Bayou at Buccatuna

5" X 12" acrylic, oil pastel, ink, charcoal, and marker on panel for Paint Party Friday

This little one is the very last from the series of paintings I created this summer after a visit to my childhood stomping grounds in south Mississippi. I still cannot get enough of this gold, magenta, red viloet, and black color combination, although I'm pretty sure I never saw a sunset like this even on Buccatunna Creek. The mystery of those forested wetlands and the dark shallows of the swamps inspired this painting, just the same. Bayou at Buccatunnna is currrently available at Lucas Road Fine Art and Jewelry, and, if you're interested in purchasing it, you can just give my friend Neubern a call (601) 483-0028.

Got My Orange Crush

Pam did, that is!



See how great it looks in her gorgeous home




And this sweet little thing also found a home with Pam



In this sunny breezeway



It would have been so hard to say goodbye, had they not been going to such a lovely home, which you can see more of here.

New Work

So sorry for my long absence, but I've been spending every free minute getting ready for the Buckhead Spring Arts and Crafts Festival. Only 2 weeks to go! Here's one of my new paintings.

Lemon in a Green Room 12" X 16" mixed media

for Collage Obsession

If I Paint Them, They Will Grow

Rose Glow 18" X 24" If you are interested in purchasing this painting, e-mail me at kathymccullen@aol.com

for Created Byhand and Three Muses

Take Time To Smell the Roses

Be conscious


Wake up to the present moment


Things are just as they are


Lama Surya Das



for the Three Muses

Here Comes the Sun

36" X 24" oil on canvas

This painting has been through so many incarnations that it should be called Metamorphosis, but I think I already named a painting that. I started this painting last year, after I completed a collaged art journal page, which you can see here. The colors made me feel very happy and peaceful, and I liked the composition. Mostly I like what I wrote about, which was everything I that makes me happy. The collage was called Garden of Hope. I had just taken an painting class and used oil paints for the first time, and I was dying to try them out. So, the beginning was easy. Lots of texture and lots of green paint, and the bird went on easily, and then I brushed on a huge lotus blossom. And by huge, I mean HUGE. It looked clumsy and garish, exactly what I didn't want my beautiful, serene painting to look like. So, I got really nervous about spoiling my vision,and I put the painting aside for almost a year. I didn't know what to do with it, until a few weeks ago, when I had the brilliant idea to cover the lotus blossom with a butterfly. I worked on that butterfly all last weekend, and guess what? It looked clumsy and garish too. In trying to cover the lotus, I'd made the butterly exactly the same size. I kept adding details, trying to make it work, but it was not one bit better than the lotus. So I put it aside and went to bed. The next day, after school, I went to yoga, and, right in the middle of class, I decided to paint over what I'd done. I rushed home, swept on tons more green and yellow paint with a palette knife, and, oddly, felt immediate relief. After the paint was dry, I studied the painting for another day and decided to go with my first instinct and use a flower for the other figure. This time, I went with a peony, a much more rounded form, and, for some reason, it worked.


Here's a detail to give you some idea of the paint applicaton.

So I'm done; I'm happy now, and today I want to wish you the same thing I wished you when I started this process. Today my wish for you is that, like me, you have something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. I hope you are happy because here comes the sun, and I say it's alright...

(for Take a Word)

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Wishbone 12 X 18 mixed media on cardboard for Inspiration Avenue, Creative Therapy, Three Muses, and Theme Thursday.

I'd forgotten how much I love collage. I've been so busy painting big abstract pieces that I'd forgotten how I love to tell a story by layering memories and dreams and then hiding them with paint. This little picture tells the story of childhood with all its magic and fears. If you look closely at the background, you might be able to see the angels and butterflies and flowers surrounding the child. And, if you look even closer, you might also be able to see the sea monster and the spiders lurking in the shadows. Can you tell what her wings are made of? That's right: bones. The pelvic girdle, in fact. This image came from an old anatomy textbook I found at a flea market. I also used a piece of lace, a ballet program, roses from vintage Valentines, pages from a book of fairy tales, and an old first grade reader. Childhood is like this; it's fantasies and nightmares, imaginary playmates and the monster under the bed. Childhood is equal parts wonder and terror.

In the undercoat of shadows and symbols, this child has found a sanctuary. Here in the dark dreamscape of her world, she and her companions have found comfort in each other, suggesting that, for all of us, in the midst of threats and uncertainty, there is redemption and hope.

IF: Savour

Lucky Charms
36 X 36"
mixed media on canvas


The Thanksgiving holiday ends for me tonight. Tomorrow I go back to school. The week I've had off from work was so busy that I didn't have time to sit still and write, but today, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect about all I have to be thankful for. It's been a tough year for so many. A dear friend of mine just lost her mother. Divorces tore families apart. Other friends lost jobs due to the economy. But, despite all of this, there is still so much to be thankful for. A brother and sister, long estranged, found each other again. A childless couple was blessed with triplets. A father, once diagnosed with a malignant, inoperable brain tumor, celebrated his ninth Thanksgiving with his family: cancer free.


I have many things to be thankful for too. and I want to take the time today to tell all of you reading this that I am truly thankful for the friends I've made here. You've added so much to my life. Because of you I found the courage to realize my dream of becoming a painter. You encouraged me. You taught me. You celebrated with me. But, the most surprising thing of all is that you kept showing up here, despite my irregular posting, especially this last year, when my time has been divided between home, school, studio, and gallery. I am so lucky to have you.

The painting I have posted here is a very happy piece that finished at about 7:00 the morning of my first art festival. (Well, actually, it was almost finished when I took it to Chastain Park. I painted the sides of the canvas after I got to my booth). This painting is special to me, and I felt inspired by the colors the entire time I was working on it. It was a fast piece, almost like a dance, and fun. My sister suggested that I call it Mood Indigo, which I think is a b‎eautiful name, but it seems a bit sad and introspective. This painting is anything but that. Like much of my work, it's not about anything deep. It's just happy. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, ‎"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." (Colette).
So, I named it Lucky Charms. Because I really am...lucky.

Illustration Friday

For the past few weeks, I haven't posted very often because I've spent every spare waking moment painting like a madwoman! I was trying to get a large enough body of work ready for The Chastain Arts Festival, which was my first festival. Here you can see one of my favorite new pieces called Sarabande. This abstract is 30 X 30 and was done with a palette knife, acrylics, oils, charcoal, and ink.


The festival itself went very well. I got so much positive feedback, and I sold five large paintings. I met some of the most interesting people, and, after the first day I began to notice some things about the ones that responded to my work. For example, if a person was wearing pink, he or she was bound to spend some time in my booth!

Over the next few weeks I will show you some of the other paintings I took to the festival. One of the pieces I sold was my little sandman in Bring Me A Dream, and, I have to admit, I already miss him.

Now that I have the festival behind me, I plan to work on some small pieces on board and to focus more on figurative painting. I have three compositions in my head that I am just itching to start.

Transit of Venus

30 X 30 acrylic, oil, ink, and charcoal on canvas for Created By Hand Art Challenge

It seems like I have really neglected my blog the past couple of weeks, but I have actually been working on a new feature for Creative Fits, and I've spent almost every moment I'm not teaching school to getting ready for my first festival, The Chastain Arts Festival, the first weekend in November. If you'd like more information about Chastain, just click on the festival name. The Chastain Festival will feature over 100 painters, photographers, sculptors, leather and metal craftpersons, glass blowers, and jewelers. Since the Fall weather in in Atlanta is so perfect, and Chastain Park is so beautiful, it should really be a fun weekend. A number of my friends from The Decatur Gallery will be participating,and I'm really excited to be a part of it.

Another thing that's been taking up some of my time is the new blog feature I've been working on. I would really like to focus more on the arts in Atlanta, and, in an effort to do that, I will periodically be interviewing some of the very talented area artists. The first of my interviews, which should be posted next week, will feature my friend Carol Reynolds an incredibly talented and creative mosaic artist.

Does today's painting look familiar to you? The painting in the previous post was a 12" X 12" study for this one. "Transit of Venus" is the first large piece I've completed using only a palette knife, and it will be my entry in the "Mystic Methods and Moods Holiday Spirit" group show this Saturday from 5:00-10:00 p.m. at The Decatur Market & Gallery on 153 Ponce de Leon Place. There will be live music by The Flying Mystics, tarot card reading, and refreshments. There will be an outdoor artist market during the event and costumes are welcome. I hope you can join us!

Autumn Equinox

Transit of Venus 12 X 12

Autumn is here; I can feel it in the twilight crispness of the air, as I sit beside the pond at the end of the day. I can see it under the bright harvest moon that lights the way for the bunnies to eat our newly planted fall garden.



For me, last week was a time of gathering and celebrating. On Friday I attended the 20th Anniversary Reception at the Pryor Fine Art on Bennett Street. The show featured the work of Susie Pryor and doubled as a benefit for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. A portion of the proceeds from pre-sales and the first week’s sales were donated to CHCOA. Susie, whose work you can see here is one of my very favorite contemporary American artists. Her new paintings, which incorporate broad brush strokes and lush palette knife work, depicts a variety of subjects including children, coastal scenes, and still lifes. She manages to capture that world between abstraction and reality that I so love. This is one of my favorites of her new paintings.



Make a Wish 60 X 48

And then, on Saturday, I treated myself to an all-day workshop with Melissa Payne Baker at the Sandy Springs School of Art. I had been a fan Melissa's bold colorful abstracts for some time, and, when she announced that she would be teaching a class called "Loosen Up With Melissa Payne Baker," I knew I had to go. I spent the day watching Melissa paint, learning how to use a palette knife, and just generally having fun with the other talented women in the class. You can see Melissa giving us a demonstration below:




and here's one of her new pieces:


Paysage II 30 X 40

On Sunday, I spent the day working on the two large pieces that I started in class, and I finished the small one that you see at the top of this post. Actually, that one was done at the last minute, before my son's birthday celebration Sunday night. I realized that I'd been so busy all weekend that I hadn't made him a card, like I usually do, so, inspired by the moon and the magic of Melissa and Susie, I painted this for him.


Autumn is a season of ripe beauty, a season of myriad colors, a season of abundance and balance and gratitude. Autumn is


"A brimming of golden sweetness in your dreaming eyes
Fills the world with the beauty of a realm divine,
The sun's last rays serenely trickle from your purple skies:
I send my love and song and call your blessings mine."

Abhinabha

Hidden Messages

Painting the Roses Red 30 X 30 acrylic, ink, oil sticks, and charcoal on canvas for The Three Muses.

I admit it. I'm a huge word geek. All English majors are. We sulk over Scrabble points, giggle over words like "vituperating" and "obsteperous," and sneer at people who say "that being said" and "refer back." We do well on standardized tests, quote Monty Python and Elizebeth Barrett Browning, and collect old editions of Alice in Wonderland. We write haiku, work crossword puzzles in pen, and ridicule poor spellers. We smugly recite the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales in Old English to anyone who will listen and think Latin roots are the coolest.

So, when The Three Muses announced this week's theme "Words," I was in my element. Like all my recent paintings, this one has an underlayer of words: sheet music, room service menus, vintage magazine pages, ticket stubbs, and receipts. I glued these on my canvas along with decorative papers and brushed on acrylic paint allowing the shapes of the papers to dictate the placement of colors. Once the first layer of pink, blue, and white, and green was dry, I brushed on some burnt umber and wiped most of it off, leaving just enough to emphasize the texture of the underlying layers. Then I applied brown, gray, and black distressing inks and created a vase of tissue paper and thick-bodied Golden white paint. Next, I adhered flowers made of acrylic "skins" and added details with Alazarin Crimson and Payne's Gray acrylics. The last step was to add shading with oil sticks and to outline the vase with a piece of charcoal.


This piece is going to stay with me awhile; I painted it for the Chastain Arts Festival the first weekend in November, but if you are intereted in purchasing this painting, you can e-mail me at kathymccullen@aol.com.

Haiku My Heart

polka dot posies
and lace paper rhymes
hope is the sweetest thing




Atmoshere: The dominant tone or mood of a work of art.

Joy:
1 a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion : gaiety
2 : a state of happiness or felicity : bliss
3 : a source or cause of delight



for

Haiku My Heart

Wednesday Stamper, Illustration Friday
and Motivated Monday

Love Is Blind

Bliss of Another Kind 12 X 12 acrylic, charcoal, oil stick, and paper on canvas for The Three Muses "Love is Blind" challenge.


This painting was inspired by the concerts in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens that I attended this summer with my sweet husband and our old friends Vickie and Bill, all of whom learned to turned over their ticket stubbs to me for the sake of my art. I used the tickets for texture along with concert programs from Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, and Joan Baez. You can no longer see any of these souvenirs, but I know they're there, and that's what matters. That and the memories I have of those summer nights and the music in the garden.

The Bird Is The Word

Fight or Flight (12 X 24 mixed media on canvas). I've been in a bird phase lately: doves, herons, hummingbirds. A friend of mine told me I might get to be known as "the bird lady," and that's fine with me. Usually, I don't set out to paint birds, but, often, in the process of layering and texturing, the image of a bird is revealed on my canvas, and I'm helpless to resist. I love using symbols in my work to express themes in a way that requires introspection - not only can the viewer interpret my thoughts and feelings, but he can then interpret the work in relation to his own reality. I often use birds as symbols of faith and hope but also as a symbol of humanity: learning to fly, leaving the nest, protecting our young.

I painted this bird with an attitude a few weeks ago for a Donna Van Gogh's Artists' Market. Van Gogh's is gallery in Candler Park that focuses on local artists and has some of the funkiest and most affordable art in Atlanta. Terri and Iris, the owners, are bird lovers themselves and actually rescued a gorgeous Scarlet Macaw several years ago. When I read the challenge at The Three Muses this week I immediately thought of my odd bird.

On The Pulse of Morning

On The Pulse Of Morning 30 X 36 mixed media on canvas (for Inspiration Avenue and Mixed Media Monday) If you are interested in this painting, e-mail me or, after tomorrow, you can find it at The Decatur Gallery at 153 Ponce De Leon Place, Decatur, GA. I'll be at the gallery tomorrow from 12:00-4:00 p.m., so drop by, if you're in the area.

Statue of Flibberty

(for Creative Therapy, Crazy Amigos, and Created By Hand) 14 " X 14" mixed media on canvas; available at The Gilded Lily.

This piece is started with a photo of my wig-head sculpture Ava and a recyled painting that I wasn't terribly pleased with. (You can see Ava as Catrina here.) After I sanded and roughed up the background to make some of the other elements disappear, I painted the rest of the background with colors of the same intensity as the remaining red and yellow that you can still see. The I glued on an enlarged a photo of Ava and painted her orange, deepening the hue with ink and charcoal. I thought I'd give her a crown and make her queen, but then I noticed the resemblence to Our Lady Liberty, so I decided to go with it. I added a few flourishes and doodles to balance the bright white in the crown and there she is: Ava in yet another incarnation!

New Painting

Night Heron Buckatunna Creek 18 X 20 mixed media on board for The Three Muses

I grew up in Mississippi, and I lived in New Orleans for four years, so the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks. I cannot find the words to express my feelings about the devastation of the beaches and wetlands of my homestate. I remember one night, many years ago, when my family was driving home from a dinner at a fishcamp, we saw a Great Blue Heron in a creek that ran alongside the road. We pulled over and watched this beautiful bird for a long time, until he finally disaapeared into the shadows. I will always remember how he looked in the moonlight on Buckatunna Creek.

Cathedral

Cathedral 12" X 12" mixed media on cardboard on board for The Three Muses and Inspiration Avenue.

Much Later....I wanted to tell you how I made this piece because it does have a story behind it. I was rushed last night when I made this post, but since so many of you have responded with such kind comments, I'll tell you now:

After I read the Three Muses prompt, I immediately thought of a map of Alaska. Saturday night I had dinner with my son, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Whitney. Andrew is majoring in English and wants to teach high school, and Whitney is a psychology major. They told me that, after graduation, they are considering working on a reservation in Wyoming or Alaska, Whitney to do substance-abuse counseling and Andrew to teach. Although I would hate for them to move so far from home, I would be so happy and proud if they did this. They are both extremely compassionate people, and I believe they would change so many lives and do much good. So that's what inspired this painting. I glued on bits of a map with other ephemera that represent our family and the love we have for each other. There are Valentines from my nieces and the infamous " Your Own Personal Jesus" photo taken by my sister and used by me time and time again in my art. There's part of a program from the play The Laramie Project that my younger son Wesley directed when he was in high school and a few parking stubbs and tickets from outings with my husband. There's a cigar box label that reminds me of my grandfather, and, of course the, the dove is a symbol of hope and returning home (I hope). The colors, as you know, are my favorites, and the whole thing is done on a piece of cardboard because I didn't have a small canvas handy that day. I layered on the collage bits, painted over them with acrylics, sanded and scraped some paint off, added various shades of ink, charcoal, and conte crayons, finished the painting with three coats of thick gel mediaum, and glued it to a board. The painting was originally called "Ascension," but ,after I read a few of your comments, I changed the name to "Cathedral." It is a very emotional piece, so I'm not surprised that it evoked so many personal feelings. I feel very blessed that "Cathedral" touched you.

Love,
Kathy

Crazy Amigo

This painting is so perfect for the Crazy Amigo challenge this week for two reasons. One: I used my favorite stamp, a handmade checkerboard stamp, and two: MY crazy amigo from high school, Ann, bought it last week, as soon as I posted it on Facebook. Some interesting things about this painting: the flowers are made from acrylic "skins" I peeled off my palette and to which I added details. The lattice on the right was an after-thought because the piece just seemed too sweet. Recently I made a backgound page that I really liked in my art journal. So I tore it up and glued the strips on the canvas. Another interesting thing: I've noticed that, when I'm feeling grumpy, I always make ridiculously cheerful art, and my attitude gets a quick adjustment. By them time I'm done, I've found my happy place again, so that's what I named this one: "happy place." I hope it makes Ann as happy as it made me.