kate mcgee art

First Acrylic Painting that is a Painting

Kate McGee — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:00:31 +0000

Finally painted something with a bit of power. Still has lots of problems (Im not too sure about the blob in the foreground) but at least it has some moxie. Finally, something I am a bit pleased to show you. It is based on a plein air pastel my good friend Gladys bought from me this summer. Since her purchase endorsed the composition, I thought it would be worth a try. I will keep at it. It is square and the original was rectangular so the first shadow was not a problem.

In My Element

Kate McGee — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:14:33 +0000

The Philomath Open Studio Tour was a success. I met many interesting folks who love art and enjoyed the party atmosphere of our visitors as the volume of discussions rose at the end of each group’s wine tasting.

I am now back in my studio starting a new series of pastel paintings done from photographs taken with my phone. My daughter had downloaded a “retro” camera app that takes photos with a cool effect. These are the resource material for my new paintings. A photo of the first one I started is below with the original picture. At the least, I will remove the chicken in the shadows in the upper left corner.

Also, (with great excitement and trepidation) I am learning to paint with acrylics from Donna Beverly–they are different in ways I could not have imagined. Not only do I have to mix my colors instead of just grab them out of the box, they dry! before I have finished with the color I am using. There are methods to deal with this that I will use beginning next week. It is WAY FUN to do something new! It is much more of a brain twist than I thought it would be.

Philomath Open Studio Tour 2011

Kate McGee — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:44:56 +0000

Philomath Open Studio Tour is this weekend and the next! Yesterday, Harold Wood and I set up our show at Spindrift Winery in Philomath. Our studios are too far from town to engage the public so we are depending on the kindness of Matt and Tabitha at the winery. Tonight the artists tour all the locations together and eat at each. I still have some tasks to finish up to get it all ready but we are pretty good to go. Harold’s bright, bold, digital work contrasts with my dark grey nuanced palette but the work looks surprisingly okay together. Hope we have lots of visitors and meet new folks. We will have some maps to get you round the whole tour. The weather looks like it won’t be too bad either. Here is some new work that will be available at the show. And the wonderful postcard/poster that Harold designed. It just makes me smile—Michelangelo’s God image reaching down to choose sushi from a plate holding work by many of the participating artists. Laura Berman’s felted box makes a particularly interesting bite of sushi.

Vistas & Vineyards

Kate McGee — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:44:49 +0000

Monday night was the reception for this year’s Vistas & Vineyards plein air show at the LaSalles Center on the OSU campus in Corvallis. What a great venue. LaVonne Tarbox-Crone juried the show. It is a great show. The Best of Show award went to Bets Cole for her wonderful painting of Thompson’s Mill. We are so lucky to have her painting with us on Wednesdays. There were four honorable mentions. One went to me for Wait a Minute Dusk. I was so pleased! It is a standout show.
I had painted two of my entries the week before, working in the evening light when long shadows reach across the golden lit landscape, garnering a bee sting in the process. Just love plein air painting! Now the rain has socked me into my studio so I am so glad I took advantage of the last days of summer to paint outside.

Wait a Minute Dusk

Summer Burned Day

Morning Pink Dunes

Up on the Wall

Kate McGee — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:51:09 +0000

Was in Eugene yesterday, hanging a show of diverse work at the Pizza Research Institute at 530 Blair…a diverse show with Purely Pastel Artists. I have four pieces in the show. PPA is five pastelists from the lower Willamette Valley. We have over 100 years of painting experience between us. When we arrived, it looked like an overwhelming space for our art but by the time we left, it looked great! We will be there on the Last Friday Artwalk on August 26th from 5 to 7 if you would like to meet us. It is the most unique, delicious, creative pizza in town. They are open everyday for dinner and lunch on the weekends.

Going Back In

Get Ready

Kate McGee — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:48:23 +0000

The workshop with Erik Sandgren was great: mixing my edges from hard to soft, my forms from warm to cool, designing the picture plane as well as the painting composition and, most importantly, making space on paper. He advised that I work harder to draw relationships, scale and objects more carefully. Slow down a bit and consider, don’t just plough through! Also had some ideas about tying the horizontality of landscapes together with vertical color changes.

This is my first plen aire painting with Vineyards and Vistas after the workshop. Loved the striped smokestack and the one of a kind enormous deodar cedar. I didn’t really have a plan beyond painting those and trying to incorporate my new arsenal of painting ideas. Looking at it now, I wish the smoke stack was more vertical. Mike Bergen Wonkiness creeps in. It is hanging at my first Corvallis show–at the Chamber of Commerce through July.

Machine in the Garden

The Corvallis Art Guild Clothesline sale is on August 6th. I am treating it as a dry run for the Art in the High Desert Festival at the end of August. I have had photos taken by Scott Huette in Eugene for the Giclees that will be printed by Richard Armstrong in Bend.

Found this little painting in the Color Songs series that hadn’t been posted. I was supposed to paint one every day but it has been awhile. Today would be a challenge to paint the field of oxeye daisies below me.

June 21

Plein Air Summer has Begun

Kate McGee — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:02:43 +0000

Today I am off to Tyee Vineyards to paint with Eric Sandgren at the Vineyards and Vistas teach in paint out. Here is a painting from last summer on a day at Amity Vineyards under threatening skies.

Amity Vineyards

Morning Breaking

Kate McGee — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:56:01 +0000

More color songs. Painting every day, or nearly so, has been good for improving my artist eye. I now can see the blue in greens of a cloudy day and the gold in greens of sunny ones much better.

Patience is a Virtue

Kate McGee — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:21:54 +0000

: Red Wind

I am anxiously awaiting word from the selection committee at Lane Community College about their buying this piece for their collection. It made it through the first round of their selection process. It is an abstract pastel created in the studio last fall while I listened to a book about Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps that is why the left side indicates water and there is a wasteland feel to the piece.

Must Be Spring

Kate McGee — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:16:06 +0000

Must Be Spring

Geez, it has been a long gray slog to June. Met with my critique group Tuesday night and they suggested a few improvements to this painting which really work. Wish I could have painted with Vineyards and Vistas yesterday, the skies were awesome in the valley yesterday morning.