Susan Kennedy Art

There are some upcoming Easy One Day Workshops this summer! You can sign up at Parks and Rec you guys, or call 770 781-2215. I hope to have even more new paintings for private painting parties and Parks workshops this fall and winter.  Workshops Flier   The cost is $39 and it includes all of the materials, so come and have fun checking out the painting scene! I've been painting more and more, I'm dividing my time between abstraction and realism, I guess I'll never grow up and pick one or the other! I've also been teaching small painting workshops at senior centers in the Johns Creek and Alpharetta area. It's been quite a learning curve!  With a family wedding coming up in two weeks, I'm snowed for a little while, but hope to hear from you and list about a million paintings on ebay and elsewhere this summer. Send me a note and have a terrific summer! Susan www.susankennedy.com www.facebook.com/susankennedyart

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 ma...

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...