Nautical Pottery by Kolene Spicher

Christmas Gifts! 

I am working on a number of pieces right now.  With Christmas right around the corner, I think they will make fabulous gifts.  I have a bunch of stuff getting fired as I type this.  Here are a few pieces that were still too wet to go in! 

This jar or pot is around 5 1/2 inches tall.  It is decorated the whole way around!  

This one is an order 

I love round things.  Here's some rounder scenes! 

I am in love with silhouettes! 

This is a Right Whale

For whatever reason, I didn't photograph the sailor.  There's one there!  It reads:

This 10th Day of August, This ole' sailor spotted his first 

whale right off shore!  He was 29 feet long. 

Love the orangey pinks on the horizon.

This is going to be another light.  My other lights turned out great.  

The one sold, so I needed to make a replacement to

keep my living room in balance LOL. 

This light is about 11 - 12" high.  It has my seascape colors, etc, the whole way

around it.  It looks slightly washed out in this photo but in real life it has 

nice color. 

I don't know if I showed you my finished vase.  This guy is about 18" tall.  It was slab built and carved.  I love hand-building. 

The platter is a Greg Schooner! 

Hydrangea was compliments of my friend Susan.  I planted that wonderful bush in 2008. 

Let me know if there's something that you might like for the holidays.  PM me or follow me on instagram, which makes it really easy to see all my new stuff.  Kolene_Spicher is what I go by! 

I love all things polka dotted!  

Sometimes you can do things with pottery that are a bit unexpected.  Like I had a bowl (cylinder shaped) with polkadots and I needed something to put an antique Christmas tree in that I had picked up about 30 years ago.  Every year, I struggled to display it in a pleasing way.  One day I did this! 

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas! 

Enjoy.  

Kolene Spicher 

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19th Century Reproduction Whale in Gold Oval Ornate frame and Whaling Ceramics by Kolene Spicher Pennsylvania Artist

Happy Whale with Happy Tail and

Whaling Ceramics! 

I decided today that I would post my whaling art along with my ceramics that I made to compliment my latest whale painting.  The painting is a one of a kind original in an old yummy distressed antique frame.  

The artwork speaks for itself.  All is painted with love and is UNRUSHED.  I want to enjoy my work.  I want people to feel the love that goes into what I make :) 

I made this a square cup.  It was deliberate and on purpose and I bravely took two  books and smashed the four corners.  I don't even know if that is correct.  But it's KORRECT Kolene.  

I will always love silhouettes. 

You can't see it because this is unbisqued, but the ship sails will be white and in between grey/tan.  

The Whalers! 

I haven't done it yet, but I intend to clean up that handle.  See Handles are my nemesis.  I couldn't even spell this word.  I Had to look the spelling up, but the definition remains accurate.  I struggle with handles.  I will conqueror them.  They can't be harder than _____.  

Big fat handle you will fire perfect!!! You will appear thin and be strong.  LOL

Pottery is fun.  You have to be brave to do anything exceptional.  I am trying to be brave and think out of the box.  Give me time.  

K. Spicher 

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A Ship Scene

The Star 

Today, I thought I'd talk a little about ships.  Over the years, I have painted many of them, too numerous to number!  

I really loved all the blue on this piece.  Blue is really a strong color right now, and I love to incorporate it into artwork.  This painting really shows off a number of the 'blues.' 

As I was painting this, I added some stars across the top of the sky,  It seemed like that time of the day when light and dark are parting, one will take over the other.  Is it almost night or is it nearly morning?  You can decide. 

In this above shot, you can see how I added some additional ships.  There can be only one STAR, though, and my big ship is that Star that shines in this piece. 

This would be a nice piece for over a sofa or mantle.  It is what I'd call a large painting.  The sailboat over the buffet is really huge.  I seldom paint that BIG unless I have a customer in mind. 

In this shot, you can see that we sometimes at Spicher and Co, print seascapes on our Vintage Vinyl.  They make a great doormat or dog mat!  Message me if you want to buy one.  Here's another... 

The ship at the top has not been scanned or printed yet.  It is not for sale yet, either.  There is still some work to be done on it and it is being painted for the Wilton Show which takes place in November, 2017, Wilton, CT.  Here's a link for that show.  Let me know if you want tickets! 

http://wiltonhistorical.org/events/american-artisan-show/

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Flocking Birds Painting - Post 2

The many steps 

I take to complete a painting.

There are a few steps involved in starting a painting.  Yesterday, you learned that I started with a photograph.  Obviously, this is not always the case.  Many paintings I make up!   I am going to condense the rest of the steps into one final post for ease.  

Can you see the wavy glass 

Choosing a frame can be a job in itself.  This  one was an antique Currier and Ives frame at one time.  The print was not in great shape so I bought it for the frame. 

I drew the tree first.  

After cutting the paper to the correct size,  I drew the tree.  Here is the reference photo for your comparison.  This will help you understand my goal.  

The tree is the one with the bushes underneath! 

After drawing the tree, it was  then time to do the landscape area that you see in the background, minus the houses.

Can you see the hills in the background? 

It is a lot of fun changing things up, and sometimes the little twists that are added as afterthoughts really make the piece special.  For instance, I added a bunch of words about birds found from the Bible.   

You can see my layers of color that I am slowly building.  

As the piece progresses and the base is set, I am now sure what direction I want to go and can start to add detail in both texture and color, which further enhances and subdues the colors as I direct with washes of paint. Each step must dry completely before starting the next.   

I added some trees at the horizon.

My horizon has trees in the photo, and I liked them.  They are simple upward strokes of black and burnt umber.  This color is nice because it compliments the blues.  

I added some quotes taken from the Bible about Birds.  

Lots of detail here and different views of flight to create the flocking illusion that I like 

I love the punch of blue in the sky 

I sort of skipped some stages but I filled in the tree, making it nearly opaque and drew in the birds in pencil first.  This was a very time consuming progress but fun.  I listened to music.  

This looks like dusk to me.  

I love outside shots of sunsets and sunrises.  I frequently have them on my FB pages, too.  I love nature.  I have a few bird paintings around the house that I am going to hang this one to compliment.    I will eventually put this original on ETSY if you are interested, message me.  It will also be added to our print line.  I intend to start another one today that has the same feel.  

Here it is in my Living room Spot light.  

I photographed it in this light so that you could really see the color pop.  This is not a dull piece! 

This is my favorite shot 

I really like this shot in front of the Robin Egg Blue table and bright white plate!  It just pops!  Thanks for looking at the progress.  You can see more of my work at www.Spicherandco.com.  I sell to the trade but can get 

anything  someone might be interested in purchasing.  I do this frequently. Thanks and 

Enjoy! 

 

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