Art Blog - Caroline Henry

I brought home lots of art inspiration from my recent vacation, most of it in the form of wild country and wild animals in western Wyoming and northeaster Utah. In the midst of this great open country nestles Jackson Hole, where the small city of Jackson, Wyoming is one of the leading cities for sales of western art to the world's collectors. Best of all, it houses the National Museum of Wildlife Art, http://www.wildlifeart.org/ While most of our national museums are in the great cities of America, the structure and the setting could not be better for presenting wildlife art. The museum, designed by Denver architect Curtis Fentress, fits smoothly into a landscape of rocky cliff formations and sagebrush covered hills backed by magnificent mountains… Continue reading… 0 comments

Modified contour ink drawings catch a likeness in a quick effort. While I don't see a portrait of myself as a marketable work, I do accept commissions. Modified contour drawings such as this fall somewhere between the highly realistic and the caricature. The look is informal and fun. Almost any artist who enjoys drawing or painting people will produce a number of self portraits. Among the old masters, Rembrandt may be the ultimate self-portrait artist leaving behind excellent examples of his likeness from youth to old age. But almost no artist can resist. What model is more handily available? Then there is that very human question "Who am I?" which makes the experience both an artistic and a psychological exploration… Continue reading… 1 comment

A city intersection in an older part of town is sprinkled with unexpected elements. A green snake climbs the planter stake and someone has walked out of her red high heeled shoes. A dogs lazes in the street despite traffic. The more you look that more surprising details emerge. The drawing is 11" by 14" on watercolor paper with watercolor wash. Unframed. I spent a lot of time on this piece. I wanted to make it a layered experience. It needed to be that pleasant looking tree-lined street corner, obviously in an older part of town with newer high rises in the distance. The boy on a bicycle fits right into that charming little scene. It is so normal that the strange to surreal elements provide that much more an intersection with expectations and the unexpected… Continue reading… 0 comments

Watercolor wash with pen and ink produced a vignette of a creekside area very near the apartment door of someone dear to me. This is another of my sketchbook pieces, done during the recent weekend. My sketches often inform other works, but this one will probably simply stay in the sketchbook. It was a morning moment when my tendency to be an early riser gave me an opportunity to take a cup of coffee out to a quite spot of wilderness within an urban area and record the pleasant scene… Continue reading… 1 comment

If you are a gardener, are you drawn to painting what you grow? Almost every floral I paint, almost every still life with vegetables or fruits worked into it, is inspired by time spent in the yard. This simple ink painting on rice paper celebrates the beauty of the artichoke. Lights and darks carry the repeated shapes of the layers of leaves. My artichokes produced their first harvest of the year a few days ago, One on the delights of seasonal growth is that we are reawakened each year to the beauty the reappears. Thus we have an artichoke at perfect ripeness--too beautiful to eat; too delicious not to. The soft tones made possible by ink painting provide a lovely black-and-white rendering of the soft greens of this vegetable… Continue reading… 0 comments

A collection of wedding scenes are painted in watercolor, a background of pink ribbon and scattered leaves on a purple background unites the moments. The largest vignette a traditional bride and groom pose; others include a view of the entire wedding party, cutting the cake, a detail of the back of the brides necklace, and the band. Others portray details of the setting. This painting is not for sale, but I am available for commissions. This was a complex work. Any part of it could have been a painting in itself. The first dance at the reception also makes a lovely painting. A couple might cherish a painting of the church in which they were married, especially if it was the home church of both… Continue reading… 0 comments

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