Susan Kennedy Art

This new floral is on etsy right now, I veered closer to realism when we were working on some floral-inspired abstracts in class. My hydrangea bush is finally blooming a little more each year, and I do feel that I should be graced with lots and lots of the intoxicating blooms, because I LOVE TO PAINT THEM!!! By the way, my next class in abstract oil starts this Saturday at Sharon Springs Park (you can see the details at the bottom of this class list document )or you can just call Forsyth County Parks and Rec at 770-781-2215 to sign up! We'll be having sessions on composition, technique, working with a painting knife, all kinds of interesting and inspiring work with oils or alkyds. Come join us!

Still a breath of fresh air to me....thanks, Mom for wonderful photos to sift through and create from. I'm trying to come up with lots of demos for my upcoming Oil Landscape classes in the Cumming, Georgia area. So far I have six or seven ideas, and these little studies on ebay are like thumbnails to work out the compositions. I've finished most of the full-size paintings and am really enjoying landscape in this alla prima style! I don't think I'll ever paint in a layered manner again! So addictive, and such tremendous immediate gratification! More coming up soon, and click on this link if you'd like to see this little study up for auction.

Wow, does it feel good to get back to landscape and water....sometimes I get buried in abstracts and this time I'm ready to shift again. I'm grateful for the commission which inspired this study from my hike around the banks of the Amicalola with the fam a couple of years ago....although the commissioned piece ended up a bit different. Have I mentioned the alkyd oil paints I've been using in these landscapes? I'm starting up some Plein Air classes and hope to keep using this brand (Winsor and Newton "Griffin" alkyd Oil Colour). Don't even think I'll try to get a better setup than a nice portable and collapsible easel and a bag of supplies. The alkyds are perfect for any oil landscape. They dry to the touch within half a day or a day, and are beautifully blendable just like traditional oils. Love them! No, this is not a paid ad, hah! Check out my auction for this little study on my ebay store , and let me know if you're interested either in my upcom...

I've put a watercolor demo on my site, and am sticking my toe in the water of painting demonstrations. This is a 29-minute video of me painting this floral still life, and it's only in 640-pixel format, which is why it's so nice and cheap! But you can get it and download it (just please don't share it!), it's great for viewing on your computer to get a view of how another watercolor artist works. You can see a preview of it on youtube but to get the actual download you'll need to see my instructional videos and ebooklets at my website .... getting inspired, baby!! Go you crazy artists!!!! Woooo hooooooooo

My husband of twenty-five years and I were off for the weekend celebrating our anniversary and decided to hike the trails of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We were headed back down from the top of Clingman's Dome when we saw this black bear twenty or thirty feet away from us and another couple, off the trail. He was browsing in the blackberries and stopped to stare at us. When he started coming toward the trail I dropped the camera and started backing away and noticing that I was the only one in flip flops... fortunately he was pretty young and didn't want to get in to a thing with a bunch of tender pink people. Yaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

This is awesome!

What a strange day. Everything's changing and the kids are getting old. I am too. : ) Susan you can see my items at my website!

Another treasured family photo: we were in a rowboat in the Okefenokee a few years ago, and as we rounded a bend, this amazing hollow tree greeted us... it looked like a monster face to us. Made me feel for Snow White, who thought trees were scary too. susankennedy.com

Thought I'd put a link to this extremely cool online gallery. Lori is very inspiring, and her watercolors and drawings bridge the gaps between fantasy art, illustration, and realism. Her sense of color is surprising and invigorating, and I hope you enjoy checking it all out. Incidentally, you click on the title of this post to get to her site. Sorry to have grabbed your image, Lori, but I do love it so much.... click here, too

This little photo never fails to make me laugh. When I was a teenager and was waiting on tables, some regular customer who used to pay me to do his mending (I'm too busy to mend these days : ) proudly brought me this masterpiece. I don't remember his name, wish I did...if you're out there, you with the holey shirts, send me a note, I'd like to give credit for one of the more bizarre landscape shot I've ever run across. I'll let you guys supply the imaginary events leading up to this remarkable scene. And yes, that is a pig charging the viewer with a pile of burning tires in the background. He escaped just in time, according to him (the photographer, not the pig). My brother-in-law Steve, also a photographer, titled this image "Apocalypse Sow."

This is one of my favorite photos of all time; maybe you've gotten it in your inbox, but it makes me laugh every time. Best wishes to all and send me your photos about art!