really enjoy painting dog portraits-so here's another one! This is a recent commissioned portrait of a Border Collie mix named Jackson. As Jackson is a black and white dog, I painted him in shades of blue and used warm colors for the background to make the painting more vibrant.

"Jackson" acrylic on canvas, 2012

Here is a pic posted by Jackson's person of the "Jackson" and "Bacchus" paintings hanging together in their home (I did a painting of Bacchus last year):

Boulder Flatirons Painting

I realized the other day that even though I've lived in Boulder for over six years I had yet to do a painting of the Flatirons. Many would call the Flatirons an icon of Boulder. I think technically the Flatirons fall under the category of "foothills." They are jagged rock formations that look like they shot up out of the ground. We have enjoyed a lot of hiking and climbing on and around the Flatirons, so I have positive associations with them, which I wanted to show in my painting. I chose to do a simple but colorful representation of the Flatirons, giving them a warmer color than they actually have when seen from such a distance (although, I noticed when climbing the Third Flatiron that the rock was actually very red in some sections).

"The Flatirons" acrylic, 2012

Sea Turtle #2 Painting

I've completed another sea turtle painting-this time for my brother's birthday. He really likes sea turtles. Maybe this runs in the family? I decided to create a composition that was more of a view from above rather than the side view that I used in my first sea turtle painting. I also chose a warm-colored sea turtle to create more of a juxtaposition with the cool-colored water. In contrast, the other sea turtle painting that I did ended up focusing on a very limited color palette and consequently the completed painting wasn't as visually appealing for me.  Happy Birthday Jon!

"Red Sea Turtle" acrylic on canvas, 2012

Island Rooster Painting

I finally got a chance to finish the rooster painting I've been working on. We saw a ton of roosters walking around the island of Kauai. At first it was really strange to see a rooster walking across the sand at the beach, but it became commonplace after we'd been there a few days. I really enjoyed how colorful some of the roosters were, so I decided to do a painting of a Kauai rooster by the beach. I'd love to live on Kauai for a few months every year and just paint!

"Island Rooster" acrylic on canvas,  2012

Sea Turtle Painting

My husband and I went to Kauai, Hi in July and we loved it! We were lucky enough to see a sea turtle while we were snorkeling. Since I was really excited about swimming with a sea turtle, I decided to do a painting of one while I was dreaming of being back on the island of Kauai.

"Sea Turtle"  acrylic, 2012

Here is a photo of our sea turtle friend in Kauai (underwater cameras are great!)