"To The Wharf" Painting

Good morning!

Spencer, Iowa is enjoying a pleasant little rain shower as we speak. Ollie and I had just rounded the corner back into the alley from our morning run as the first few drops descended, what timing!

I spent yesterday working on the mural project, but sorry to report, no photos yet. Maybe today.

Next on the art show schedule is ArtSplash, held in the Chris Larsen Park in Sioux City, Iowa. The festival schedule:

Friday, August 29th, 4pm to 8 pm

Saturday August 30th, 10am to 7pm

Sunday August 31st, 10am to 5pm

The varnish on the latest painting is finally dry, and it has a title. "To The Wharf" is an acrylic painting on a gallery wrapped canvas, measuring a lovely 30 x 30 inches. I will plan on bringing it to Artsplash so you can see it up close and in person!

Later, Cooper

Late Lunch At The Wharf, acrylic painting, January 25th, 2008

Hello everybody,

If you have been reading my weather whining, and watching the weather-results summer wharf painting, well then, I have an update for you.

The temperature warmed up to about 18 degrees today. The 15 degree-minimum-dog and I went out for a good, long walk. I wore the embarrassing snowmobile suit and it was almost too warm, amazing!

And the wharf painting has a name, but no signature yet. But if you bop over to the project blog, and read that chronicle of this painting, :) we are probably calling it done. So here it is, 'Late Lunch At The Wharf', acrylic painting on heavy gessoed paper, 21 x 17 inches.

Later, Cooper

daily paint, December 31st, 2007,

Happy New Year's Eve!

It is a clear COLD one in Spencer, Iowa. The icicles hanging from the eave outside the office window are NOT melting.

So, I am aware that my last post promised you that I would be working on the cafe scene painting. We-eeee-ll, somehow I ended up getting involved in a project to remove seven layers of wallpaper, two of them painted, from the walls of a bedroom. Ugh. If you are ever in the mood to change your wallpapered walls, strip the old stuff off FIRST! That will insure that whoever you someday sell your house to, will not be speaking of you as we are of the previous owners of our house:) The good news is, about one more good work day should complete the nasty task.

Needing a break from the aforementioned task, I spent the afternoon in the studio. Surprisingly, it was not the cafe scene that jumped up on the easel, it was the park painting that I had started many days ago. Here is a first look at the start of the painting, and now to upload today's daily paint: 'Spread A Quilt On The Grass'

Later, Cooper

daily paint, December 3rd, 2007

Hey,


We survived the yucky weather! As some of you were aware, Thieves Market was in Iowa City this weekend. Nothing, well, almost nothing, strikes fear in the heart of an exhibiting artist as much as a weather bulletin telling people to stay home, the roads are just too treacherous. Lovely. Saturday, most of the people roaming the building were artists. Sunday, the preciptation stopped and some brave souls braved the frigid wind and came. Yea! In the end, I sold several good paintings! What's the phrase about the obese lady breaking out in song?:)


At any rate, the art center parking lot had a lovely shine on it (by the light of the moon) tonight. Tonight was life drawing, but my organizational skills faltered (oh, right, what organizational skills) and we had no model. Heavy sigh. I promise to do better next week.


I do have the mannequins to show you. We think it's name is 'Vogue'. A lovely 20 x 40 inch gallery wrapped canvas, and you'll notice it's signed. Eh? (crazy artist!)


Later, Cooper

daily paint, November 26th, 2007

Happy Monday to you!

So this is regroup day: back to some semblance of painting; turkey casserole for dinner:); and life drawing group back on schedule. This morning I took care of the first, #2 and 3 are yet to come today.

So with the article I just wrote about daily paint versus daily painting practice, http://coopkja.blogspot.com/2007/11/sideways-look-at-daily-paint.html still looming in the background I might have discovered yet another facet that I omitted from the article:) Is it the acomplishment of 'a painting a day', practice every day, or getting back into motion after a holiday?!

At any rate, a few items were needed at the grocery store this morning. I ran over there before going to the studio, and speeding past the produce counter, I spied a pear with a quirky stem, which is pear language for "paint me". So a quick pear study, 'One Pear, Blue Bowl", 15 x 15 inches, acrylic painting on heavy gessoed paper.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cooper

daily paint over run by turkey, November 20th, 2007

Howdy!

Yes, I'm here now. I am sorry to inform you, there was no (none,nadda, zippo,zeroid) daily paint slung about today at my studio.

However, the house is squeaky clean. The meal is planned, and the groceries are purchased; enough to keep 18 (count'em eighteen) people happy, I hope:)

Regarding studio work however, it was a bit of polish off the last little bits kind of day. Two figurative paintings and one still life got their varnish today. Another figurative piece got it's wire attached. And we found the camera! Tomorrow I will do a final photo for you of the two pieces I have been working on to send to the 'Rave On' invitational at the Clear Lake (Iowa) Arts Center.

Right now I will upload yesterday's daily paint. It' s a canvas that I had worked on before and knew it needed more:) So here's more: 'Straight On', acrylic painting on canvas, 20 x 16 inches.

Later, Cooper

ps. Here's a link to 'Straight On' when I first tried to convince myself that it was done:)

http://www.karencooperpaintings.com/blog/1799

painting title: Good Times, November 16th, 2007

Howdy!

It's a crisp fall day we are having in Spencer, Iowa. Thanksgiving is six days off and the family is coming to our house this year! We'll cook next week!

This week is finish-up-some-paintings week. I have been working toward sending some jpgs of paintings to the Clear Lake [Iowa] Art Center for possible inclusion in their invitational exhibit 'Rave On'. The rider on the old Schwinn needs to make progress today.

First I wanted to stop by and upload one that I think is done: 'Good Times' It's an acrylic painting on a gallery wrapped canvas, 30 x 30 inches. Thanks for looking! Here's an early one look at the same painting: http://coopkja.blogspot.com/2007/11/daily-paint-november-10th-2007-shaky.html

Later, Cooper

November 9th, 2007, Sanford Gallery Photos

Greetings!

I seem to have omitted from this page, photos of the current event. The Sanford Gallery in Cherokee, Iowa has my paintings for a solo exhibit for the month of November:). So my life, or at least my head is going in circles, as that has been duly noted on the blog attached to my website, but seemingly not here. To make ammends, I have a few photos of said exhibit to upload at this time. As you'll note, it's a grouping of figurative works, many from the ongoing 'reader series'. Thanks for looking!

Cooper

daily paint, October 24, 2007

Hey,

So today I found the face again, and this time I kept it. Today's daily paint, 30 x 24 inches, acrylic on canvas, 'So Thoughts Are Private'

Later, Cooper

*****yeah, click on the image so it will enlarge, it's a whole lot better that way. Some day I will be a great photographer and make it look just like the real painting, but not today.

*****You know I was wondering why blogger wanted a great big space under this post, know I guess I know: I guess I was imagining things when I said click on it to enlarge it---that doesn't seem to work either. But you know, I'm sure it did at one time. eh, go to my website: http://www.karencooperpaintings.com/ I know it will enlarge there:)

daily paint, October 23, 2007

Hello!

So, what, you are asking did I paint today? Well, first of all, I gessoed (primed) a bunch of sheets of paper. Borrrrrring. Then it got better. A few tweaks, and wa-lah: A Paperback Novel Kind Of Day (2)And yes, it is signed, thank you very much. Then I found a canvas that I'd started at a Lakes studio session, that had been hiding in the corner. I started playing with it and like the direction it's taken off to, so I decided to post that as well. Yes, she will get a face eventually. These things DO take time you know. Maybe tomorrow. Later, Cooper

daily paint, October 19th, 2007

Hey,

So I painted all day, and here it is, but I'm telling you right now, it's not signed. We all know what that means, there might be room for one slight change. We'll see.

Later, Cooper

daily paint, simplified, October 16, 2007

I'm back, I'm back! Yeah, that took awhile, didn't it?! My excuse is (was) A.R.T., northwest Iowa Artisans Road Trip. It took awhile to set up and then it took some time to put it away, and it meant that I was 'at work' Sunday afternoon, so I pretended that Monday was Sunday afternoon and therefore my day of rest:) I feel much better now, thank you. And because A.R.T. is a studio tour, I really was painting while people came through, so there, daily paint. I started a large canvas right away on Saturday morning, the first day of the tour. When I paint the smaller 'color sketches' that I put on heavy gessoed paper, my intention has always been to expand on those ideas and turn them into larger canvases. After doing pretty much a bazillion of these color sketches, 'A Paperback Novel Kind Of Day' is reappearing on a 40 x 40 inch canvas. The first version is owned by a mother-daughter team, the Juley's, from La Grange, Illinois, purchased at the West End Art Festival. The larger version is looking pretty fine at this point, but as it is 1600 square inches (sounds huge like that!) I took a time out from that and plopped a pair of pears on my table, smooshed around some pear-kind-of-paint, and wha-la! Today's completed daily paint, Two Pears And A Shadow.

And after all that, it now appears to be an ideal time to go make some popcorn!

Later, Cooper

daily paint, October 11th, 2007

Greetings!

So it's a seasonal kind of atmospheric grey day in northwest Iowa, but seasons are good for us, and the yellow leaves hanging on the trees outside my window are just lovely. My only problem is a vehicle that needs picked up at the mechanic's shop about an easy one mile bike ride north of here, and trying to decide if I need to wear one sweatshirt or two:)

Daily paint for today: 'Zoned Out', an acrylic painting on heavy gessoed paper, finished up from a LakesArtCenter studio session.

It's about 15 x 15 inches. I will zip over to my website and put an image of the painting there as well. Thanks for looking!

Later, Cooper

October 9th, 2007

Happy Tuesday to you!

Wow, the Artisans Road Trip weekend is looming ever closer. Yeah, like this Saturday and Sunday, as in October 13th and 14th. Which is also my excuse for posting a painting that a few of you, but definitely not all of you have, have seen. Painted earlier this summer: 'Call Me Yellow'

It's an acrylic painting on a gallery wrapped canvas, of everybody's favorite flower, the sunflower. It measures 16 x 24 inches, and I'll post it on my website as well (paypal friendly)

Yes, as you might have guessed, I spent more time yesterday getting organized for this weekend than I did painting. BUT I did paint! Our studio group met, and we worked for 2 hours, and then when I got home I decided to work on one of them a little more, which ended up being just after midnight! (Does that mean Ollie did not get his run this morning? Correct!) I am not ready to post the results of the burnt midnight oil yet---still trying to decide what I think of them :)

Time to go organize some more!

Later, Cooper