Susan Kennedy Art

Also a new session in Oils here in Forsyth County at Fowler Park!! It will be on Thursday mornings this winter from 10 AM to Noon, beginning January 9. You can see the four reference photos for the four oil paintings we'll be working on in January if you click  here. Here are some of my demo paintings from recent sessions which show you the way I paint when I work from reference photos, and this semi-layered technique is how I work in class: We have lots of fun painting in oil class and you can choose from among several different types of Oil Paints: I use alkyds (Winsor and Newton "Griffin" fast drying Oil Colors) see the  company's info here . Some of my students use water mixable oils like  these , and still others use traditional slow drying oils like Winton or Gamblin brands. A list of these types of oils, the colors you might want to bring to class, and other needed supplies can be found  here .  I hope you come and join us, and make it

Winter Watercolor Session is coming up!! I can't wait, and I've written a doc which has the landscapes we'll be using  which you can find here. I find that things work out best if we focus on some small "mini exercises" in the first hour of class: a piece of fruit, a wood texture, a tree, a mountain ridge...something simple which gives us the steam to do a small landscape painting in the second hour. A mini exercise is like this: or this: And a typical painting which we'll do in the second hour of class is like this: A little more involved: maybe some trees, some sky, some water, a few landscape elements which exist together on a page. We work on concepts like wet-into-wet vs. wet-on-dry, and we practice color mixing, how to handle your brushes, how to use enough paint and enough pigment in your paint, all of the basics. And, it's a blast! Come join us! You can call 770 781-2215 to sign up, and you can even just show up and pay $20

I am crazy about this photo and feel that it's a good example of how painting from photos can be helpful!  The main advantage of taking lots of reference photos, for you as an artist, is that so many unplanned but beautiful compositions jump out at you if you browse through them and crop. You limit what you will consider for a composition when you lift your camera to a scene: you've got compositional rules in your head, and you're looking at a favored focal point. But when you flip through - and crop - your photos later on, those ideas will have faded and the flat images themselves will present new and fresh ideas to you. This particular shot, taken by me, a tourist in London, was not well planned or composed. But not only an interesting crop, but even some water which spilled and spattered this particular print and faded and blended some colors made me look at it in a different way. The colors which faded and ran together made the scene have a very otherworld

And another easy workshop for the beginner: I'm painting this painting at Fowler Park in the Multi-Purpose Room this coming Sunday July 28 from 2 PM to 4 PM. Fun! And Simple! I'll walk you through every step, and the best part is, you can just come as you are: all of the supplies are included. It's best when you come with a friend - and bring a Starbucks and a desire to have a fun afternoon of painting! Here's a snapshot of the painting: Some have a blast! _______ I also offer other classes, more in depth, with different subjects every week. You can see my calendar at  https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=susankennedyartist@gmail.com&ctz=America/New_York%20 Susan

I hope all of my blog readers will know about this new Pinot's Palette location in John's Creek. I'm having a blast being one of their instructors/assistants, and the type of painting is nothing but fun and relaxation! Don't think fine art, think fun art! Here's a link to their upcoming sessions, I'm teaching the one tomorrow night July 25 "Dance of the Buttercups"... http://www.pinotspalette.com/JohnsCreek/Classes Grab a friend, bring a bottle of wine and some snacks, and come paint!  Pinot's is located between Starbucks and Five Below near the intersection of McGinnis Ferry and Medlock Bridge Road...the address is  11720 Medlock Bridge Road , Suite 175, Duluth, GA 30097  and it's just around the corner from Jason's Deli.  Thanks you guys! Susan

Wow, how to finish so many? This is one of the stacks that finally has gotten finished and listed: You can  click here to see it on my ebay store . This painting is one of many which are getting sorted and finished this summer. It's a view of the Oregon coast (thanks for the inspiration, mom!). I'm obsessed with painting, not so much with figuring out what the heck to do with the piles of paintings which result. It took some intervention from my daughter to start to deal with the stacks. So I'm finishing them, she's dealing with them. ----------- If you're an artist like me and have a hard time facing how to finish a painting, maybe you can try some of the things which seem to help me: Ask yourself: should I add some contrasting colors for more shadows or reflected light? On a peach or yellow tree or flower, this might be petals or boughs on the shaded side of the object which can have beautiful plums or lavenders blended in.  On the blue shaded s

Love love love this photo of mine: the light, the water, the glass, the red of the little flowers! They are the tiny dianthus that my Brian brought me for Mother's Day. We're going to paint a simplified version of this subject matter tomorrow at Fowler Park in Watercolor class!  A new watercolor session will be starting in June, so sign up if you want to learn a lot about treating this fascinating medium with the boldness, respect and sheer delight that it deserves!! Susan _________ call 770 781-2215 to inquire or sign up for Susan Kennedy's classes

This painting was my obsession for a few weeks: I loved the surreal surroundings as we walked around the resting place of the U.S.S. Cairo in Vicksburg last year. I wanted to zoom in and focus on the beautiful wood and the dreamy blues and greens bouncing around as well. It's actually for sale on ebay right now, I thought I'd pay attention to my old ebay store:  click here to see it . The subject itself seemed surreal to me, too: the ironclad was thought impossibly strong and unsinkable in its time, but I guess like all technologies, it had its time, and its time passed. That was the reason for the title "Outliving Ironclad Promises." So it's sitting in a quiet grassy field, with some of the battle sites nearby. None of the drama, the blood, the fear and the anger of that time is left, only worm-eaten wood and curious history buffs. I found the light and the strange situation irresistable as a painter! During the Civil War the Cairo was one of the Union&

I'm looking forward to Watercolor and Oil, both new April sessions starting this week!  Watercolor (Tuesdays in April, starting Apr 2, from 1-3 PM at Old Atlanta Park) will have a few exercises you might enjoy: the leaves, possibly a pansy, mini exercises in working washes, and a quick simplified sketch of the dog in the waves, some of which you can see reference photos for below. Here's a list of the materials we use, but if you don't have them yet, you can come anyway for the first session and use some of mine. supply list The first Oil class will be the Edisto Marshy inlet scene you see a reference photo for below: Oil Class will be from 1-3 PM Thursdays in April at Fowler Park (provided there are signups) Just join us, even at the last minute, for watercolor; they'll let you sign up at the last minute at the front desk on your way in. As far as Oil class, it will proceed as long as there are three or four signups, and I'm not su

I'm so excited to finally start publishing my various painting ebooks on Amazon!  Here's the first  , and it's packed with step by step photos of this advanced level watercolor still life project. When it's sized to 8.5 x 11, it's 22 pages, not sure what that turns in to on an ereader. It's not so much intended as a tutorial for you to duplicate this painting, but a discussion of how I tackled a complex subject which included flowers and china. There's even a link to a 29 minute video of me painting this watercolor! (If you'd like to see my little youtube painting videos,  click here for my channel ). Also, with each of the art ebooklets I publish, I'm including downloadable files (5" x 7" and 300 dpi jpg's) of my art, so that you can print out mini prints, greeting cards, or notecards (you can see the ones which are included in the little box on the cover art). It's so inspiring talking with people about watercolor, an

Come and Paint this tree (above) with us at the Parks and Rec multipurpose room at Foster Park! On Monday evening, Feb 25!  This mini workshop focuses on painting this colorful and cheerful tree on a hilltop. We paint it in acrylics on canvas, and the technique is not very layered: you'll sketch it out (with help if you wish), lay in the sky, then trunk and purply-rusty shadows, then what a blast: put in those golden-greeny highlights and soft and pretty details and shadows in lavernder, pink, gold! sign up by calling Parks and Rec at 770 781-2215, and you can pay at any parks and rec front desk. The workshop will be held Monday, February 25 from 7-9 PM at Fowler Park's Multipurpose room ( click here for map and directions )  I'm so excited to be painting new and fun subjects! Read on for more: ________ My upcoming classes include continuing Oil Landscape sessions and continuing Watercolor for beginners and intermediate painters: Oils (ages 18 and up) Fo

I'm thinking that this will be the painting new students will work on with me for the first class of 2013, which is January 10 ( a four week session running on Thursdays from 1-3 PM at Fowler Park in Forsyth County, Ga. You can call 770 781-2215 to sign up) We've painted this one before in class, so it will be an option among two or three, so returning students will have something new to paint. But...a little water, a lot of sky, some trees: I'm thinking a lake or river scene. Just got some super photos at the Amicalola River walkway, so one of those will definitely be on the menu. I bring reference photos for my students, which are theirs to keep. Watery scenes always are the ones that make everyone happiest! Not too much layering, just a bit. It's hard to paint in any manner other that "alla prima" (all at once, or direct painting) in class because of the difficulty of painting wet-into-wet with oils. So most of the time your brush will be hitting th