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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Kolene Spicher Original Landscape painting, Part 2

Happy Family 

New House, New Dog

I started this painting thinking that I would go all "Watercolor like", but as I painted it, it became transformed into a mixed media sort of thing.   I used paint, pencil, markers, pastels--everything but finger paints.  

The trees, the sky, the flowers are all inspired by old cross stitch samplers from the 1800s.  Living in Pennsylvania, I tend to be drawn to the whole pen and ink fraktur style as well. 

No matter what, I am in love with ships. My heart is always drawn to the water.  I love flowering fruit trees, too, which is what the folky stylized trees, front and center,  are supposed to be depicting.  

Love the bench and the big urn.  In fact, I wish I owned a planter like that!! 

The Bird's Eye frame on this is simply fabulous, the gold liner and the antique glass are all in great condition.  This frame is very gorgeous.  Very. 

The outside dimensions are 30" x 16 1/2"  and looks great from a distance too.  The colors really POP. 

Below you can see the painting hanging over my fireplace mantel.  As you can see this is a substantial painting.  Due to the largeness of this piece, the shipping will be costly.  

Thanks for looking! and POST MESSAGE me with questions.  Happy Family, Happy Spring! 

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Kolene Spicher for Spicher and Co Original antique frame artwork for sale Birds, Trees, sky, and Landscape paintings

Paintings for sale on ETSY 

KOLENESPICHER Store 

This is the lot of them!  

There is a link to each picture below that will (if copied and pasted) take you to my Etsy store, KOLENESPICHER. 

**https://www.etsy.com/listing/516455861/kolene-spicher-original-tree-silhouette?ref=shop_home_active_5

I like this one because it has the little bird's nest in the branch.  I love the naked tree!  NO LEAVES!  

Just copy and paste the link below each painting to see them on ETSY.  This puts me in mind of baby shower.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/503820520/kolene-spicher-original-painting-raven?ref=listing-shop-header-0

I also have another oval that I think is precious, too.   I think WEDDING for this one! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/502982154/kolene-spicher-bird-tree-silhouette-tree?ref=listing-shop-header-1

I like this one because it is actually taken from a tree in my back yard.  I live over a valley and there are mountains surrounding me with lots and lots of birds.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/516451951/kolene-spicher-original-hand-painted?ref=shop_home_active_6

I love hanging art in unconventional ways.  In this picture, I have the painting hanging over the knobs of my most recent project where I painted a cabinet with blue paint to look like that old antique blue chippy paint.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/502978044/kolene-spicher-original-hand-painted?ref=listing-shop-header-2

I live in a family that HUNTS.  We enjoy living off the land.  I think this would be a nice painting for a man in a masculine setting.  Maybe a father's day gift.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/516459757/kolene-spicher-tree-silhouette-scene?ref=listing-shop-header-3

I really love this one.  Again this is a tree from near my home.  I just love the shape of a tree.  I love the leaves but love the tree more without them.  It is just pure art.  The knots, the crooked branches, the imperfections...they make the tree unique and perfect.  The sky gives this a peaceful feel.  LOVE.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/516455861/kolene-spicher-original-tree-silhouette?ref=shop_home_active_5

Well, that is it!  I hope you take the time to go to my store and take a look at what I am offering.  If you buy more than one, I can offer a better discount. 

Enjoy! 

Kolene Spicher 

 

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Custom Antique Reproduction Silhouette by Kolene Spicher

Silhouette of a Lady with

relatives from 

Denmark

From Denmark to America, this piece of art
tells the story of where this lady's ancestors came from
as well as the day she married.  

I started this project day one by creating a wonderfully crackled and antiqued background to paint upon.  Special consideration was taken to accommodate the lettering across the bottom.  It needed to be smooth enough to write the genealogy out yet  antiqued enough to match the rest of the painting. 

I loved this frame.  The painting was sized to fit it perfectly.  The condition is great.  Finally, the look is correct for the home that 

this piece was made for.  

MY Customer likes nautical and wanted the dress to also be nautical in nature.  Finding reference material for this had its challenges!  My inspiration came from antique silhouettes from the 1800s.  

I love house this looks hanging over the bench my foyer. 

You can sort of see the texture that I achieved by looking at the above lower right picture.  The customer also wanted the flag of Denmark flying on a ship in the background.  I also have the American flag flying on the ship to the right.  Pictorially, this suggests a story of coming to America.   It is also what we are all about here in the USA,  we were ONCE  all little seedlings. 

I love the corner blocks on this frame and the drape across the top of the painting.  I am known for including decorative drapes in my pieces.  

Here is my lady! 

Here is her likeness 1800s style!  

LOOK at the writing, you can see the genealogy,  and you will notice that her GRANDPARENTS were from Denmark.  It is a special gift to have someone illustrate how one's family came to the great melting pot!  I was happy to do this. 

Thank you for taking the time to look at this piece of artwork.  The painting will be a Christmas gift. 

Enjoy. 

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Custom House Portrait in American Folk Art Style

A portrait in the Georgian Style

Post 1

I  asked the question on the internet, "What makes a house Georgian in style?"  A lot came up but in a nutshell it is this.  The Georgian style consistently is admired for its symmetry, classic proportions, and decorative elements.  I would classify this house portrait in that genre.  

The customer included a lot of pictures of his home in various seasons.  I was really torn between the snow scene and this picture with the pumpkin.  I love the colors in the above picture. (above)

I really think this is pretty

The details on this house are amazing.  There are so many things that are not immediately seen.  I love the bricks at the foundation and the two chimneys!   The columns are fluted, too!

There are three starfish in each window, compliments of there many trips to Nantucket.  Note the sailboats in the transom window of the door

There is a small garage off to the left.  I may include a very diminished version of that in the painting as well as the fence.  The fence is very Nantucket, as well!

I am going to place this painting behind glass.  Hopefully, I can come up with some antique glass, but the size of the frame is on the large size.  It might be difficult to find.

Here is a shot of the frame.

This frame has a nice lemon gold liner.  Often times, these liners are a mess. 

Please check back for updates on this painting.  It might be a few days because I have three projects going right now! 

Enjoy. 

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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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