Startled Squirrel

One form of wildlife that will never be endangered, at least in my neighborhood, is the squirrel. 

For the past two studio tours I've had a visitor look at all my animal paintings and ask "What? No squirrels?"  So I'm ready for her now, unless some squirrel collector squirrels this one away before then. (sorry, I couldn't resist that)

"Startled Squirrel", 6 3/4 x 9", pastel ©Kim Werfel 2012

This fellow was outside my window stealing bird seed from my feeder that was supposed to be "squirrel proof".  They didn't count on the ingenuity of the Fearrington Squirrels...

Still enjoying the same pad of pastelmat paper, this one in a dark charcoal color, a good background for his neutral tones and the light shining through his furry tail.

See my website for more wildlife art.

Enjoy this leap day!

Kim



Red Lion Amaryllis

My neighbor and friend Leslie Palmer surprised me with a lovely Red Lion Amaryllis bulb this past Christmas.  After dutifully planting and watering in the right light, six weeks later we had these magnificent red flowers.  I actually remembered to take some photos :)

"Red Lion Amaryllis", 7x9", pastel ©Kim Werfel

Not one for painting flowers, this one called out to me.  The brilliant red color was so awesome...not a color I play with often.  This is done on white pastelmat, from the same pad as the previous pastel.

The blooms only lasted about ten days, but my painting will cheer me forever! :)

See more of my work at my website.

Thank you for following my blog.

Kim Werfel

Through Women's Eyes, by Women's Hands

I'm happy to announce that I will be participating in The Women's Center of Chapel Hill's annual art exhibition and sale "Through Women's Eyes, by Women's Hands".

Hours are from7:00-10:00pm on Friday, March 2, 2012 in the Great Room at Top of the Hill Restaurant, 100 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC  27514.   For Directions, click here. Tickets are $50.

Available for purchase are anonymous mini masterpieces: 5"x7" works of art whose creator will remain unknown until the piece is sold. All pieces in the show will be unframed and priced at $50. Purchased art may not be taken before 9:00 p.m."

Since the pieces are anonymous, I can't post my three acrylic painting here for you to see.

But, (hint, hint) one of the pieces is a 5x7" acrylic derived from this lovely doe:

"Curious", 12x16", pastel ©Kim Werfel

The names are to be on the back of the pieces.  All proceeds from the work goes to the Women's Center. 

I'm looking forward to a fun Friday night out on the town!  So why not come out Friday night, join me and other local artists and support your local Women's Center? 

Would love to see you there!

Kim
www.kimwerfel.com

Goat in the Grass

Goats are one animal I haven't painted often.  So while at Celebrity Dairy in Siler City, NC with my animal rug-hooking friend Karen Poetzinger, this goat presented himself to me.

Don't know much about goats....didn't know if he was a friendly sort or not, so I kept my distance as I snapped his portrait.

Not much color here...but I could fix that....loved the light coming from one side (Rembrandt lighting, from my portrait class days). 

So I broke out a package of some new pastelmat paper I've never used before...choosing a medium warm undertone.  After pushing the color around for a while...here's my "Goat in the Grass".

"Goat in the Grass", pastel, 9x7" ©Kim Werfel

Love the velvety feel of the pastelmat, but it isn't as forgiving as my art spectrum paper.  Pastel artists out there....what's your favorite surface?

I'm going to paint more animals from this farm.  Great fun!

If you have a favorite photo of an animal that you would like me to paint, contact me here.

Check out some more of my animals for sale on my website KimWerfel.com

Stay tuned for my next painting.....

Kim

Rooster and his Chicks

Rooster & his Chicks, 10"x14"

Last weekend my friend Karen and I went to Celebrity Dairy, a goat dairy farm in Siler City, NC, with the intention of getting a few photos of their new baby goats...(or kids).

Of course I take pictures of the chickens!  The light was perfect....late afternoon shadows lightening up one side, with the bossy, proud Rooster contrasting his lady friends nicely.

This was done on a 12"x16" Art Spectrum Colourfix Plein Air Painting Board in Terrracotta, a nice warm undertone.

I do intend to paint some winsome goats and maybe a llama from this same visit soon.

Thanks for following my blog :)

Happy Painting!

Kim Werfel

www.kimwerfel.com

Jenny...a posthumous lab portrait

"Jenny", 11x14", pastel

You never know where your next commission will come from...

A while back I used to belong to a co-op gallery in Cary and knew a wonderful photographer named Jennifer Weinberg, who now has her own space in Raleigh and teaches classes as well as provides beautiful photography.

Haven't seen her in a while, but she recommended me to a client looking for a dog portrait.

So here's a shout out to Jennifer - thank you! :)

Jenny's portrait is to be a surprise present from a caring wife for her husband's 40th birthday... he owned Jenny her whole life (@16 years) and misses her terribly. 

This piece was tricky because I couldn't meet Jenny, or take photos of course.  So I used two different photos from the client to get the portrait here.  

The main photo was used for her face, but she was wearing a lavender bandana.  

The client wanted her in her red collar, as it was more "Jenny" than the bandana.  She also wanted her later on in years...thus adding the gray/white hairs around her eyes, muzzle and chest.

Not knowing how to do such tricks in photoshop, I played around with the images to achieve this painting.  (Will show the client shortly.)

For information on having your pet's portrait done, please see my website 

Thanks for reading my blog :)

Kim

Sneak peaks behind Sam's Portrait

I'm currently working on 3 small acrylic paintings that are to remain anonymous for an auction, so I can't share them with you. 

Instead, I decided to show you a couple of sneak peaks behind the scene with Sam's portrait, the gorgeous English Cocker Spaniel.

So hear we have his sweet, smiling original photo I took the day of his photo shoot.



Next, I like to crop it and under image - mode, and change it to gray-scale

in Photoshop Elements.

Then under Filter- Artistic, I choose Cutout.  I make sure it's the highest number of levels (8), Lowest Edge Simplicity (0) and the Highest Edge Fidelity (3).

This gives me the above image that averages out the 8 levels of values and creates average-value shapes.  I found out this little trick a couple of years ago which makes painting that much simpler.  Of course, I rely on my eye and choose to change some values for composition, so this is more of a tool than a hard and fast rule.

Here is my messy easel, showing an assortment of pastels I'm using and pastel pencils.  I also make a color copy enlargement of my photo and am faithful to it for drawing and proportions....I'll play with color tho and and change backgrounds. 

The paper for Sam is UArt Acid Free Sanded Pastel Boards -  400 grade.  It also comes in 500, 600 and 800 grades.  (click on the link to learn more)

I really like the 400 grade...is very much like Wallis Paper and worked well with Sam.

  

Here is a shot of me starting work on his left side.  When I'm working, I just pick out the colors I want and keep them handy on the tray underneath so I can repeat the same colors for unity.



Here's the final "Sam" that you originally saw in the last post.  I hope you enjoyed my process and might try some of the papers here.

Thanks for following my blog :)

Kim