Author name: Karen Waltermire

I recently began offering prints of my work through Fine Art America, a well known print on demand technology company that has been working with artists since 2006, to give my customers more size and price options for enjoying my work.  They have a stellar reputation, offer several different kinds of prints (i.e., print on canvas, print on paper, etc.) and also offer the option of having the print framed.  The smallest size print (around 5.50″x8″) is around $17.00 US and the largest size print (around 40″x60″) is around $154.00 US.

How to use prints in your home or office?  Buy a few small prints and group them together, buy prints in different sizes to make a statement on a large wall, or buy different kinds of prints (framed paper print, print on canvas, etc.) to group together.  As these examples illustrate, there is a lot you can do with prints.

Click here to see my offerings on Fine Art America.

This summer I am the featured artist in Shop Made in VA (1121 King St, Alexandria, VA) and nine of my paintings are on display.  “Lightbulb” is about getting something you really want.  Sometimes when people get what they really want – a job or promotion or achievement in an activity – their head lights up because they are so happy.  I have seen it a few times and it is heartwarming.  The blue lines from the eye to the mouth are a subtle suggestion of an actual lightbulb.  The background is a very bright orange to signal happiness.

18″x24″-oil on canvas.  $850.00  Contact me to purchase.

This summer I am the featured artist at Shop Made in VA (1121 King Street, Alexandria, VA) and nine of my paintings are on display.  This one is “Hope Over Despair”  which I painted in early 2021.  I was so affected by all that health care workers were going through during the pandemic.   They were caring for very sick patients who had a highly contagious disease with not cure or shot to lessen the severity of it.  I was struck by how impossible it must have felt to leave all the suffering they saw in the hospital when they went home to their families.

27.50×35.50 – oil on oil paper.  $1950.00

I think this is the first large (36”x36”) square painting I have ever done.  Most often I paint rectangles in the vertical position because most of my work is portraiture.  However, I bought a few large canvases for almost free that someone had painted on in acrylic so I got to work a little larger than I usually do.  I exaggerated the shapes around the head to give the illusion of a rectangular shape.  The blues in the background represent shadows around the face.  I accented the blues with naples yellow and white to create a misty feel like a surrealist painting might have.  This painting is about dreams deep in our subconscious and how we exist with them.  The price is $2600.00.  Contact me to purchase.

As a teen-ager I studied music privately and loved being in the band in high school.  I never thought of drawing until I was around 30 years old.  One night a group of us went to a club in DC and a woman was dancing to jazz music.  On each table was a soda can filled with something like rice that we could shake.  I remember thinking I could make something that would look better so I started saving soda cans and painting on them.  I didn’t know how to draw or paint so I created faces using combinations of lines and circles in multiple colors of acrylic paint.  About a year later I took my first drawing class and afterward I knew I was ready to learn to paint.  For a few years I studied painting – mostly interiors – at Washington Studio School in DC.  The painting above is one I created during my time there.  The teacher would set up a still life/interior that we would work on for a couple of weeks.  I learned about the relationship between objects in a composition, the influence that color and temperature have, and how to use oil paint.  This was a great start for my painting journey and ever since I have been working on these skills and more.

Big news!  I am the featured artist for summer 2023 at Shop Made in VA.  They selected 9 of my paintings and my work will be for sale in the store from now through the beginning of September.  Shop Made in VA carries only items and products made in Virginia.  If you can’t get to their store (1121 King Street, Alexandria, VA), you can shop online.

https://www.shopmadeinva.com/shop/original-art/38?page=1&limit=120&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=asc

5 Fast Facts: Marie Laurencin

One of my favorite painters is Marie Laurencin.  She was part of the avante garde scene in Paris in the early 20th century.  Marie Laurencin was a siginificant member of the lesbian artist community and lived her life unapologetically.  In the era of cubism, she was an impressionist painter using pastel colors instead of the strong primary colors used by most artists.  Although she was as good as the male artists of that time she never received their acclaim and her paintings are not usually in exhibitions.  There is a Marie Laurencin museum in Japan and the National Museum of Women in the Arts has some in their permanent collection.

I love how soft and delicate her work is.  The emphasis is on color rather than getting the anatomy just right.  Several years ago I spent many months studying her work and realized that the calmness of each one drew me in.  It really is difficult to create soft and feminine paintings.  I struggled at fist to emulate her style but eventually found my way and incorporated her style into my own.

In fall of 2020 and winter/spring of 2021 I spent a lot of time in Dunedin, Florida working remotely and enjoying the nice weather that allowed me to be outside without fear of catching COVID.  One of my favorite things to do was walk along Edgewater Drive at sunset and look at the beautiful colors and take lots of pictures.  The marina is also on Edgewater and I loved looking at the boats.  This painting is based on a photograph I took one day around lunchtime of several canoes parked at the shoreline.

I recently saw the Philip Guston exhibit at the National Gallery of Art – twice.  My favorites are his social justice paintings in pink.  He created his own style of painting and didn’t hesitate to change his style if it was no longer working for him.  This is probably my favorite painting of the show, “painting, Smoking, Eating” because of all of the shoes stacked up by the person lying down and the person lying down is missing a nose.  It is an odd painting but I can spend all day looking at it.  Do you have favorite paintings that are odd but captivate you?

I just bought some BFK Rives printmaking paper to draw on and love it.  The paper is heavy weight and the texture is smooth enough to draw on with a quill pen.  I tore it easily for the sizes I need and the edges have a nice fringe.  I drew in walnut ink directly onto it and used a variety of ink pens to add color.  The color is tan and I like the warmth is adds without being too dark for my ink.