Port du Cœur

This little one is for someone very special to me. Five years ago, just about the time I started painting, I was assigned to be the case manager of one of the purest hearted, most loving, most determined, beautiful girls in the world. Her name is LaShuna and she has been one of my biggest encouragers along my artistic journey. Several terms I have been blessed to have her in my first period class and to be greeted by her brilliant, lovely smile the first thing in the morning. When I post a new painting (especially if it has a lot of pink in it)LaShuna is usually the first to say, " I love this one!" I've always promised her a painting for her graduation present, but I just can't wait any longer. Together, we've looked over all my work, and I've tried to include all the bits and details and colors she's pointed out to me. I hope you like this one, sweetie, because it was painted with you in that special place in my heart that will always be yours. (for Inspiration Avenue and Paint Party Friday)

Sea Change

The Beachcomber acrylic on canvas 20 X 24 for Crazy Amigo I have always admired the work of Mary Cassatt for its loving focus on the beauty of children. By no means an innovative subject, Cassatt found new techniques to depict the innocence of childhood. She took risks in executing experimental techniques that portrayed simple compositions and produced an emotional response in the viewer. Determined to learn to paint well, in an era when it was unthinkable for a woman to become an artist, Cassatt was greatly influenced by Impressionist painter Edgar Degas, another of my favorite artists. Starting with sketches, she progressed to create paintings of gentle light and contrast, and her use of texture became increasingly bold, as she progressed. After my children were grown, I too became determined to teach myself to paint well. In college, I studied classical drawing and art history, so, years later, I began to learn study compostion and to explore the medium of paint, working in a small scale, like Mary Cassatt. After about a year of this exploration, I began to experiment with brushwork and texture, and then I discovered the palette knife. For the past three years, I've devoted myself to learning and developing techinque, turning out paintings in a variety of styles: still life, abstract, mixed media collage, and finally, my real love: impressionistic. I began painting because I wanted to paint children. The complete lack of abandon and excitement with which they absorb themselves utterly in simple activities fascinates me,and, as a mother and teacher I have been blessed to be able to observe and share so many tender moments with my children. I think, I have reached a place artistically, where I feel that I can begin to celebrate those moments in my work. Today's painting is just a sample of what I hope to be able to portray. I hope that, like Mary Cassatt, through observation and experimentation, I will able to portray those fleeting moments of joy and discovery and the precious sense of wonder found only in the imagination of a child.

Paint Party Friday

Marsh Island Morning acrylic on canvas 24 X 24

Summer's Breath

12 X 12 acrylic, oil, ink, and charcoal for Inspiration Avenue

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

Sonnet 54, William Shakespeare

Flowers!

Hydrangeas and Roses 16 X 20 acrylic, ink, oil crayon, and charcoal

I just can't stop painting flowers. I love 'em. In the garden. In the house. On the wall. Everywhere. I've been studying the paintings of some of my favorite artists recently, and I spent most of my spring break working on this painting. I started with an acrylic base and then applied layers of ink, oil crayon, and charcoal. I put an acrylic sealer between each layer to allow me to mix oil and water based media and to preserve the integrity of the painting. To achieve as much depth and transluscence as possible, I repeated the combination of layers three times before I was satisfied with the result.

Now, I just can't wait for summer, so I can bury my nose in the real thing!

for Paint Party Friday

New Work!

Rescue Me 30 X 40 acrylic, oil crayon, ink, and charcoal

When I was about fifteen my father, who had always dreamed of having his own boat, bought an old wood-hull sailboat and reburbished it out in our carport. It was named "Grass" because it was solid green, from sail to stern, and it was a sight out on the big lake where he kept it. He taught me and my sister to rig the boat, and he would time us to see how fast we could get the mainsail and the jib up. I secretly thought think this was just his way of getting the sails up without breaking a sweat in that hot Mississippi sun. He was big on timing things in those days. He would sail out to the middle of the resevoir and throw us off the back of the boat to see how long it took him to come about and perform a rescue. Fortunately, we were good swimmers and we'd tread water until he came back to get us. I've always known I would paint a picture of this memory, but I thought it would be more representational, but this is what happened instead. Look closely and I think you can see us laughing and splashing each other, until Daddy comes back around.

for Paint Party Friday and Illustration Friday

A Heart Enflamed

Bloom 12 X 12 acrylic, ink, oil crayon, and charcoal for Three Muses

Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom

Kahil Gibran

The Children's Hour

I found this sweet little angel on Tumblr and I knew I just had to paint her.



Kitty 16 X 20 acrylic, oil crayon, ink, and charcoal

Painting images of children was the reason I began teaching myself to paint four years ago. I took a snapshot of my oldest son at the beach when he was very young and someday I hope to do it justice on canvas. I have always admired the work of Mary Cassat, her tender paintings of mothers and children, and I hope to be able to evoke a similar sweetness in my paintings. In the photograph above, the sense of safety and initimacy shared by these two little companions, surrounded by the whole wide world, is extremely moving to me. Since I have so many "snapshots" in my imagination of my two boys, and I've been collecting photographs that inspire me, I have no shortage of subjects to paint. Stay tuned for more!

for Take a Word and Creative Every Day

True Colors

Self-Portrait 12 X 12 acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and charcoal on canvas board

For about a week, I've been working on a great big abstract in these yummy colors. Since I had a lot of paint left on my palette, I thought it might be fun to do a Klee-style self portrait on a stray canvas board I had lying around the studio. A friend of mine said it kinda looked like the inside of my head while I'm dreaming of the ocean. She knows me pretty well, right? This painting is avaiable, so, if you're interested, just send me an e-mail at kathymccullen@aol.com. You can see my big WIP below.



for Illustration Friday and Paint Party Friday.

Paint Party in the Muse Studio!

I thought I'd share a snapshot of my own personal Paint Party. As you know, I've been making a few minor changes around here, including building a new and improved website. This is photo I took for one of the pages. My new site should be up in running in about a week, so stay tuned!

The Spring of Proserphina

Proserpina 12 X 12 collage and reverse painting on plexiglass.

Proserpina is an ancient goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. She's the Roman equivalent of Persephone, and her name comes from proserpere meaning to emerge. You can read more about Proserphina here. I am really, really having fun combining my loves of painting and collage in this new medium. So far I've only done fairly small pieces, but as soon as I can find a source of large sheets of plexiglass, watch out!

for Inspiration Avenue

And Now For Something Different

Brigid's Fire 16" X 20" acrylic and collage on plexiglass

For the last month I've been playing around reverse painting on plexiglass, and I completed this little wild thing just in time for Imbolc over at Inspiration Avenue. According to the ancient Celtic calendar "Imbolc is a celebration of the first signs of spring: the melting of January snows, the first blooms, the heaviness of animals expecting birth. It is a time of awakening, of new life, of new potential. A rebirth of light." It's also the time of Brigid's Feast Day; Brigid or Brighid is a triple goddess: fertility, poetry, and earthly fire, as well as one of the three patron saints of Ireland. You can read more about her here.