Custom Pet Portrait - Relocation Rescue Big Spring TX April 5

I'm offering a custom pet portrait gift certificate during Relocation Rescue's April 5, 2014 event to be held at the Heritage Museum, 510 Scurry, Big Spring from 4-6 p.m.  See their Facebook page or visit their website at www.relocationrescue.com for more information on their silent auction.





Any questions, contact me HERE or here or Lisa Emerson at 432-213-1283.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2013 Kay Smith/Brushworks Studio

Uncaged Birds

8x11 watercolor on Italia 140 lb soft press paper.  It's the first one painted yesterday since taking Jan Fabian Wallake's Houston workshop last week. She recommended we take a photo and deconstruct it into geometric shapes totally unrecognizable using design principles then paint it. I took parakeets in a gilded cage, drew them and an archway on newsprint, disregarded the cage bars, and did lots of thumbnail sketches. Then with scissors I cut out another bird and arranged and rearranged on tracing paper until a composition emerged. The archways are now doors, the birds (black and white for contrast) are uncaged and free, with some pattern surrounding them.  Cool accents are in a warm color dominance; note the other bird at top by a slice of orange, rather bland and almost unnoticeable.  I'm thinking of painting this again in a larger format.

Below is a shot of the tiny photo.

Chuy Cat Yawning

5.5x7.5 watercolor on 140 lb hot press paper over a pencil drawn sketch.  This is my grey tabby cat, Chuy (pronounced Chewy), who will turn 12 this year.  In the photo I took, he was just awakening from a nap on brocade and embroidered silk pillows.  Behind him is a gold and red velvet Oriental throw with gold tassels; more gold tassels can be seen on pillow edge his right paw is close to.  He was not allowed on the pillows so must have been saying "ha ha!" when I discovered him there.

Dog Days of August

8 3/4 x 12 inches watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper drawn with Magic pencils today and painted.  The pencils are watersoluble and come formulated with 3-4 colors in each variety.  Marks are different colors and can give an artist a jump start to expressing creativity.  This dog has a sandy brown longhaired coat and light brown eyes.  With the Magic pencils giving me suggestive line ideas, development of a more colorful innovative subject resulted.

Evildoer Siamese Cat repost

15x11 watercolor wet in wet painted yesterday and reposted here after some touchups done.  I really looked at Jezebel today and thought her little face was too dark in the painting, not allowing for her creamy fur to show above the eye and on top of her head. So I lifted and smoothed out with a Fritch scrubber brush from Cheap Joe's.  Also her left front leg was too wide so corrected that and finally took out the very top of her arched back to have a lost edge.  That was my intention yesterday but got too involved and didn't.So now my studio kitty should read as a better pet portrait.

Cairn Terrier, Couch Potato Charlie

9x12 watercolor pet portrait on 140 lb cold press paper.  His name is Charlie and is Maureen on WetCanvas dog.  She shared her references of him for us to paint a few years ago, so I named the painting Couch Potato Charlie.

Yellow Lab Puppy in Flowerbed

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb smooth/soft press paper painted a few years ago of a yellow lab puppy playing in a flowerbed of lilies.
Paints used are Daniel Smith and DaVinci.

Splash 14 Selection for 2013

It's Official: Splash 14 Notifications!

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/watercolor/announcing-the-winners-of-splash-14-best-of-watercolor

The above link was announced on WetCanvas! home page of the 106 watercolorists who were accepted and of that number Chris Beck and I are the lucky Art Colony blog gals.  Last August I painted a lovely white domestic shorthair cat with blue eyes named Sinatra, who lives in Tyler, TX, at an antique store called Special Effects on Old Bullard Rd.  Mollie Jones, another Colony artist, will tell his owner, Polly Hitt, about it.  The original has been sold to a collector in Bangkok, Thailand.

This 15x22 watercolor was featured as a step by step work in progress here on my blog during August 2011 if anyone wants to see its inception and progression.  The new book will be published in 2013 by North Light Books, F+W media.

Stray Calico

6x9 watercolor on Strathmore painted today for a weekend drawing event; photo courtesy WetCanvas! This little stray looked so forlorn that I just had to paint her lovely eyes and face.

Little Mollie kitten

5.5x9 inches watercolor pet portrait on Strathmore 140 lb paper, Daniel Smith paints.  This is Elaine's kitten from WetCanvas and she is featured on this weekend drawing event.  I used a black and white copy of her photo to paint this in about 45 minutes.

Dog Pet Portrait

22x15 watercolor dog portrait commission for her owner's Christmas surprise.  I've no idea what breed she is but she is adorable and so fluffy.  In the photo provided she was waiting for someone to throw the ball so she could play.  This work is SOLD.

Neighbor's Cat

24x18 watercolor of a very curious cat looking outside his house to some intriguing object, probably a bird or a moving tree branch or even another cat.  Painted wet in wet on Canson Montval block I used Daniel Smith, DaVinci, and American Journey paints.



Chili with Pink Zinnia - a pet portrait

15x22 watercolor of my tuxedo kitty named Chili.  He is now 10 years old this month and I've painted him many times.  A few years back I set up a still life of fresh zinnias in a sunflower pitcher, an old quilt and napkin and he jumped on the table top and decided to be part of the not-so-still still life.  Although this painting was not done today I'm posting Chili's portrait in honor of his birthday.  It was painted wet in wet with no masking for his whiskers.  This set up was in my living room that has dark Hunter green walls...there appeared tiny marks in the paint so after it dried I added different pieces of color for an unusual pattern.

White Cat "Sinatra" WIP Step 4

Now you can view the whole picture plane and see more background items revealed such as old lamp, glass clock dome, cut glass, and a small desk lamp.  I did manage to paint negatively, his whiskers against the dark brown table edge (no masking used).  The area over his left eye was glazed more as it fell into shadow and I did not have it dark enough.  He is center stage now just like his namesake.

Fur Baby

11x14 acrylic and watercolor on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper. Black acrylic was applied first to my pencil drawing, let dry, then went in with dilute washes of paint.