SmeatonTower Light House by Kolene Spicher

Painting a Red and White Lighthouse in Plymouth Devon, South West England 

Photo is a little blurry  but it reads,
Taking time out to enjoy life! 

I have painted a lot of lighthouses in my day, but this is a new one for me.  I really enjoyed working on this project.  The three in the front to the left of the light are Grace, Rick, and their doggy Reedus who is enormous.   

My style has always been to paint the ships and the boats in that "folk" style and gathered all around the light.  Reedus and Grace are the joy of Rick's life.  I can tell how he communicated about them.  I love the red and white tower and it reminds me of a lighthouse that I painted before.  I can't remember where it was, but it was red and white!  

The frame is a good one and one of my better frames that I own at the time.  It is a mortised frame and happens to be a tiger maple with lots of lots of age.  Perfect for England! 

The blue is in the turquoise family so it really makes the orange warm tones pop. 

Here's a shot that I snapped outside so that you can really see the color correctly.  

In this shot you can see how the frame just pops against all that wonderful blue color.  The light is solid and diffused so it eliminates those hot spots that I typically get when photographing behind glass.  

Hope you enjoy! 

Merry Christmas Rick and Grace and Reedus!! 

Kolene Spicher 

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Painting for Spicher and Company and the upcoming High Point Furniture market 2016, entry 3

...More Bathing Beauties 

Layering artwork with decorative objects
I like the idea of a white frame.  

I love to layer artwork with like objects.  In this above photo you are looking at one of my Bathing Beauties and some of my prints and seashell original paintings.  The seashell jugs were made back in the 60s for my grandmother and given to me.  

I like how this looks with the vintage/antique Red, white and blue quilt. 

This looks very 'seashore' to me.  I really love it.  Over the years I have collected a lot of quilts, this red, white and blue one is my absolute favorite.  Here are all of them paired with the partner that I felt went well together.  

He is navigating a toy boat, she is watching! 

He has a trowel for digging shells along with the goggles (around his neck) and
she is holding the shells as they are found.  

He is fishing and she is watching! Love the Fisher T-shirt. 

He is tossing the ball and she is watching (sort of).  

Nothing like a refreshing beverage, seaside! 

Go Fly a kite!  Try it in the water!  

In this picture you are looking at sections of the whole lot of them.  They were very time-consuming to paint but well worth it.  They are light, and fun, and full of interest.  If you are interested in purchasing the print of this, they all will be available thru Spicher and Co in April 2016.  You can also message me, I can get anything you want!!  

www.Spicherandco.com  is the company that I paint for.  These and many others will be on display at the Commerce and Design Building in High Point, NC April 2016 at the Furniture Market! 

These will be made available to the trade.  

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Flocking Birds, Painting 2

Birds of a feather...

Number 2 

I am having some fun with this.  Now, I just need to find some unusual and beautifully shaped trees for No. 3. 

Instead of Scripture, this one has a bunch of "BIRD sayings" written in the grass

I am currently in love with vintage and antique lemon gold frames.  I found this one recently with a mirror in it and quickly tore it apart for this painting.  I like how the sayings are written in the grass.  One thing that I am really enjoying painting are the horizons.  If you look at Flocking Birds, post 2, painting 1, you will see a different horizon in that painting.  I love the blue mountains.  

You can see that this painting is somewhat smaller than the first.  However,  They go very nicely together.  

Each saying is different from the other and is about a bird and some truth that a bird holds.  People love birds.  There are many bird groups (people that study birds).  Ornithology the technical name and is a branch of zoology that concerns itself with the study of birds.  

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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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Custom Boy Portrait - Part 1

Little Boy with Saint Bernard by the Sea 

Rough draft pencil drawing 

This was done very quickly to give you an idea about how I come up with my ideas.  I just need to figure out the composition before starting to draw.  I dislike any eraser marks. 

Very deep walnut frame with silver leafed liner 

I decided that I would use this nice silver leafed walnut frame.  It is in excellent condition and what I liked most about it was the fact that the liner was silver.  Normally, they are gold leafed.  No damage on this piece, either! 

Saint Bernard. 

I loved this dog.  He has such a sweet face.  Because I am illustrating a young boy for this painting, I couldn't have the dog leaning up onto him. 

The water is at the top and he's leaning on a log. 

These are big dogs and it wouldn't make sense.  We decided that there would also be a book in his hand.  In the end, I drew him laying at the little boy's feet on a log. 

This is a random drawing that I liked, found online, although I
am NOT doing a profile.  

Having the whole body in the painting helps to give you an idea of the scale of the pet. The example above clearly illustrates a smaller dog.   In the next picture, you can see the scale of my dog.  

I am going to be putting a ship in the background, too, just not drawn yet! 

Thanks for looking today, and I wish you a very Happy, safe New Year!!  Check back next week.  I will have more done then, and you will be able to see it in color!  It is going to be bright and happy. 

Enjoy!

 

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The Whalers

Anchor Away! 

This painting is about a whale, a poor one, that is anchored to shore.  Don't get mad, I didn't paint him speared!  It's all in a day's work and all for fun.  

I normally paint the whale either black or white.  Whales are not only black (and they really aren't technically 'black') but they are other colors, too--such as, grey, white, brown, or tan.  This painting is missing the piece of glass that should be installed between the  two frames.  When I find the perfect wavy piece of glass, it will be assembled and I will update this blog entry and post this on ETSY. 

My favorite part of this painting is the little yellow house with blue windows.  I don't know why, but for some reason, I love the way this looks.  

While I am at it, I wanted to show you what my booth looked like at the Bedminster Art show in Doylestown a few weekends ago.  I had a really good show and continue to receive orders from this show.  I have some of the paintings still in stock as well as a few large prints of ships.  Let me know if you are interested in something that you have seen on this blog because I just might have it! 

DOYLESTOWN / BEDMINSTER ART SHOW  LOWER LEFT SIDE OF THE 

BUCK'S COUNTY HERALD  

Although, my name is not mentioned, the picture of the bright red booth is mine.  It was so much fun! 

Thanks for looking! 

Enjoy. 

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Springtime

SPRINGTIME COMES TO THE WOODS

Springtime comes to the woods

Good day to you!  Thanks for visiting my blog site.  Today, I wish to talk about a little painting I did a good while ago.  I am happy to say I found 10 very nice sized paintings in a crate in our warehouse.  This one dates to probably 1995 ~ maybe.  How did it end up in a crate, you might be thinking?

Well, many of you that know me realize that I have had a very long battle with Ovarian Cancer.  I have been in and out of the hospital a lot of the last 23 years.  Each time I go 'in' everything sort of comes to a screeching halt in my studio.  Things get put away and I rest.  I rest for a long time.  Each time I have been sick, it has been for the same thing, Cancer.  I hate it cancer and what it does to people's lives but God promises to be with us, and I have with God's help beat it every time.  I am so thankful, too.  

As I said in an earlier post, we have been cleaning house.  Along with dozens of packs of cards found, there were also some early paintings of mine.  This one is one of them.  I am going to list it on my KOLENESPICHER Etsy acct. if you wish to purchase it.  People that have bought paintings with this hand grain frame may be interested.  I can't get these frames any longer very easily.  

The title is on the right (sorry about the shadow) "Springtime comes to the woods"

What is really sweet about this painting is that it is about NEW BEGINNINGS.   Just like spring is in the beginning of life each year and signifies life,  Nature sheds its garment of death and in turn sprouts new life.  The little house that is attached to the log cabin has a newborn baby in the window with a caption written in the grass Baby in the Picture Window!

How about the little Peeps!! 

The man carrying the water has a caption that reads Bringing water to Bathe my Babies! 

Celebrating the new Baby 

The whole painting is really about the new baby but it is also about New Beginnings.  I know because that was what I was thinking about and hoping for when I painted it!! 

This frame was hand-grained

I have sold many, many landscape paintings with this very frame on them.  The warm glows of the 'faux' wood just blend and compliment my work.  I was really thrilled to find this!!  I should get cards made out of it.  They wouldn't be like the other cards because I would need to do very limited quantities.  Wouldn't this be a darling baby thank you card?? 

Resting before the rain

This cow is doing what we all like to do…REST.  Let's all rest a  just little today!

Don't forget to check out my ETSY store.  I am listed under KOLENESPICHER.  I will be listing this painting!  Check it out! For a week, I am offering 10 percent off for orders over $100. 

Finally, here's a closeup very large! 

Enjoy the beautiful Springtime in the Northeast (if you are here!)  It is so wonderful outside today! 

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