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When I began this blog I thought I’d write something every month or so…then the months passed by very quickly.  There was work to do, deadlines to meet, my wonderful husband who deserved my attention, cats to care for, a house that demanded attention…the months passed.  Suddenly it was another year.  Really?…What happened?!

So now it looks like I’ll write when I really have something to share with you, and this is one of those times. 

First…a little background...  North Light Books publishes a number of art books and magazines.  Among them is the Strokes of Genius The Best of Drawing series, which is held as an annual international competition.  In 2011 I was very honored to have them select my drawing of our cat, Sleepy, to be included in Volume 6 of that publication.  Last year the North Light publishers decided to look back through the editions of several of their books series [Strokes of Genius (drawing), Acrylic Works (acrylics), Splash (watercolors), and Incite (mixed media works)] and compile a book on animals—Art Journey Animals: A Collection of Inspiring Contemporary Masterworks.  This was quite a lot of work on their part—thousands of artworks--as Strokes of Genius now has 8 volumes, Splash has 17 – I don’t know about the others.  And, yes, you’ve already guessed it—they chose my drawing of Sleepy to be included in the Masterworks book!  There was no submission of a drawing in this instance—it came out of the blue for me—Sleepy was chosen from all those publications.  I had no idea this was happening—they emailed me and told me they wanted to include my drawing!!!!!  Yes, I jumped up and down!  And the book is absolutely gorgeous—some of the artists included are people whose work I’ve admired for years.  To have my drawing included with their work overwhelms me.  So next time you’re in Barnes & Noble or another favorite bookseller, please take a look at it, but you may not be able to leave without it, especially if you’re an animal lover.  Dogs, cats, wildlife, birds, horses…every page is wonderful.  Sleepy is on page 61--see an image of his page here!

I hope you’re having a wonderful, healthy, and happy New Year…as for me, I’m going back to the studio.  Lots to do! 

From Art Journey Animals by Jamie Markle
Here at North Light Books, we see a lot of art. It wasn’t too surprising when one of the staff members asked why we didn’t have a book that showcased the amazing animal paintings and drawings that we’ve seen. It's such a popular subject, I don’t know why we hadn’t thought of it sooner. After looking at thousands of paintings and drawings, we narrowed them down to 207 works to create Art Journey: Animals.
As I selected the pieces for the book, several of the featured artists mentioned some common themes when describing what inspired their work. Here are some of them:
• The special bond that these artists feel to animals, both domestic and wild, is clearly apparent. This bond connects them to nature in a way that relationships with people do not. Capturing this unity with nature is what drives many of these artists to work with animals as subjects.
• In many ways, these works are more than animals as subjects, but portraits of beloved pets or respected wildlife. The artists, through observation and research, have developed specific traits or features of a particular animal to tell a visual story, relay a specific incident or showcase a behavior unique to that particular subject.
• The texture of fur and feathers provides an opportunity for many artists to explore patterns and repetition found in nature. Many enjoy exploring these textures, which can be both challenging and delightful. Artists found some innovative ways to capture a variety of textures, both on the animals and in the backgrounds. …
• Many artists spoke of how they wanted to capture the look found in their subject’s eyes, stating how important this is to capturing the spirit of the subject.
• Honoring animals is also a common theme of inspiration for these artists. For some, it’s the connection to a beloved household member. Others may want to raise awareness for feral cats or shelter dogs. Still others want to celebrate the majesty of wildlife.
Above all, the thing that is most evident (and most important) is that the artists are clearly working with subjects that they love and have put years of painting and drawing practice into their work. As a fellow lover of both animals and art, I hope you’ll feel the same connection that I felt as I selected these pieces for this book. ~Jamie

My first blog post!  I’ve been saying I’d do this for weeks and now I’m at the computer…WRITING!  YIKES! 

Sooooo…I decided my first post should be about my approach to a recent painting.  This gets a little technical, but I’m trying to be clear and in future I’ll vary my posts so they’re not ALL technical, but I do enjoy learning and sharing what I’ve learned—let me know what you think and if you’d enjoy more like this! 

The painting here is “Kittens Should Nap!” (see below)—still very fresh in my mind. 

As a beginning I decided to use the circles of the cat towers to lead the viewer’s eyes through the painting.  Then I asked myself the same thing I always ask myself when starting a painting: “What do I want to achieve?”  In this case, it was: (1) to tell a story—that was already there for me—a wide awake kitten-cat ready for fun and a drowsy, somewhat disgruntled one wanting that kitten to be quiet; (2) to create depth, which meant I had to be sure that my background colors, even the lighter ones, stayed in the background, so the light to dark ratio and detail (or lack of it) had to work for me, and (3) to develop texture and soft fur the viewer wants to touch.  Those last two needed some thought and study.  If you want to learn, learn from the best, so I looked at Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors.  The only information I found about his technique was this quote:

"I work in drybrush when my emotions get deep enough into a subject. So I paint with a smaller brush, dip it into color, splay out the brush and bristles, squeeze out a good deal of the moisture and color with my fingers so that there is only a very small amount of paint left. Then when I stroke the paper with the dried brush, it will make various distinct strokes at once, and I start to develop the forms of whatever object it is until they start to have real body. But if you want to have it come to life underneath, you must have an exciting undertone of wash. Otherwise, if you just work drybrush over a white surface, it will look too much like drybrush. A good drybrush to me is done over a very wet technique of washes. Drybrush is layer upon layer. It is what I would call a definite weaving process. You weave the layers of drybrush over and within the broad washes of watercolor.”

What he describes is a time-consuming process and takes a good deal of patience, so his comment about emotions getting “deep enough into a subject” is very real—you must be involved in, focused on, and committed to the work and the process (which is always true anyway!). 

So I took his advice:  (1) I began with wet color in layers as a foundation, especially in the darks.  When that had dried I used drybrush to work texture into the cat towers, but it had to be a very different, closer-woven texture from the cats, so I used bigger brushes and shorter bolder brushstrokes than on the cats’ fur.  (2) Then I laid a wet foundation for the cats’ fur, waited for it to dry, and used many (many, many, many!!!) short, very small drybrush watercolor strokes with varied color to give the fur depth and a soft texture. 

Throughout this process I constantly stepped back to see the whole painting as it grew, comparing areas, seeing where I needed more work or changes, constantly working on the whole as well as the parts. 

Well…that’s the short version!  Part of the joy of painting is problem solving and learning every time, thinking through the process.  Then again, that sometimes becomes frustration too!  Let me know if you enjoyed my first post and if there are some painting (or cat!) topics you’d enjoy in the future.