Studio Sale on etsy.com (catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com) Now!

Lots of "Thank you's (or youse)" lately to the wonderful people who support my artistic efforts and purchase my prints and/or original artwork. You're inspirational, motivational and downright kind! Grateful - more so than you can imagine. Etsy: catherinetwomeyart.etsy.com

"Sequenced" Original Painting by Catherine Twomey On Offer

The luminous sky and mountains at over 6,000 feet can overwhelm. Couple that with the late spring blooms of the rhododendrons, and there is a sense of floating high above the clouds as the sun descends. I'm inspired by the mountains and sky, of course - but the flow of the pigments themselves is so freeing; so abstract. It's like it helps makes sense of all of the complex layers and diffuse light spreading through the clouds. Each layer is constructed

 separately using pigments, tools, an airbrush and gravity. Although the end result appears realistic, on closer inspection it's made up of pours, ridges and glowing pigment. This 24" X 36" original painting will infuse your room settings with good taste and luminescence. It is framed in a lovely copper and black floating frame. 

"Altapass Apple Orchard With Cloud Shadow" by C. Twomey Available!

An hour's drive up to a mountain pass proved to be well worth the trip. I spent a day at Altapass Orchards in North Carolina - and what a sight it was! The day was clear and unusually warm, so I was able to set up for some long range views. The apple blossoms were just coming out, adding to the scene's delight. This original watercolor is 6" X 12" on archival Canson board.

Sold In Support Of Educating Young Scientific Illustrators!

Thanks to Joan for purchasing this original oil painting! All funds go to the Vesalius Trust (vesaliustrust.org) to educate young scientists.

Please visit here for my annual sale: https://www.catherinetwomey.com/available

"Catawba Falls, Upper" by C. Twomey

I hiked the Catawba Falls Trail east of Asheville, trekking through a mossy, shady forest valley to a beautiful series of waterfalls on the Catawba River.

The headwaters of the Catawba River are beautifully scenic. Just east of Asheville, the river tumbles through a rolling forest, cascading in a series of waterfalls and flowing over a mossy riverbed set in a shady, scenic stretch of the Pisgah National Forest. I explored waterfall after waterfall in a sun-dappled valley, hiking just over two miles through a shady forest to the seeping wall of vibrant green moss and tendrils of water known as Catawba Falls.

"Deep Forest 1.0"

Quite different from my typical style, I'm loving the freedom of the acrylics and colors merging. I included some freestyle drawing using a quill pen. Thinking abstractly is a new and wonderful challenge.

This work is a cracking example of a new series. I'm using a pour technique combined with drawing. First I select my palette, then I mix my colors in containers using flow medium and sometimes dimethicone. I then free flow the paints into one single cup, deciding at the same time what color goes with what for the vision in my mind. Next comes the exciting pouring of the concoction onto an archival panel. Lastly is the drawing using various implements and a lot of creativity.

Art Collector: "Buck Mountain Vineyards" by Twomey

Thank you to the collector of "Buck Mountain Vineyards":

"Buck Mountain Vineyards" by C. Twomey

To review my website, please click HERE

To purchase prints of my work, please click: Fine Art America

I greatly appreciate your business and support!

Happy Holidays and New Years!

Original Art For Sale, C. Twomey

These companions together were perfect. I don't know if it was the shapes (intriguing), the colors (harmonizing), the tension (subtle) or all of that - they just had to be painted.

To view additional art for sale, please click:

HERE

Process
My painting process is to first layer in a warm color, like burnt sienna, onto white linen canvas. With that thin layer still wet, I wipe out the lightest areas, which later provides luminosity and usually is enough to define the shapes. Next, I apply the lightest and then darkest areas, which helps to establish the values and colors. Finally middle tones and more detailed areas are applied, always looking to harmonize the colors, refine the drawing and focus on the center of interest.

Thank you for your interest!

"Jug Portrait 3.0 Framed"

Here is a photo of the jug portrait, framed and ready to hang. Please click https://www.catherinetwomey.com/new-products-3/jug-portrait-30 to purchase, and thank you for your interest.

Jug Portrait 3.0

Just finished this 6 X 6" portrait of a jug. The shapes and colors of these old jugs just fascinate me, which is why this is the third one I've painted. This is available if you're interested. Thank you for looking.

"Boat Dock 3" Auction Ending Today!

Please click HERE to bid!

Boat Dock 3

Sample of painting framed.

This boat lays on the dock on Kenilworth Lake in Asheville. The colors are luscious and reflections so interesting.

Thanks for your interest!

African Shell and Rock, In Conversation

Just posted this:

African Shell and Rock, In Conversation

To Fine Art America, where prints of it up to 43 X 60" can be purchased. Found this wonderful Sedona red rock outside the studio one day, the same day I found this smooth, pearlescent African shell in a mystical mysterious Sedona-type shop.

Moving to California on Saturday. No really, I am. To Danville, which is in the East Bay of San Francisco. I am so looking forward to painting new landscapes, people, horses and whatever else crosses my path. We're going to take two weeks to get there, seeing all kinds of friends along the way in Cleveland, Chicago, Montana and finally San Fran. Time for a good, good change.

BTW, the original is for sale. Email or give me a call at 262-893-4126 & we'll talk.

5 Ways To Identify A Painting For YOUR Taste

There are so many choices of painting styles - when you're in the market, it helps to quickly narrow down what appeals to your individual taste....(continued below)

Bleak House Barn III

Working on a series of the Bleak House Plantation Barn located in Earlysville, VA. What I'm liking very much about this painting is that I'm loosening up. A dream like, luscious quality is infusing the structure - a quality I very much feel when I'm looking at this venerable barn.

This original is available for sale as a 5 X 7" oil on archival linen board. Framed in a gorgeous custom gold and black floating canvas frame. 

Helpful purchasing guidelines:

1. What's your budget? You can purchase original pieces of art - art that will increase in value - for less than $500.

2. When looking at art samples, what draws your eye first? This includes identifying that eye-grabbing trait: A color or colors? Subject matter, pattern, abstraction? The stroke (or lack of) of the artist's hand?

3. What size? This seems obvious, but are you open to whatever appeals? Or are you trying to fill a big space over the sofa? 

4. Will the artist's work appreciate in value? If this is important to you, take the time to look at their awards, their statement about their work, their Biography. These will tell you if they're in it for a quick fling or have the staying power needed to increase the value of their art.

5. Are you buying from your heart? If so, that magical quality that drew you in is likely to capture others as well. Successful collectors bring their hearts, their instincts AND their minds to the table when making an art-purchasing decision. 

How to Paint An Emotional Icon

Bleak House Barn 2 I have to have a reason to paint. There is so much local history here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge that's it's tough to focus on just one thing. A focus on the barn at Bleak House Plantation tempers an impending sense of overwhelmed-ness that comes with so many choices.

Having just seen Twelve Years A Slave, that's what I'm thinking of as I read about the history of this plantation. I'm revisiting this barn series at the Bleak House Plantation in Earlysville, VA. Built in the1700's when slaves worked the plantation's wheat, tobacco, corn and livestock. 

I wandered around on a hot spring day, capturing many opinions of what this barn meant to the surrounding landscape. It was silent but for the birds in the country, yet I could hear the voices of past inhabitants and the earth gave up hints of previous homes and outbuildings. Google search was an enormous help in finding obscure references to the slaves that worked here, their names, position, ages, value, etc. 

This particular viewpoint is the third in the series. I simplified the structure, concentrating more on the light and shadow colors and shapes. Emotionally I wanted something beautiful but imposing, as this barn was a symbol of prosperity and enslaved toil. 

This original is available for sale as a 5 X 7" oil on archival linen board. Framed in a gorgeous custom gold and black floating canvas frame. 

Happy St. Pat's!

St. Patrick's Day Chicago, 1969, Marion Donahue Ryan Sigler in the Parade

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Here's my grandmother, Marion Donahue Ryan Sigler, happy as can be in the St. Patty's Day Parade, Chicago (State & Wacker) St. Pat's Day, 1969. That's the famous Marina Towers in the background (I think they'd just been built), along with thousands of her Irish-for-the-Day friends. Love the coat & green flowers! And yes, the Chicago River had been dyed a brilliant green, too..

Twomey Show Hanging

I don't quite know if saying "I'm going to hang today" is the best omen, but that's what I'll be doing! The show at Mud Dauber Pottery goes up today for the Opening Reception tomorrow. 

So given the busyness of the next two days, here's my last post until I can take a breather. It's a tribute to Suzanne Crane at Mud Dauber, and her willingness to take a chance on me and my work by letting it show along with her extraordinary ceramics.

Macro Glaze Dauber (oil) For years I stared at cells through a microscope, and I always loved the abstractions that would appear. Looking very closely at a Crane plate I cherish, it was the beautiful shapes, glaze colors and rhythms that appeared in Sue's work that sucked me in.  Thanks Ms. Crane, more than you know.