Susan Kennedy Art

This little simple wash type of painting is what I've been doing for warm-ups this week, to get inspired. They have a Chinese Watercolor kind of a feel to them, but I love watercolor for its bleedy, flowing color-into-color character, and sure enough, it made its own mark on the effort. Two simple washes, with time to dry in between, and a fanciful cutout kind of a drawing that it started with. It was an imaginary bird, which ended up being a rainbow-colored little guy. Can't say I've seen one like him, but he's good for a little watercolor reverie. You might try a simple wash of a simple line drawing to get inspired just by transparent color and crisp paper. Invigorating! Best wishes for an arty day, Susan susankennedy.com

Wow, these commissions feel like children by the time it's all done...this is the biggest one I've done in a while, at least in watercolor; it's a full sheet, 22 x 30. Here it is partway done, I'm about to finish and wrap it up! Show me your work and have a super artsy day! If you want to see lots of the things I've been working on you can check out this ebay spot, or see my instructional art ebooks and a painting demonstration video at this page. Thanks for visiting!

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

I've been working like crazy on my website. I'd love to have it all cool and inspirational, and there are lots of my goofy but dear-to-my-heart youtube videos on that left bar... but it's still in need of a lot of work. I hope to put together lots of video on painting, both mine and the work of others. I've found it to be such a source of personal fulfillment and have seen what it can do for others. The next book I'm working on is a short ebook on how to get inspired from your lackluster reference photos (NOT from photos on the internet!), and each of the sections is preceded by thoughts and stories from my own day-to-day life and how it intersects with art. Share your thoughts with me! Blessings, Susan you can see my items at my website!

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!!!!!!!!!

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!

You don't see something like this every day... I actually snapped this shot as we were barrelling down the interstate in West Virginia. That tree on the left looks so solitary, the fog so mysterious and somber. Makes me want to paint a painting, or make a jigsaw puzzle out of it, I'm not sure which! By which I mean, it's so dramatic, it almost crosses over into the category of trite. Can't put my finger on why.

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

Wow, they never stop...maybe in the morning it's some other gargantuan bug besides a cicada. I should know this. The grass is dead, the kids are leaving. I truly hate August. Check out my art which is usually much more uplifting that this post: susankennedy.com

And here is a sort of an artist's bio, if a fridge reflects a bit of who you are. I'm particularly happy when I look at the handmade pinwheel that sits in a vase on the top.

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!