Welcome!

This body of work began sometime in the mid 1990's, as an experiment, seeing if I could adhere a dress to a canvas and create a painting over all the textures. "Dress painting" is a term I came up with to explain these when I simply couldn't think of anything better. Over the years they have evolved, with new elements of collage being added. Dress patterns, photographs, and embroidery all appear from time to time, as well as lino block prints, rubber stamps and gold leaf. I will use this space to explore the beginnings of this series, as well as showing my latest work. If the piece is available for sale you'll find the price at the bottom. Free shipping in the U.S. Contact me at kallencole@aol.com to purchase.

Would you like to see my full website? Head over to KathrineAllenColeman.com

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Attagirl



It's been a while since I've done an "attagirl." An "attagirl" from my Dad was the best thing ever. They were few and far between, you knew you deserved it when one came. While working on this piece I was thinking about two possibilities; a little girl brave enough to climb a tree, or the encouragement needed to learn to fly.


The tree branches are full of life, washes of color from mauve to yellows. Cut into with a semi opaque sky. "Attagirl is stitched through the canvas, right next to the yellow Pine Warbler.

24" square.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

what did I do all day?

I often chastise myself at the end of the day for not seeming to get anything accomplished. I started it today. Mostly because it's getting dark, and I don't seem to have a painting finished, I hardly even have one started. So I made myself stop and think...

Well I did put together a rough idea of a commission for approval. I like it, haven't heard if the client does though. Decided on the path for a new painting, complicated, but beautiful. That wasn't intended to be the title, but it may fit? This is the commission idea by the way...



Simple, pretty, but not too girlie.

Oh, and I attached a handful of photo transfers to a canvas, a new "4 eyes" is on the way.

Some arts council stuff came next, we have a small art festival going on in Jackson on May 7th. Scott and I are helping put that together, if you are in the area it is really going to be worth coming to. So that took a little time. Then errands in town...what a boring list, have you quit reading yet? But then I was distracted and wound up in the garden center. I was going to buy one tomato plant. $50+ later I was driving home.

Whoops, I actually got back to work, framed three large oil paintings. Then next thing I know I'm in the garden drinking a glass of wine with my neighbor. My neighbor has spray paint, and she let me rob her spray paint collection. Now my tomato cages are deep electric blue. And I've planted about half of what I bought, a bunch of different peppers, two tomatoes, cucumbers.




Hmm, and I'm blogging now, and when I actually walk away from this computer I'll walk out to the studio, and poke around a little longer. I guess that is a pretty good day.


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Smart Cookie



Smart Cookie is a piece I finished last week during a major painting flurry. If you've been watching my work for any time now you'll recognise the numbers in the background as pi. I've used them before, and I'll use them again! The peanut butter cookies have no shadow, because they aren't really supposed to sit on the dress so much as rotate around it, which explains the little vapor trail of vintage mother of pearl buttons.


Smart Cookie is up in Illinois somewhere having her picture taken this week. So I don't have it in front of me to get all my facts straight. But I think it is 30" square.


There is another "Smart Cookie." It's a smaller one on a pink baby dress in my new gallery in Austin, TX. If you're in that neck of the woods, check out Haven Gallery, they are on 6th street. And they have a great collection of work available.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New challenge

Not that I really need a new one, I have plenty on my plate at the moment. But the painfully slow pace that I post on this blog is boring even me. So I'm going to blog about something every day for a week, starting tomorrow. Unless I chicken out, and I don't think I will.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

My Husband's Work


It just dawned on me that some of you may not know that my husband is an artist. Introducing R. Scott Coleman, and his latest series of watercolor landscapes. He is painting a landscape a day and I post them on his blog. You can see the blog at www.thedailylandscape.blogspot.com


This is his second painting a day series, his first was www.scottscupcakes.blogspot.com Scott painted 365 cupcakes, very few are still available, but they are worth a look!


Later Gators!