karen cooper paintings .com

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

A change of address has been implemented! Would you please read here instead?

http://karencooperpaintings.com/blog

Yup, we've modified my address! When you get there, on the left menu bar (table of contents) is a little orange box with white lines through it. Don't ask me how or why, but that's called RSS feed. If you click on that, it will take you to a form where you can fill out the required info, and THEN my blog articles will come directly to your email, at your request. Saves a lot of mouse clicking, eh?!

Thanks!

KCooper (painting, painting)

Counting Waves, an acrylic painting on a perfect

little 12 x 12 inch canvas

available (so far) in my website portfolio

(feel free to click on the red text, which will take you there)

No. More. Malls.

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa. So I just gave this blog post a title, and now I'm wondering if it's politically incorrect. OhWell. My thoughts and they are true.

Have I mentioned my husband and I are not shoppers? Last week as more and more stores advertised "open on Thanksgiving" we cringed. Cringed for the people in retail who were required to spend their holiday as NOholiday. Cringed bigtime for the shopaholics who spent their holiday at the mall. What kind of a holiday was that, and just how much thanks did they give, anyway?

And may I rant on just a little more? A local DesMoines (Iowa) television station gave air time to the people who camped outside a shopping mall just so they could be one of the first of the 37 thousand in the door. Don't understand. Not going to go there. And may I suggest an alternative? Didn't see that one coming, eh?

This weekend, December 4th and 5th, the UniversityOfIowa fine arts council sponsors an event at the Iowa Memorial Union in IowaCity, Iowa, called Thieves Art Market. We don't know where the name came from, but I can promise you it's all on-the-up-and-up.

If you crave:

>camping out on frozen concrete so you might be the first one in the door

>stampeding crowds fighting over who gets one of 3 come-on sale items

>non-existent sales staff

>or if you luck out and find one---sales staff really not interested in helping you, and probably don't know how even if they are

>mauled over merchandise

>surely by now you get the idea?

IF you crave any of the above, then you won't like Thieves Art Market. So don't come.

Later, Cooper

Oh, maybe I should mention: if you love a laid back atmosphere, where you can look at unique interesting things, and have the people who created them tell you why, then you are a Thieves Art Market kind of person, and you should come. 10AM to 5PM each day. I have a painting I'd love to show you. :)

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, on a SUNNY beautiful day, in Jefferson, Iowa. There's probably minimal painting happening in the studio today, as it's time to pack again. This weekend I am showing my paintings at KraslArtFairOnTheBluff, in StJoseph, Michigan. If you feel the need to give yourself a treat, go there---there are not many spots on the map as beautiful and relaxing as the park overlooking LakeMichigan. There is a perfect hotel, The Boulevard Inn, right next to the park. I have plans for someday when there is a blizzard heading east from Nebraska: I will grab my husband, load us into the car, drive to that hotel (hopefully staying ahead of the storm) move into an upper floor room, and watch the storm come across the lake. I think it will be an exceptional sight. :)

Anyway, maps. When I travel to art fairs, I am pretty picky about maps. I learned quite a while ago that saving paper does not rate, when compared to having mapquest directions to my location printed off in LARGE ENOUGH TYPE to read sans glasses. Tollway traffic through Chicago does not approve of people stopping to read the fine print on their maps.

And then, maps of the art fair sort. Last summer there came an aha! moment. Prior, setting up my display at an art fair was a long drawn out process---which painting should hang where, what painting would fit into that long skinny space, which one would fit into that wide space, ooops, we didn't leave enough room for that one, better scoot it over 4 inches---you get the picture. The solution was so simple, I can't quite believe it took me years (literally) to see it.

I use a propanel display system as my exhibit walls at art fairs. I "hinged' together pieces of foam core that simulate the dimensions of my display system. Using the same scale, I print images of my paintings that are making the trip to the art fair. Do you know how much easier it is when, glass of iced tea in hand, I can sit at the kitchen counter and plan my exhibit? If I think "Smells Like Summer" looks better next to "Ped Mall DogWalk", but then change my mind and think I need to try "Elementary School Readers" all I have to do is move a couple little squares of paper. Surely I don't have to tell you how much easier THAT is than moving the actual paintings? And getting it right, when you know you've got people coming to see in just an hour or so?

Prior to the great aha moment that lead to the mapping system, I used to plan for a minimum of two hours to get everything organized for an exhibit. May I brag a little?---I now allow 40 minutes. For those of you who have not set up an art fair exhibit, I know, I know, that's only an hour and ten minutes difference. But. On the morning of an art fair, it's a BIG difference. May I share just a little more insight about that?

If I had a roadie who set it all up for me, so that I could waltz in last minute, it would be different, but usually, I am on my own, doing it all myself. People come to art fairs hoping for an enjoyable outing. If I am out of sorts due to a hectic setup, helping those people enjoy their outing is a dim possibility. By removing the chance of "hectic" from the setup routine, it gets my day off to a good start, where I can share with visitors about my paintings, and we can all enjoy the day.

The 49th Annual Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff happens on July 10th, 10-6, and July 11th, 10-5. If you want to see the booth map in action, you'll have to stop by exhibit #164 about 7am on July 10th. The good folks of Krasl, and Port 412 are serving breakfast for the artists and I plan to hang paintings before dining! :)

Oh, and the varnish is almost dry on this new painting, so it will be making the trip to Michigan as well:

Beach Chair Occupied, an acrylic painting on a perfect little 20 x 20 inch canvas. I promise to get it into my portfolio very soon!

Later, Cooper

Cooper Studio Newsletter Published (yay!)

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, where as a general rule, we try to answer the everpressing question "why do artists paint the way they do?"

Today we are reverting to section A, qualifier 2, subparagraph 413 where is asked:

"What on earth is up with THAT artist?"

And here's the answer

And of course I aimed for slightly fun. After all, we are still having winter, and we need all the help we can get.

So the painting has a name: A Fine Sound (July 4th At The Park), an acrylic painting on a nice little 12 x 12 canvas. And yes, of course it's available in my portfolio. The "fine sound" mentioned is a vocal artist , Bonne Finken, whose band we saw at Arnolds Park (Iowa) last summer. Truely fine.

Back to the easel. Have a lovely day!

Later, Cooper

Reasons To Paint, Why Artist Paint The Way They Do

Greetings,

This fall we stained our concrete patio, and could not decide if we wanted to seal it with "high gloss" or "natural". This morning as it is sealed in about 1/4 inch of glossy ice, we decided we like that look but wish is was artificial :)

I have a lot on my paint brush schedule today part of which is a throw back to my ongoing exploration into why artists paint the way they do.

Last spring I posted a bonus package for you, a real two-fer! Today you get the update:

Liberty Jean, and Mia Corrine, tucked into their Burley and ready for a good walk/run!

And then on September 15th, along comes their Colorado cousin, Arridian James Cooper. He needs a painting for his room, and then because his aunt Abbie is getting married soon, she needs a new painting for her new house. So much for the business end of studio work, eh? Time to go spread some paint!

Later, Cooper

Inspiration for daily paint!

Do all artists have a penchant for books? You know, that oversized variety full of great big, perfectly clear, succinctly focused works of art? Those who come under the heading ‘not compelled to create art’ probably call them coffee table books. I know a lot of artists who refer to them as inspiration, study guides, or just plain old sustenance. I've spent more than just a few hours reading about books, let alone when I actually get my hands on one and open it up. Being a rural environs-inhabitant probably affects all of this syndrome---maybe it would not be so severe if I lived four blocks from the Art Institute instead of four hundred miles. But those of us out in the wildwoods need our great paintings fix too, and on a more regular basis than the occasional trip to the city. So we turn to books.

Right here is the time to give a big thanks to all those folks who supply us with crisp, clean, sometimes still in the protective sleeve, brand spanking new copies of books that we desperately long for and seriously need on our personal library shelves. There are times when they are essential and oh so appropriate.

But because there are just a few of us who have NOT YET sold our first million dollars worth of paintings, and we still have to ration our ‘book dollars’, I’m offering up an additional solution. Type ‘used books’ right into that old google search line. I have fallen in love with Abebooks.com., and there are others. They are my new literary heroes (well, other than my author friend Mary Connealy) At first I was quite skeptical of what condition the books would actually be in as many seem to be former library books. But their library must handle books more gently than mine, as my purchases so far are of very acceptable quality.

I have had some trouble with their book descriptions regarding content. That all important ‘number of color plates’, size of ‘color plates’, pages of drawings, etc. is seldom included in the book listing. I stumbled across a solution for that issue at a library, and it would probably translate to your location as well. Buena Vista University is a college about forty miles from my home, who houses a huge collection of art books in their library. Yes, they do allow ‘community people’ to check out their books, but there’s always that 2 week time limit that’s just never really long enough. Previewing them at the library helps me make the decision of (1) this is a book I need for two weeks, or (2) this is a book that will inspire, sustain and further educate me in my artistic endeavors---a book I need to own.

Later, Cooper