Two new paintings

View Point oil/canvas 30x20

Not sure how I got away with it, but I just spent three days in a row in my studio. Of course my house is mess, the yard is covered with leaves, I look like hell, and I haven't ventured beyond my property line to enjoy some beautiful warm November weather, but I did sign two paintings and begin two others. Tomorrow is back to the day job which might be a good thing only for the reason that it will prevent me from unsigning my two "finished" paintings and going back into them.

My new paintings are tauntingly full of promise, but I have no delusions that they will not torment me before  I give up the struggle and sign off on them. But they are of Alaska still, and it feels good to keep the continuity.

The painting on the left is from View Point where I helped the forest rangers weed dandelions during my Alaska residency. The painting below is not quite so literal or easy to explain, there are actually no Collard Lizards in Alaska, but there were plenty in the Petrified Forest, where I saw this colorful little guy.

Why did I put a Collard Lizard on an iceberg? I was afraid you'd ask...luckily I have this handy art statement generator  that came up with this gem of a statement that explains it as well as anything can.

"The flux creates, the chaos permeates. In the material reality, art objects are reproductions of the creations of the flux -- a flux that uses the chaos as an organism to represent ideas, patterns, and emotions."

I love the web.

Cold blooded  oil/linen 24x20

Focus

Well, I'm back.

With a new outlook on my art, work.

Instead of being pulled in half a dozen directions (more paintings of Alaska! develop my Grand Canyon studies!  start a big five panel painting of the Petrified Forest! in fact, a series exploring the entire Colorado Plateau! and work in using Creatures in Landscape! work more in Egg Tempera! explore Insects under the microscope!) I've come to the realization that with the limited time I have to work in my studio I will be better off focusing on one area of interest at a time.

Duh!

When I think back on my best work, it was done with a singular obsession (Churches, the Train Series, Russia, Shoemaker). Not that it doesn't hurt me to think of putting the other projects on hold, especially when I think of the impressions of my recent residencies starting to fade, but I do have a way of bringing back my memories, and that's to edit and illustrate the journals I kept.

Of course if I could restrain myself from applying to new residencies before finishing work from the previous I wouldn't have a backlog, but that's not going to happen, it's just too tempting to try for the chance to be AIR in those incredible landscapes.

So for now I am going to focus on Alaska, and work on images from my residency with the Forest Service in the Chugach. I have 3 paintings now in progress and am determined to finish my journal. Maybe it will bring me luck as I wait for the decision on my application to Denali!

Escaping the web

I've taken a break from website building long enough to get back in the studio for at least a few nights. Working on a painting that combines icebergs in Prince William Sound, with a Collard Lizard from the Petrified Forest, and hands from a Grunewald painting. Thus the clay appendages on my easel. Will it work? Perhaps not, but I'll probably post it anyway.

I'm in the process of migrating Kathyhodge.com over to a new web host, which may mean it's down for a few days. Hopefully I can do it without losing my email for more than a day. If by any chance you want to get in touch with me and it's not working, you can always leave a message on my facebook page, or in the comments.

Nothing much else to say, except I'm glad that the National Parks and Forests are back open. Hopefully it means my application to Denali National Park is back on the agenda. After all, the seventh attempt is the charm!

BETA, META, FETA - say cheese!

Ok, here's my excuse for lack of posts, I've been working obsessively (which is the only way you can work in HTML and CSS) on my new website design.  It's finally ready to go public, but still a work in progress. I'm not brave enough yet to migrate my .com address over, so I've created this new one on www.kathyhodge.net. Eventually I will use the same design on www.kathyhodge.com and switch it to a faster (and cheaper) web host.

Hopefully this design will stay useful for a few years, since it's designed to work on desktop, tablet and smartphone. I refuse to design a version for google glass, or Apple watch, or the microchip that will be embedded in our brains in the next upgrade. Call me a luddite, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Let me know if you see anything wacky going on, unless you are using IE v6.0 or under, In that case I don't want to hear it. My hatred of IE is only tempered by the versions 8.0 and above, the point at which IE has grown up and started to behave. Sorry, that's just my cranky web designer persona talking.

Since this is wrapping up, I hope to get back to my Artist in Residence wordpress group site. Because what else am I going to do with my "free" time, paint?

Two little Canyon Paintings

I've been working non-stop on my website redesign, but am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it's a strange rectangular blue glow. Or is that just the light from my laptop?

Oh well, it WILL launch soon, and I can wean myself off lattes and coffee shops, and get back to the studio. I'll post a BETA version soon for all my loyal blog followers. In the meantime, here's a few more little paintings from the canyon.

Yes, I did paint on the trails...

View from the Coconino

but finished up in the studio..."En Atelier Air" as it were.