Art Blog - Caroline Henry

Original pastel shows three tangerines next to a celadon vase with an abstract water lily leaf pattern in blue. A blue silk cloth lies under these objects and a peach colored wall is seen behind them. This small pastel is on 5" _ 7" Ampersand pastel board, and will be shipped in its 8" _ 10" frame. I love working with the toothy Ampersand pastel board. It hangs on to the pastels extremely well. Notice the repeated shapes and colors accompanied by eye pleasing variation. The purple shadows and the fruit break the blue into a larger and a smaller segment, and the vase breaks the larger segment for three blue shapes. The three rounds of fruit are each smaller and paler moving back on the picture plane… Continue reading… 0 comments

At the top of an off shore rock pelicans gather, and a lone comorant stands sentinel at the left end of the formation. Mists swirl in the blue sky behind them. The rock itself is a rugged blend of light and shadow. This original painting is in acrylic on stretched canvas. Without a drop of water in sight, this painting speaks of the sea. Part of it is the light bouncing white off the top of the rocks and reflecting back in the fog swirling in the sky. We identify pelicans and cormorants with the sea even though they can be found along in shore lakes at certain times of the year. The birds also speak of the ocean breeze, either facing directly i to it or hunkered down against it as several of the pelicans are… Continue reading… 0 comments

Having heard once to many times "oh, you don't have that one anymore" spoken in a disappointed voice, it seemed right to make "Sunset Beach Ride" available as a reproduction. This scene does capture that perfect moment of light that speaks of serenity. To be on that beach at that moment is to feel whatever cares the day may have offered fade away. The figures are backlit by the late day light so that only hints of color show at their outlines. Pinks, blues, and purples from the distant edge of sunset dance in the sea, while the surf glows white. Reproduction from a scratch board and watercolor original… Continue reading… 0 comments

This is a detail of my latest addition to my ArtId gallery and most definitely and 'Artist at Play" product. I had created an ACEO by developing some odd bits of color already existing on a small sheet of paper cut from a failed painting The ACEO was in a vertical format and showed a little sheep in a shed and some foliage in the background. I liked it a lot and decided to build a larger painting from the basic set of forms and colors. However, in the larger size a horizontal composition felt right. For this larger version, I also decided on acrylics rather then the watercolor and pen & ink used for the ACEO. Original acrylic painting features a black sheep in a field of dry yellow grass… Continue reading… 0 comments

How many of you create your own Christmas cards? This is one of the images I used this year on my personal Christmas greetings; I had a couple of others that I used at the top of letters or invitations. The Smithsonian magazine December issue in an article by Abby Callard called "Glee Mail" shows cards created for their personal greetings by a number of noted artists. I particularly like an Art Nouveau style card created by August Arp shown in the magazine. They put more artists' cards on their website at http//www.Smithsonian.com/cards. These cards were a way for each of these artists to send a very personal message that only they could create. My watercolor Santa brings a Merry Christmas wish to those of you here at ArtId, and best wishes for a happy and creative New Year… Continue reading… 0 comments

A red zinnia fills a 5" by 5" square. This is not a classic miniature which takes a larger subject and renders in on a tiny scale, but an approximately life size flower. However is is rendered in a fairly painterly representation that does not claim to be the flower but pleasing lines and colors that will certainly put you in mind of a flower. The blush tone of the background plays a bit with the reflected color we often show in white fabric in more complex floral paintings. It is rather pleasant sitting on an easel among other loved objects although I can well imagine someone finding a wall spot for it. I like the layering that is so apparent in zinnia blossoms, as though they were advertising their complexity… Continue reading… 0 comments

I made this sketch on a recent trip to Felton, California, a small town among the redwood forests in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. The bridge is reputed to the the tallest covered wooden bridge in the world, and I drew it straight on to emphasize the height. It was a brisk fall morning, with a wind sufficient to damage and shut down San Francisco's Bay Bridge, some miles to the north, but simply chilly in Felton. I worked fairly quickly because I did not want to be out in that location too long. Under pleasanter weather conditions, I painted a plien air acrylic version of the bridge in two morning sessions last year. That is listed on my Etsy site http://www.etsy.com/view_listing… Continue reading… 0 comments

Our LOST (Lodi Open Studios Tour) event last weekend was pronounced best ever by the artists and by the many visitors who talked about their pleasure in the tour. I showed some of my art in the garden leading into the studio. This is a popular feature with my studio visitors as well as that of my friends Sam Bassett and Pepe Pool http://www.studiosamba.net/index.html who show their concrete sculptures in a garden setting. I sold a large framed painting from the garden, not the one shown here but a poured watercolor pieces called "Heavenly Path". I love how organized my studio is in the aftermath of the tour. I know it won't stay that way, but it's been five days and it still looks good… Continue reading… 0 comments

I painted this after a walk behind my brother's house. The hilly terrain is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. I chose watercolor for it's transparency. For me it is the memory of a walk with my sisters and nieces and nephews out across a field around a natural pond fed by a spring, and among the trees. It was late spring with the trees still in the bright clean green of new leaf growth, plenty of wildflower bloom, and a wonderful clarity to the air… Continue reading… 0 comments

A blue vase with yellow and pink snapdragons is arranged with two lemons and various drapes of fabric. Colors are reflected from one items to another. 10"_14" watercolor image. What pleases me most about his painting is the reflected light on the lemons and the way the wide part of the vase has picked up yellow from the flowers… Continue reading… 0 comments

I haven't been posting, but I have been painting and organizing. It's two weeks until LOST (Lodi Open Studios Tour), and yesterday evening we launched our preview show and event raffle at the Lodi Community Art Center Gallery. Our best lure to get everyone out to the all the studios in the event is an opportunity to possibly win $1200 of art of your choice from the artists in the tour if you visit every studio and get your passport (ticket) stamped. This event is tons of work, but I'm doing it for the third time and consider it well worthwhile. It gets me painting intensely because I would not like to have visitors feel that they were seeing basically work that had been in previous shows. It makes me think about what I do and why I do it… Continue reading… 1 comment

Three red ripe tomatoes sit on a green surface in front of a wall with ochre yellow and red tones. Shadows and highlights add strength to the simple and effective composition. You can almost taste the plump, garden fresh tomatoes. The red and green complements go far in building interest. Actually nature starts the tomato on the plant with that pleasing companionship of color. It seemed appropriate to carry it through to the finished painting. My life seems tomato filled of late and the abundant vines provide material for salads, snacks, vegetable medleys, dried tomatoes for future use, jars of thick puree for winter soups and sauces, the ketchup simmering on the stove at this moment--and fantastic painting models… Continue reading… 0 comments

Small acrylic painting has a snow covered hill in the foreground. In the moonlight it has tints of blue and has white highlights, beyond that is the sea painted in the cold blue of ice, the blue white moon rides in a deep blue sky. The lines a simple, the palate limited, and the composition compelling. I love detail and complexities, but sometimes simple is absolutely best. I wanted to create a painting that was restful without being static. I aimed for a crackling sense of immediacy in the cold of a clear winter night. Much is left to the viewer's imagination. The only colors I used were titanium white and ultramarine blue. Limiting the palette really forces the artist to concentrate on building value--those essential contrasts of light and dark… Continue reading… 0 comments

The Pumpkin Patch at Honey Lake was filled with bright, beautiful pumpkins casting deep shadows. I wanted to show these three pumpkins as the stars of the piece, but I also wanted to show the field in which they grew without diluting the power of the close-up pumpkins. The resulting composition was something of a tromp l'oeil piece as if the main image were on a separate sheet floated on the larger landscape. I chose sepia rather than black pens as part of a desire to make the background painting recede and move the smaller detail painting forward. Honey Lake is formed in a large shallow basin in the Eastern Sierra along the route from Reno, Nevada to Susanville, California. During mid to late summer the lake bed may be entirely dry… Continue reading… 1 comment

Fall colors in the foreground are highlighted by the contrasting purple and blue of the distant mountains including Lassen's peak. I began this as a plein air work in the light of late afternoon in the autumn with the shadows of evening starting to fall, but the fading sunlight bouncing golden off the mountain top. I exaggerated the colors somewhat to give the feeling to the time and place to the viewer. We were on the western slopes of the Sierra/Cascade region looking back at the volcanic peak of Lassen on our way home from a camping trip at Lassen National Park when we stopped to enjoy and capture this scene. I did the painting several years ago. I liked the painting, but it lived in a drawer waiting for that something to make it sparkle… Continue reading… 1 comment

Muted light begins to fade the afternoon as fog rolls in from the sea, already touching land on and beyond the distant point. Breakers in the foreground still sparkle with sunlit bright white. This 11_14 oil painting is on stretched canvas. I painted this as much to capture a feeling as to depict the actual stretch of coast I saw being nibbled at by the encroaching fog. Fog and sun played tag for a good long while that day before the fog won out. The atmosphere was rich in that scent we say "smells like the ocean" as beads of moisture carry the odors of salt and sea life. I painted later in the studio from my memories… Continue reading… 0 comments

Two boys play in a pool among oversized boulders at Zion National Park in Utah USA. The watercolor painting depicts both the rugged majesty of America's southwestern region and the charm of children at play anywhere. This painting started as a plein aire watercolor sketch. The original composition covered a larger area, getting into the scrub brush and canyon wall behind this scene and including a boy climbing on the large rock behind the wading, dancing boy. In the end it seemed better to focus on the more intimate scene. The story becomes one of childhood living in the joy of the moment, for the time being unimpressed by the grandeur around them and sending laughter rippling against the mighty walls of Zion… Continue reading… 0 comments

Okay, the photo is meant to be symbolic--with the CD representing all this "stuff" we need to learn besides continually exploring and improving our art skills. I'm one of those who did not grow up with computer skills; when I was a kid computers were few and huge. For perspective, the engineers on the Apollo project were busy with their slide rules when seen preparing to make adjustments to its flights. As for personal computers, I remember when floppy disks were actually floppy. When I got my first little tan Apple Mac it was primarily for writing; before making images as an artist superseded the desire to create them in literature. Some comments about technology as an essential to art marketing or even to being part of the larger conversation in the art community: 1… Continue reading… 4 comments

Scratchboard drawing with watercolor tint of the northern California coastal village, Mendicino, as seen looking out across one of the inlets along the Mendicino Headlands. The fog above the village was created by using steel wool to remove the india ink while leaving a good deal of gray. This allows the crisp whites of the village buildings, including the church steeple, to stand out as the whitest whites in the painting, calling attention to the village which actually takes up only a small part of the total surface area. The rock, shown in the light red-browns tints common along this crumbling coast, is shadowed by the deep blacks of the india ink, supporting the rugged quality of the cliffs… Continue reading… 0 comments

One of the things I like about scratchboard is working with a black starting point and then taking the whites and grays back out of the surface. The potential for drama is strong. Colors may be added or the work may be at its best left black and white. I love the moonlight effect of the white highlights on the black surface in my "Moonlit Beach" which appears in my "Drawings & Scratch" ArtId gallery. I usually use a pre-inked surface (I like the one produced by Claybord), while others prefer inking their own. An advantage to having india ink on hand is ease in repairing errors. In the photo here I had begun to work the face of a cliff, scraping away large rock wall areas while leaving rock shadow. As you can see, I had already been working the ocean… Continue reading… 0 comments