View from the Terrace-a Narrative Portrait

"View from the Terrace", oil on linen, 34" x 40"

Sometimes the resources my narrative portrait clients give me to work with allow me to take a virtual vacation in a beautiful location. This was definitely the scenario with John and Lee Stough. John is in real estate and Lee is an interior designer. They love dogs, travel, food, family and history and their lives revolve around those things. They bought and restored a medieval village house in Umbria, Italy and they moved a circa 1800 log meeting house from Kentucky to Sewanee Tennessee and built a house around it. So these were the rich and visually wonderful things I could incorporate into the composition. 

Since their Italian homes are in Umbria, I decided to structure the painting around the architecture from a painting by one of my favorite Umbrian painters- Perugino. I have always loved the geometry of the arches in Delivery of the Keys. I wanted the arches to open to an expansive landscape that would evoke the views they enjoy in both Sewanee and Ficulle so I settled the log home on a rolling hill, visible through the left side arch. A medieval village, inspired by another Early Renaissance fresco, is in the center and an Italian village, inspired by their village in Umbria, sits beyond the terrace on the right side above the grape arbor. John and Lee provided me with a photo of themselves dining al fresco and the two dogs are their beloved Brittany Spaniels Gracie and Tyler- one is on the trail of a clever rabbit (their daughter's nickname is "Bunny" and the other is contemplating disturbing a hungry Bear (their son's nickname). There are chairs at the table for both their children  when they visit and a tool box in the foreground to represent their self-confessed "addiction to sawdust". 

Thumbnail sketch 

Perugino's arches

End of an Era- a quarter century- Private Sale

I am moving my studio for the first time in 25 years. It has been a lovely studio at the top of my house, full of light and space. I am going to miss it but I am ready for a change and with change will come more ideas and more paintings. So before I leave it I want to clear out my painting racks to make room for the next stage both mentally and physically.  I decided to have a little sale of these items for my dearest friends and patrons. There are small paintings and drawings. Have a look and if there is something you would like to have let me know right away. These are all from different stages of my career-different themes and different series dating all the way back to when we lived in Brooklyn. Sizes are approximate. Some of the photos are not that great because I have been packing my studio and decided to do this at the last minute. Some things never change!

"After School", egg tempera and oil emulsion on panel, Brooklyn New York, $500

             "Girl with Green Cowboy Boots and Cat", oil on panel, 10" x 11" framed $350 sold

Education of the other Senses-Touch, oil on panel, 20" x 24", this painting was in a solo show called "Sense and Sensibility" shown at the Tatistcheff Gallery, 57th Street, NYC. $400 framed sold

 "Angel and Bear", 9" x 12", oil on panel, unframed-from the Toward a Peaceable Kingdom series $100

"Girl Catching a Ball", 5" x 8", oil on panel-from my Brooklyn days $100 sold

Liberation of the Tigers, oil on panel,  16" x 20", Study for the Peaceable Kingdom painting of the same name that is in the Cleveland Clinic, Naples FL, $350 sold

Lovers, oil on panel, 9" x 12"-from my Brooklyn days- $150

Sisters, 11" x 14", oil on panel, Brooklyn days, $150

The Guardian, 11" x 14", oil on panel, Block Island, $350 framed sold

The Rescue,  28" x 32", oil on wood- I am and will always be in awe of Italian predella painting and for a period when I was living in London, I did several multiple panel narrative paintings inspired by them. I have always loved telling stories.  $500 sold

 Three Graces, 10" x 12", oil on panel- from my Girls and Ravens series. A painting from this series is in the Polk Museum in Naples, Florida.This was a study for the large version, which resides in DC $350 framed sold

Zebras Running, oil on panel, 16" x 20"- Study for The Peaceable Kingdom series. The large version 

is in the Cleveland Clinic (I think) sold

Drawings

all drawings are $200

"Arbor Day", sepia ink on paper,  study for painting of the same name which was shown at Tatistcheff Gallery, 57th street NYC 

"Black Bird Fly", charcoal on paper, study for a big painting called Black Bird Fly that I did in London which was shown at Tatistcheff Gallery 57th street

"Cello in the Woods", graphite on paper, study for a painting in the Stories from the Woods series

 "Counting Sheep", charcoal on paper, study for a painting I did in London and was shown at Tatistcheff Gallery, in Chelsea sold

"Let the Poet Sleep", sepia ink on paper, -a theme I have done several times and will return to. The first "Let the Poet Sleep was done in Warsaw, Poland and shown at Tatistcheff Gallery, 57th Street

London Mounted Policeman, charcoal on paper, a study for the painting "Black Bird Fly", which was done in London, and shown at Tatistcheff Gallery 57th street sold

Rowboat, Hyde Park, charcoal and white chalk on paper, study for a huge painting I did in London called Sirens of the Crescent Moon which is in a large corporate collection. 

"She Heard the Midwives Whisper", charcoal on paper, study for a painting inspired by the Isabel Allende book "House of Spirits" 

"The Conversation", charcoal on paper, study for a large interior, which is in Boston 

"The Queen of Hearts",  sepia ink on paper, study for a large painting that was auctioned to raise money for the Clown Care Unit of the Big Apple Circus. The man and head clown who started the Clown Care unit, owns the painting. The story is in the archives on this blog. 

"The Virtues of Air", charcoal on paper, study for a painting from the Painted Stories series, London

"The Weather Channel", charcoal on paper, study for a painting that is in an environmental law firm in DC

"Trained Garden Rabbits", charcoal on paper, study for a painting in my Enchanted Garden series that was shown at Tatischeff Gallery in Chelsea sold

"Woods Angel", charcoal on paper, study for a painting of the same title from the Stories from the Woods

"On the Walk Home" Highgate Cemetery, London, print on paper, framed 

Tapestry

When I paint a narrative portrait for someone I always think of myself as the weaver and my client as the provider of the yarn.  With my recent project my client provided some truly beautiful and rich threads to work with! The painting is a gift to his wife to celebrate their marriage and their family. Right from the beginning I was moved by his love and admiration for her. He took so much time thinking about the project and carefully choosing photos and memories from their many years together, that he thought she would enjoy, for me to incorporate into the painting. It was truly a labor of complete adoration by him and thus very inspiring for me to create it.

"Tapestry", oil on linen, 34" x 50"

The concept of the painting was to represent their life together and their travels, as well as personal talents, interests and occupations of the parents and their three children.

He thought that his wife would like a deep space that would feel like a window into another world. I looked to several Dutch street scenes as inspiration for the composition and architectural elements (Both of them like Dutch paintings.)- One by Willem Koekkoek and one by Joods Dommersen. 

  

           

On either side of the street are two little interiors.  On the left, a couple sits at a table in an intimate scene of domestic happiness as they plan their next trip together. There is a map on the table and an antique globe lifted from Vermeer’s painting- “The Astronomer”.  The pose comes from a painting by Pieter de Hooch titled “Couple with Parrot”

In the foreground of the interior is a suitcase with a guide to Paris and a beret - a tribute to his wife’s love of French culture and language. The Pinocchio hanging from the chair is a reference to the client’s profession.   

On the upper level of the house a young man stands with a telescope. This is the eldest son who is at SpaceX in California, working on sending a rocket to Mars. Note - the moon looks a bit like Mars - and there is a rocket stream in the sky.

Also on the left side monkeys cavort on the roof tops - these are from some of the many photos of animals taken on their family trips.

Connecting the composition from left to right is their daughter as a little girl dribbling a soccer ball through the street and a young version of their two boys, about to launch a model rocket. The family does not have pets but I couldn't resist adding a little hound in the door at the right as a symbol of fidelity.

In the interior on the right side there is baking going on. The two younger children are serious bakers and it was difficult picking which gorgeous cake to include in the painting. Also in this interior are a trumpet their daughter plays, a typewriter and an apple with a bite out of it. The younger son is a screenwriter and also works for Apple. On the back wall is a map of Indonesia -a frequent destination for the husband and wife before they had children. In the upstairs window is a Probiscus Monkey - one of the family’s favorite creatures from their many trips. It is sort of a family joke because probiscus in Malaysian means old Dutch uncle.

 

Now for the landscapes. There were so many to choose from and making the transition from one to the next to create a deep space was one of the many enjoyable challenges in this project. At the end of the street are a number of warriors from the tomb of a Vietnamese emperor in Hue, which make way for a bridge in Nara, Japan. The couple, in their early years together, are about to cross the bridge to visit The Golden Temple in Amritsar India. Behind the temple the landscape changes rapidly to Morocco and five camels just visible on the horizon, before your eye makes a leap to the vanishing point for the entire painting - which lies somewhere beyond Machu Pichu.

I feel honored to have been asked to collaborate on this project, to have gotten to know this amazing family vicariously through their personal photos and stories, and to bear witness to the deep love and pride a man has for his wife and children.

Come for Drinks!

Come for Drinks! oil on linen, 30" x 40"

I was so excited when my art dealer Jaynie Spector, owner of Dog & Horse Fine Art in Charleston South Carolina asked me to do a family portrait of her with her husband Joe, their son Sean and all their dogs past and present. First of all I adore Jaynie as all her artists do. She is a lovely person with all that southern charm mixed in seamlessly with a great business mind and a love for great art (and dogs). Jaynie and I first met many years ago when I was a young artist in NYC and she was a young art dealer working at a gallery in Soho. We met through a mutual friend, Dorian Rogers Winslow, also a great lover of art (and dogs) and owner of Womanswork https://womanswork.com/. 

To make a long story short, I moved overseas, lived in several countries, exhibited my paintings in galleries in New York and abroad, finally settling in DC. Jaynie moved up in the art world, ran several galleries before settling in beautiful Charleston -and we lost touch. One day another mutual friend walked into the gallery, told Jaynie I was living in DC, gave her my number and the rest is recent history.  

If you ever go to Charleston you must go visit Dog & Horse at 102 Church Street. It is an intimate space filled with work by some of the best dog and horse painters in the world. This is not an exaggeration. A few whose work I especially love are Lese Corrigan, Robert Clarke, Beth Carlson, Ian Mason, and David Terry, but they are all incredible. See for yourself! http://www.dogandhorsefineart.com/  And going to Dog & Horse Fine Art is not your typical stuck up gallery experience. On any day you will be greeted warmly by a person, an English Cocker, or maybe a rabbit or...

So a little bit about Jaynie's portrait. I guess the big things I wanted to portray was the charm and hospitality she exudes as well as the very appealing "controlled chaos" that sort of whirls around her and those who love her.  The Spector family loves to entertain and cook and Joe publishes the most beautiful food magazine about the food culture of the south, called The Local Palate http://thelocalpalate.com/. You can see a copy on the chair in the left foreground.  

The interior is a composite of several rooms in their home in Charleston and yes the ceilings are that high. The art on the walls and the books on the tables all have significance to their family or professional lives. And if you look closely- that is a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. :) And the dogs-oh yes the dogs.  On the right with Sean is Tommy, the current greeter in the gallery. In the center is Jaynie's dog love of her life, Lucy. On the left is Joe's beautiful and devoted boxer Natasha, from an earlier time, who he adored. And the dog racing across the foreground, knocking over chairs, spilling the chardonnay and carrying the red high heel? That is  "Crazy Zed" about whom many tales/tails are told in the Spector Family history book. 

Lullaby for Lions

Lullaby for Lions, oil on linen, 48" x 60"

I have been working on this painting for several months, but it has been in my mind for a long time. The first kernel of an idea happened on July 1, 2015 when I heard on the radio that Cecil the Lion had been shot after being lured from the sanctuary by an illegal party of big game hunters.  I was in my car and I remember thinking thank god I wasn’t at that stage of my life when I was ferrying small children around in my minivan. One of them would certainly have heard the report, as children have finely tuned ears for things like that. And I would have had to come up with some explanation of why a man would want to shoot and kill a beautiful, magnificent, unsuspecting living creature. And I would not have had an explanation that would not destroy a child’s vision of humanity for the rest of their lives- at least not at that moment. I think I would have said something like "well as a good human being it is our responsibility to guard and protect beauty, creatures at risk, and things more vulnerable than ourselves". And then I envisioned a child’s answer, a salve to soften the horrid, nightmarish image of poor Cecil dead on the ground with a poor excuse for a human standing over him, grinning victoriously. 

...So the vision was a little boy who had invited the lions into a safe place, a sanctuary where he could read them stories and sing them lullabies and let them sleep peacefully…not a worry in their lion hearts.

When I started doing sketches and research for the actual painting, I was drawn again to Rousseau. Studying his paintings over the past few years I have been attracted to them in a different way than ever before. I am in awe of his inventiveness and unencumbered capacity to create form and narrative without any responsibility to realism or naturalism. I have fallen in love with his tigers and lions and fantastic botanical forms. I borrowed his palette and landscape elements from The Sleeping Gypsy for the setting for Lullaby for Lions.

Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897

Other lions that I looked at are the beautiful sculptures outside the New York Public Library, named Patience and Fortitude.

And a tiny statue that was given to me as a gift. It sat like a muse on my painting table while I worked...and then there were my own cats who wander in and out of the studio and conveniently curl up at just the right moment.

Otis and tiny lion sculpture

I also fell in love with the paintings of lions by the French painter 

Aime Nicholas Morot (1850-1913) whose work I didn’t know until I started looking at lions. He could really paint lions.  

Morot Lion

And many thanks to the young boy next door who modeled for the little boy in the painting. At the time his hair had grown beautifully long and unruly like a lion's mane. When I told him he was to be reading to lions, he took that pose like he had read to lions everyday of his life. Perhaps he has. I know for sure he will never, ever shoot one.

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Mending the Tigers

I just finished painting "Mending the Tigers". I have been working on it since March 9 when I last posted about it in progress. It has been almost three months. People often ask me how long it takes me to do a painting but I never keep track. So now I know. I guess keeping a blog is good in that respect. 

"Mending the Tigers", oil on linen, 4' x 5'

As I mentioned in my earlier post the idea came from a short story by Aimee Bender called Tiger Mending. It is a mesmerizing story so you should read it. It is in her collection called "The Color Master". Here is a link to her website http://aimeebender.com/.

I interpreted her story to have an environmental message. In my mind the tigers were coming out of the mountains to get help from humans. Their stripes falling off as symbolic of the fragility of this great beast in the modern world. The young woman mending the tigers represents the mindfulness, inventiveness and skill it is going to take for us as the responsible party to "mend" the environment. While she is the creative and the talent who has the ability to do the mending, her sister, leading the tigers in, is the facilitator-the person with the brain and resourcefulness to make things happen. 

(Note that this is my interpretation. There are others out there that focus on the relationship between the sisters). 

While I was preparing to do this painting  I looked at lots of paintings through art history that were about tigers both to see how they were handled by artists in terms of drawing and painting but also to see their place in art.  I went to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia to see Henri Rousseau's "Scout Attacked by a Tiger".  It is a brutal scene but Rousseau's vision is magical. They seem like mini figurines in long grass. The tiger's anatomy is a little odd but it makes for an enchanting painting. I hope the tiger came out on top of the situation, but Rousseau keeps us guessing. 

Eugene Delacroix was another great painter of tigers. I especially love his "Tiger Resting" which I also included in "Mending the Tigers", hanging above the Rousseau, and his beautiful watercolor and pencil study, simply called "Tiger". It is in the National Gallery.  I included it as a plate in the book in the right foreground- as if the young woman was studying it to see how to stitch the stripes back on. 

Mending the Tigers in Progress

It has been awhile since I've posted anything on my blog. Sometimes when I am working I am too involved it the process to spend time on social media or even my computer. I guess I will always be "old school". Even though I spend the necessary time each day on my computer for my business, sending images, emailing clients, communicating with my galleries, and trying to update my facebook studio page and instagram (yikes!)  I never really feel like I am truly "working" unless I am up in my studio standing in front of my painting wall. I had been working on another book and some portrait work so it took me awhile to get this painting up and running. To dust off the cobwebs in my brain I first did a full size drawing in charcoal and chalk on brown paper. The drawing and the painting are 4' x 5'. It is great to work in charcoal so I can push it around until I get the composition where I want it. So that is the first image you see here.  The second is the perspective drawing on the actual canvas. The third is the underpainting in grisaille with just the start of the first glaze. (pink area on the right) The fourth image shows more of the first glaze. That is where I am right now.  So stay tuned for more images of the progress. By the way the subject of the painting is inspired by a mesmerizing story called "Tiger Mending" by the writer Aimee Bender. I can't wait to paint the tigers!

"The Collector", oil on panel, 26" x 32"

This is a portrait I just completed for the New York collector Neale Albert and his lovely wife Margaret. He asked to be painted in his library with some of his favorite pieces. He has an astounding collection of paintings, porcelain, English brass, miniature Shakespeare books, and a beautiful replica of the new Globe Theater made by Tim Gosling. He is also known for commissioning unusual  (and challenging) projects from artists, cabinet makers, and book binders. His collection will eventually go to Yale University and there will be an exhibition at Yale next spring of his miniature Shakespeare collection called  "The poet of them all": William Shakespeare and miniature designer bindings from the collection of Neale and Margaret Albert.  They have decided to show this portrait as part of the exhibition. 

A few interesting things about the painting: There are paintings by George Deem, Robert Kulicke and Nell Blaine among others. Neale and Margaret own another small apartment two floors above their  apartment on Park Avenue, which opens on to a roof garden, that overlooks the city. They call this apartment and garden "The Morgan Cottage" and refer to it as their summer home. So to include it in the painting we brought it down to the 6th floor and opened the library to it (in the painting). Neale and Margaret are also represented in the garden, enjoying a peaceful glass of wine above the chaos of the city.  Also included in the painting are many objects they cherish from their personal life histories. I have known Neale for a long time and I did another painting for him years ago of his favorite London pub. It was an honor to do this portrait for them and it gave me a deep appreciation for their lives and the kind of focus, passion and perseverance it takes to form a collection over a lifetime. And I admire their generosity in giving the collection to Yale where it will be appreciated by many-forever.

"The Sunday Paper" and homage to "La Grande Jatte"

I finished this painting, "The Sunday Paper", just in time to frame it and put it on a truck to Dog and Horse Fine Art, in Charleston, South Carolina. My show there opens on Friday night and I am very excited about it. http://www.dogandhorsefineart.com/index.php/exhibits/item/kathryn-freeman-a-perfect-reality  Come to the opening if you are going to be in Charleston! There will be jazz music and cupcakes! Along with wine, of course. Charleston is known for its Friday night art openings.

"The Sunday Paper", oil on linen, 36" x 48"

 As you can see the interior of the painting is a typical Sunday morning in some houses-guy on the sofa, dozing off while reading the Sunday paper. His faithful dogs would love to go to the park, but their owner won't wake up and take them. So the park is coming to them.

Georges Seurat's incredible painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", has had a huge role in my development as a painter over a period of 30 (at least) years. I fell in love with it when I was in graduate school, -for its formality, compositional brilliance, such as the use of the golden section and diagonals, use of the silhouette, shape repetition, shape symbolism, and about a million other reasons. Seurat was a genius and so much more than the "pointillism" technique he used for awhile, which tends to be his big claim to fame in art history books. He died at age 32 and I always wonder what he would have produced if he had lived longer. He was a skilled draftsman as well as an auspicious colorist, so he was capable of anything.

Whenever I feel confused about painting (frequently) I return to La Grande Jatte along with going back to look at Vermeer's "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter". Those two paintings clear my head, reinforce what painting is about, and restore my faith.  I had seen lots of studies and reproductions of La Grande Jatte but I had never seen the big finished painting until last year when I finally got to Chicago. The painting took my breath away and I felt dizzy standing in front of something I had studied and admired for so long. I spent the entire day there.

It was time to pay homage. So I decided to make the park in "The Sunday Paper", La Grande Jatte.

I had to expand Seurat's landscape a little bit so that it was visible out the door and the side window, and I borrowed a few figures from some of his other paintings and studies. As you can see, a few elements of the painting have already seeped into the room. The monkey on a leash being held by the woman with the black parasol has sneaked into the picture along with her hat, as have some of the vertical elements and diagonals. I do realize that there are a lot of people who are not reading a hard copy of the newspaper anymore, so there is a tablet (maybe a kindle?) on the coffee table on top of the red book. So that is me tipping my top hat to new technology, while also tipping it to one of the greatest paintings of the 19th century. Thank you Georges. 

Summer, Water, Mermaids- Limited Edition, Signed Prints

Hot and sultry days, heirloom tomatoes and corn, diving into the waves, going fishing, sailing, looking for mermaids...

Since summer is upon us my printmaker in Charleston is doing a limited print edition of two of my mermaid paintings- "The Attraction of Fishing" and "Water Music".  There is more about these two paintings in the archives of my blog, so just scroll down.

I received the proofs yesterday and I am excited to say that they are perfect. They are printed on beautiful archival paper, signed and numbered. Let me know if you would like to order one or both!

The Attraction of Fishing

                                                                   Water Music


Price and size options:
The Attraction of Fishing-  15" x 20"   $275
                                                20" x 28"  $375

Water Music                       16" x 20"   $275
                                              24" x 30"   $395
10% discount for two prints

Sometimes Magic Happens -"The Queen of Hearts"

The Queen of Hearts, egg tempera, oil & gold leaf on panel, 48" x 60"

     Many years ago I was asked to do a painting for a fundraiser in New York City that was being held for the Big Apple Circus's Clown Care Unit. http://www.bigapplecircus.org/clown-care which was started by a legendary man and legendary clown Michael Christensen- also known as Dr. Stubs.
The Clown Care Unit is a group of specially trained clowns who visit the hospital rooms of sick children. Michael/Dr. Stubs believed deeply in the healing power of humor and felt that "clown rounds" could do great things for sick kids and their families.  I was  honored to be asked  because I believed in the idea, and I am always searching to make my work meaningful to humanity.
 I did a painting called "The Queen of Hearts". The painting is of a mother by the bedside of a sick child. She hears a sound at the door to the room and sees The Queen entering the room carrying a heart on a pillow.
     I attended the Clown Care Benefit Auction at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Soho. It was a magical night with both benefactors and clowns chatting and mingling. One clown kept walking by me and sneaking things out of my purse then handing them back to me with a twinkle in his eye. The clowns were so funny and colorful, they lightened up what might have been a typical stuffy black tie art evening. I could imagine how cheerful, comforting and entertaining they must be for a child who feels miserable and frightened in a sterile hospital room.
     In the middle of the evening someone came up to me and told me that "The Queen of Hearts" had been taken out of the auction. I wasn't sure what had happened at the time, but I later found out that the organizer  of the benefit had actually purchased "The Queen" for Michael.  Here is the story from Michael, in his words, which he wrote to me earlier this spring in an email.

March 3, 2015

For Kathryn,

I am standing in the basement of an art gallery in Soho watching pieces of art arrive that are going to be auctioned off to benefit the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit.  The Queen of Hearts, a painting by artist... Kathryn Freeman, just arrived.  When I see it, I start to cry and don’t know why; it doesn’t matter; this painting touches my soul. I immediately turn to the gallery owner and make a bid for the painting, $1,000.  Fat chance. The painter is very well known and since it is a benefit, my bid will not even cover her minimum.

Rick Segal, the man who organized the benefit stands next to me and says: “You will never get it.” Thanks, Rick. Thanks for your positive attitude.

The evening of the auction arrives and I, dressed as a clown, am the auctioneer.  I do my best to run the fine line between entertaining the audience and selling the art.  Right in the middle of selling a piece, Rick whispers: “The Queen of Hearts is gone.” Ok. I loved it. It touched my soul and it is gone. Ok. I accept that; many things and people I love leave. It’s ok. Let’s continue with the job at hand; let’s sell as many pieces of art that we can at the highest prices possible to benefit our program.

I am in the dressing room after the show taking off my makeup. Rick comes in and says: “Michael, follow me; I have something to show you.” He stands me in front of the Queen of Hearts and says: “Wendy and I bought this for you. You deserve it.”

The Queen of Hearts hangs on the wall in our living room.  I don’t remember when I first noticed it. I was standing on the landing.  I looked at the painting and felt that there was something different. As I looked more closely, I noticed that the sunlight that was streaming into the living room of my home lined up perfectly with the “painted” light that was streaming into the living room of the piece. I stopped. It was perfect. There was no difference between what I was experiencing in life and what I was experiencing in the painting; they were the same. This time, I didn’t cry; I wondered.

More. Maybe it happened every year and I just didn’t notice; maybe it happened only this year, only now, only in this moment. I am sitting in the living room with my wife, Karyn.  She says: “Look at the painting.” I look up to see the child’s face illuminated by golden light, warm, soft golden light only on the child, perfectly aligned; the line separating painted life from breathing life is dissolved; there is no difference.

Thank you.

Michael

Michael also sent me some photos of the painting lit by the natural sunlight in the room in the way he had described it...  I am so happy that Michael and his wife have "The Queen of Hearts" and I am honored that my work and life have touched theirs. 

Art and life, life and art. Sometimes magic happens. 

"Armchair Blues"

This is my most recent painting. The inspiration for it came from multiple sources as is the case with most of my paintings. As you all know by now, I am a big advocate for adopting shelter dogs. The before and after photos are among the things I like best about the dog rescue world. So in the first photo you see a skinny, sad, mangy dog on a concrete floor or tied to an outdoor dog house in a dirt yard. Then the second photo shows the same dog looking well fed, happy and relaxed on a comfy couch in someone's living room. A few months ago I discovered there is a little company that produces piano music especially to calm the nerves of stressed dogs. I downloaded some for my two, and oddly they did seem to enjoy it. One of my favorite Italian Renaissance painters is Fra Angelico. Lately I have been looking at his interesting and often dissonant color palettes, which influenced the yellow and blues in this painting. And lastly the title... there is a great tune that Ray Charles performed called the "Rockin Chair Blues".  It is the perfect music for this painting but since the dogs are in armchairs, not rocking chairs, (that would be tricky), I changed the title a little.
And I also need to thank Ellie, of Two Blockheads fame, for letting me use her photo for the dog in the striped chair.

                                "Armchair Blues, oil on linen, 36" x 48"
                     

Here are some links you might like:

Music to calm dogs:  http://throughadogsear.com/
Two Blockheads:  https://www.facebook.com/TwoBlockheads
Rockin' Chair Blues:
Remdog and Loulou enjoying some tunes:

"Rabbit Summer" Limited Edition Prints Available

"Rabbit Summer"

limited edition, signed, giclee prints

on beautiful archival paper

24"x 24"

The prints are $375 plus $20 shipping unless I can deliver it to you.

If you would like to order a print of "Rabbit Summer" or have questions,

please email me.

paintings@kathrynfreeman.com

"Lake House, After the Storm"

I just recently completed a painting titled "Lake House, After the Storm".
It is a long canvas, 30 x 66 inches, oil on linen. I love working on this format as it lends itself to narrative and enables me to create a sequence of  events that tells what the beginning of the story is, (even if the catalyst for the narrative is outside the picture plane), what is happening in the picture plane, and what is likely to happen outside the picture plane on the other side.  The idea for this painting grew out of other images that I have been working on in the past few years - the floating room paintings like "Water Music" and "The Attraction of Fishing" as well as "Moon River" where the water is slowly wending its way into the interior.

"Water Music" 

"The Attraction of Fishing"

  

"Moon River"

I composed "Lakehouse"  using a series of arches to emphasize the right to left movement as well as to isolate the series of vignettes and images. I liked the idea of painting a room and then "flooding" it by glazing color over the floor plane.  I have always been fascinated by images of flooded rooms after natural disasters and how a room seems familiar but at the same time is rather disorienting.

The kernel of the idea for "Lake House" came to me one day when I was walking my dogs in a fundraiser for Best Friends Animal Society with Lucky Dog Rescue. For part of the walk I strolled beside a young man who told me that he first got into animal rescue after Hurricane Katrina. He was working for a company in the south, so he went to New Orleans to help. His job was to paddle around the flooded homes and pick up animals that were stranded. He said it was a very moving experience and he has been involved in animal rescue ever since. The image stayed in my head and even though I know his experience didn't look anything like this painting, the image was inspired by his story.

I tried to make the interior in this painting some what timeless with the classical columns and arches, and the fresco on the exterior wall. I wanted it to create an association for the viewer of ruins or a once beautiful place that is being threatened or destroyed, so the title "Lake House, After the Storm" is meant to evoke an association of the threat of global warming on our environment.

Here are some images of the process:

Graphite study for composition and light

Underpainting in grisaille on gessoed linen

First glaze or "imprimatura"  over the underpainting

Image where some of the interior and the floor plane are in

The finished painting

 (click on it to enlarge the image)

The Remains of the Day

In "The Remains of the Day" the hero returns from a very long day at work, to find that he has been away so long, a large tree has grown in his living room. His little terrier looks at  him as if to say "Sorry, but there was nothing I could do to prevent this".  He decides to make  the best of the remains of his day, so he strips down to his boxers, makes himself a scotch, and climbs up to the roof terrace to relax.  It is the story of the "everyman". In literature  and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in  extraordinary circumstances. The three panels that make up the triptych are each 18" high by 24" wide.

Here is the preliminary sketch for the panels-graphite on paper

Goodnight Moon Limited Edition Prints

Goodnight Moon

Giclee Prints available from now until December 10th

24" x 24" 

signed, limited edition

printed on archival watercolor paper

I have had so many requests for prints of Goodnight Moon (must be the title!), I have decided to do a limited edition that will be available leading up to the holidays. The price is $375 plus $15 for shipping. (if you are nearby I will  deliver it to you!)
Email me by December 10th if you would like to order one, and I can get it to you by Christmas.

Portrait of Plutarque on the cover of JAVMA

I am honored that the oil on panel I did of Plutarque (aka Plume) is on the cover of  the October 15th issue of the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association. This is especially exciting because I love veterinarians! Thanks to Michael Connor, Plutarque's owner, for submitting the painting! To read more about Plutarque click here.  /kathrynfreeman/2012/07/plutarque.html

http://avmajournals.avma.org/action/showLargeCover?issue=40019032

For the Love of Dogs

As a compassionate lover of dogs and as an advocate of animal rescue I am constantly seeing animals who are saved by rescue organizations that are in heartbreaking physical condition from neglect and abuse and in dire need of veterinary care. Every time I see one, I want to respond with a donation to help the organization to save the dog. A couple years ago I decided that I would start doing portraits of dogs and that each time I did a portrait I would make a donation for a specific dog in need that had captured my heart.

Recently the timing of this was like clockwork. A dear friend asked me to paint a beautiful spaniel named Milo. It was to be a thank you gift for her close friends who live in Italy. Milo has the most glorious life a dog could imagine in a beautiful place, going out on boats regularly and playing on the beach. His owners love him deeply and take very good care of him. His coat shines, he is athletic and healthy and has a huge smile. It was a joy to paint such a happy dog and it was also a joy to paint his surroundings of blue sky and cobalt water with the Capri Faraglioni behind him on the horizon.  Just after I painted this little portrait, I heard about another dog- Griffin, who had just been rescued by Second Chance Rescue in NYC. When Griffin was found he was so emaciated he couldn't raise his head. He needed immediate and intensive vet care and Second Chance set up a fund for him- which I was able to contribute to because of the portrait of Milo. Two dogs worlds apart in their life situation and their health, but I truly believe that animals share souls and in some strange way Milo and Griffin's souls will always be connected.

Owl

"Owl" 

oil on panel, 24" x 30"

More Dogs on Wheels...

Beagle and Beamer, oil on panel, 9" x 12"

Chevy with Terriers, oil on panel, 9" x 12"

Here are two more paintings in my
Dogs on Wheels series. These were both done on request of specific dogs, and in the case of the top one- in specific cars. Happy Summer!