Closing The Block Island House Up For The Winter

As of this past weekend (Holloween) there will be no laundry blowing in the breeze on this line for many months...The sun will set without us seeing it go down... We will miss being at our island home very much...One can only hope that in the Spring this house will once again be a place of refuge from the daily pace of our lives on the mainland...Oh Happy Winter! 24x30" oil on canvas

This Year's Crop Of New Potatoes

Every year I plant some seed potatoes, given to me by a friend, and this is what I get! My humble crop which I thought was worthy of painting. I had just sold  a painting done in this same colander of some beets I harvested last year on this Chinese looking cloth...it is a fun challenge to make sense of the pattern and the reflections...20x24" oil on canvas

Berkshire Hills and Day Lilies with Black Eyed Susan's

It was 95 degrees out side on the porch when I painted this study...nice and warm...I was in  Alford at Barbara's house looking out over the distant hills and beautiful summer blooms....Hydrangeas 20x20" oil on canvas  Day Lilies 24 x 24" oil on canvas

On The Shores Of Richmond Pond

Early Summer and the Skunk Cabbage is coming up...the Dandelions have already gone to seed and the ferns are pushing  through the soil....I love this wonderful world of green around the water's edge...my students are painting "The Pond" a big distant view of the Berkshire Hills and very large pond?(lake?) while I get lost in the undergrowth...24x24" oil on canvas

A Wall of Kate....48 Years of My Life

A self portrait is an interesting thing...a painting that asks...who am I? where am I? and How am I? Each painting gives the answer in some very subtle way...from 18 years old in Provincetown (bottom left lower photo)  to 65 in Housatonic.( just above the oldest one or shall I say youngest?)..more to come?

Summer Bouquet With Moth

Can you find the moth? It flew into my studio and I could not resist painting  as it enjoyed this Queen Ann's Lace blossom...Why do I love flowers so much? Painting them gives me the greatest pleasure...they are so alive...wonderful colors and shapes and movement! 18x24" oil on canvas

Front St Gallery The Self Portraits and Recent Work by Kate Knapp

New show now hanging at Front St Gallery July3- Sept 6 ...48 years of self portraits (not all of them, only the best) from the age of 18 until now 65....also the new landscapes still lifes etc...I am very much in love with the flowers this summer...can you tell? 24x30" oil   16x20" oil on canvas

Block Island Spring Paintings

Opening up the little house and looking out at the Island world...a long winter is over and the paints are trying to capture the magic of Block Island again...a new season...sun setting as the towels dry on the line in the sea breeze...gotta love it...oil on canvas 24x30"

Springtime Comes To The Alford Valley

The fields glowed brightly with the Dandelions blooming...Spring leaves had yet to creep up the distant hills...when the blossoms faded and the weeds went to seed the valley looked as if it were covered in frost! oil on canvas 30x40"

Interiors The Bath and The Hall View

More interior scenes that I live with every day...I love my house and I am very happy to live here and be able to paint what I see in each room... both oil on canvas 24x30 and 20x30"

St Croix USVI Sea Shells

Every day that I walk down the beach in St Croix  I pick up shells that catch my eye and I fall in love with them...and so my house is filled with shells and this year I decided it was time to try and paint them...here are some water color studies from the collection...each one a treasure...9x11 watercolor and gouache on 140lb paper

After Kitagawa Utamaro

Here is a recent interpretation in oil on canvas of the late 1700's wood block print of Utamaro's. this was from the Ukiyo-e period (paintings of the floating world) This painting was one of the "bigin-ga" that is "pictures of beautiful women" that Utamaro was famous for...I love to spend time studying these old prints because they were made so beautifully...working with oils changes the effect but one can still see how amazing the work was...the intricate patterns. and subtle colors I am inspired by...30x24" oil on canvas (sold)

St.Croix Seascapes Today

Every day a new scene and a different inspiration...I revisit the same places to swim and fall in love all over again....watercolor and gouache 11x14"

The View From My Sofa

It just so happens that I was very sick with a cold for a week at which time I lay on the sofa and watched the sky change colors outside my windows....I am very happy doing this...for a while ..but then I need to get up and paint what it is that I have been looking at...it also helped that I read a book about the artist Nell Blaine which did influence these studies! Sunset and Cyclamen 36x36" oil on canvas   Winter Dusk 30x40" oil on canvas

New Year's Eve Self Portrait

I am looking a little pale...the light was very cold that morning...I really did look a bit grim when I saw  myself in the mirror or rather just seemed too pale so I grabbed the hat to add some color...my student who was painting with me said I looked "old" I guess that's life? 65 in February....20x24 oil on canvas

Play It Again Sam

Once more I am blessed by having Sam Rosen play at the studio...He comes to practice and I get to paint...while listening to his amazing tunes...36x36 oil on canvas

Apple Studies

Three apples three studies...on the same cloth...we grew these apples in our orchard...there were several thousand out there this season...we have been eating them for months now.... so I brought some to the studio...imperfect organic apples... amazing how much fun it can be to paint them...want one? they are all for sale...11x16" 16x16" 11x16"oil on canvas

Last Flowers Before the Frost in Stockbridge Ma.

This Autumn was glorious and at the Botanical Garden in Stockbridge Ma it was magical to me...I love these Anemones that bloom so late in the season...everything else  almost gone...now they are...except in this painting...what a day it was....30x30" oil on canvas

Stormy Skies at Sunset

This cornfield is across the road from our house...The corn has been chopped and only the stalks remain defining the rows ...the golden rod has gone to seed...the leaves are off the trees and have blown away...I love these skies...harbingers of the coming winter...Bring it on...30x40" oil on canvas

How Green Was My Alford Valley?

A late Autumn scene in our valley looking south toward Mt Washington in the distance...A few cows grazing as the evening sun goes down... and the moon is rising....I love this valley...30x40" oil on canvas

Block Island and the Berkshires

From the beach at sunset on the Island...sand dunes in shadow and wild beach roses surrounding Rosalie's wonderful old house and The Gothic behind....to the Berkshire Hills where the cultivated flower reins supreme at the Botanical Gardens in Stockbridge Massachusetts around an old Cottage... How I love to paint outdoors and breath in these beautiful scenes...20x24" oil on canvas for both of them

Before and After

When I finished the first watercolor I was very pleased with the simplicity of the flowers up against the pure white background...however as I spent more time with it I felt like there was something missing....or was it just difficult to leave it alone? I like the more dramatic feeling  of the white spaces around the flowers and the background becoming more interactive with the flowers...what do you think? @16x20 watercolor gouache on Bristol

"Underwater" 510 Warren St Gallery October 3rd 2015 Opening

If you are able to make it to Hudson NY tomorrow I will be there at the gallery from 12-6pm and would love to see you and show you these wonderful paintings! Come swim with the fishes...Barracuda Lurking 36x48" oil on canvas   Blue Fish Red Coral 36x36 " oil on canvas

Our Vegetable Garden in the Berkshires

It has been a good summer for growing things here...lots of sun and rain...I take quite a few liberties when I am painting what I see so there really were more tomatoes on the vine? The old sundial came from my Mother's garden...still ticking....  watercolor gouache 22x30" 140lb paper

A Summer Garden in Hillsdale NY

A morning spent at the Simon property with all the Phlox a blooming....I love this old iron gate and fence...a beautiful shade of Emerald Green with all the other greens around it...What would I do without Summer? It scares me to think of it....living without all of these exquisite flowers seems impossible to me...there is nothing like an August garden to make me very happy...22x30" watercolor and gouache on 300 lb  Arche paper

Front St Gallery Exhibit of Housatonic Landscapes Opening Tomorrow

The Freight train rumbles through the town of Housatonic  a couple of times a day...once heading North and once heading South...here it is crossing the trellis one quiet afternoon... Tomorrow from 3-6 pm I will be at the gallery for an opening party for all to come and see the paintings of Housy...Please stop by and say hello!

Block Island Scene... Johnny's Beach

Sitting on the late afternoon summer beach...actually evening...the light slanting in from the West onto the rooftops...Johnny's and Claudia's...time for a swim... watercolor gouache 12x16"

Jessie Edwards Gallery Block Island RI 2015

This is a painting of the Sullivan House porch painted last autumn...not so many boats in the harbor...this is a calm place to paint when the wind is blowing from the North East...it is one of many to be exhibited this coming weekend on Block Island at my opening Saturday August 8th 5-7 at Jessie Edwards gallery...Please stop in and say hello...30x40" oil on canvas

Block Island View

A wonderful tree that grows along side the  road on the island that I have wanted to paint for many years and finally did!...see Jessie Edwards Gallery...lots of new paintings...30x30" oil on canvas

HOUSATONIC the Mill Town and the River

A most recent painting of the water tower and old mills...also train tracks in foreground...Front St.Gallery is now showing all the paintings of Housatonic painted over the many years...Please stop by and see them! 24x36 oil on canvas

Where Have I Been? Block Island!

 

Sorry to be so long out of the Blog loop...that is if anyone noticed? First painting,The view from our living room on Block Island...The West side on a stormy rainy day....could not go out to paint...30x30"oil on canvas.....Next, Claudia's," then "living room( upstairs "now" bedroom)with Eastern view, also wonderful Summer blooms...How long ago? 24x30" oil on canvas

Springtime Comes To Housatonic

Once again the view from my studio...I am watching the green of the trees climb up the mountain...What a relief to look out and not see snow...In the foreground the cast shadow of the Shufelt Block...30x30" oil on canvas