Karen Knutson paints in mixed media, trying to make her paintings fun and easy. A wide range of subjects, including landscapes, figures, collage, abstracts, florals, and birds. Many lessons are included on this blog to encourage her art students. Teaching across the country makes her life a great journey.
"Wheels of Imagination, #2" 6" x 6" image 11" x 11" framed, $145 framed Sorry it's been so long since I have blogged. It's been a busy teaching schedule and it's hard to keep up with everything! Check out my website for future workshops! Squint and you will see my simple light pathway in the little abstract painting above. I am preparing for a solo exhibition at the WaterWorks Art Museum in Miles City, MT, and my plan is to have several groupings of paintings, both abstract and traditional that have the same original design and the same color scheme. My show runs from October 15 - November 10th. I will also be teaching a workshop in Miles City from October 16 - 18, 2017. Contact DeNice Curry at (406) 234-0635 or email: [email protected] if interested. You can check out my website, www.karenknutson.com for the details of the workshop. My students all know how passionate I am about creating a light pathway for every painting. Below is a floral that I used the same light value pattern. Can you see it? I can't recommend this strongly enough for creating a good design in your paintings. "Never too Late for Lilies" 11" x 14" image, 16" x 20" framed, $345 framed
"Treasured Friends" 11" x 11" image $145 watercolor I must admit, I hit "the wall" today. I was so totally wiped out that I tried to take the easy way out, and just do an easy painting. You'll see the first version below. I thought, "It's good enough." So, I went to have my hair colored and thought how nice it was to be done with my painting in the mid afternoon, so I could totally relax this evening and maybe even go to bed early. I hesitantly showed my painting to my husband, (who has gotten to be one heck of a good critique), and he said, "is it half done?" I love that he was willing to give me an honest opinion. So, after supper, I went back to my studio and worked for 2 more hours on this painting, bringing it from "good enough" to good! Lesson learned. Always show your best work, or don't show it at all. This is an illusionary painting, which I will be teaching at Cross Lake, MN in September of 2015. Check my website www.karenknutson.com next week for details of that workshop, or email me at [email protected] if interested.
I'm excited to announce that I will be teaching in Cape Coral, FL on January 12- 14th, 2017. This is the second time that I've taught in this location. I love escaping the MN winters, so timing is everything! Charcoal pour birds is one of the subjects. This procedure is so fun. We actually pour a big bucket of water on a watercolor surface that is sprinkled with charcoal powder. The effect is so fun! Also, I will be teaching how to paint like Gustav Klimt. That technique involves scraping dots of acrylic, using a credit card. The colors are so beautiful! These two techniques are my most popular workshops. Both paintings below started using the acrylic scraping technique! Students send me paintings for months after each workshop. Pretty fun! For information on the workshop, please contact Marjorie Ewell Phone: 239-945-3158 Email: [email protected]
"Room with a View" (11" x 11" image) $125 OK, another busy painting! But I like it for some strange reason, especially the title. The only thing I would change about it next time would be to use different colors. I was trying to limit myself to only 3 colors, but I chose WN manganese blue, which is so wimpy that I really needed to add another blue, but kept to my original goal. I used a mixture of Davinci Red Rose Deep and WN Scarlet Lake for my red, and WN New Gamboge was my yellow. At the end, I allow myself a mixture of alizarin crimson and winsor green for the black color. So, that brings up the question: When is it good to be naughty and go against the RULES???? Yes! This is pure watercolor too, so it was time consuming for the many layers. Tomorrow, I'm going to do an easy one and try the goal, SIMPLIFY!!! Have you heard that before???!!! :)
"Ooh Lah Lah" 11" x 11" image $145 SOLD “Ooh Lah Lah” came into being because I’m excited about the Golden Globe Awards tomorrow night. I love all that movie star stuff! J On tracing paper, I did a free hand drawing of the girl all glammed up. To check up on my drawing skills, I then placed the drawing over the actual photo to see how well I did. I’ve been doing that lately, because I want to improve my drawing skills so much! I used to think of myself as a pretty good drawer, but really lack confidence in that area lately as I’m really looking more critically at my skills and trying to improve each day. Next, I drew a value sketch using only 2 values. This is my road map while I paint. At the very end, I decide where to put the darkest darks, depending on what I want to accentuate. When trying to think of a background, I came up blank. So, I looked through all my 30 minute color studies and found the one pictured below. I made a few changes, but it gave me a good starting point. I did it on January 27th of 2011. That year, I had the goal to do a 30 minute color sketch using Tombow markers every day for a whole YEAR!!!! Yes, I said a whole year! I only missed 2 days, due to totally forgetting! How can one forget when you’ve been doing it for that long??!!!! Life gets busy some days-- that’s how! Anyway, I love being able to page through the color studies and be inspired for either a total abstract or a background for a semi-abstract painting. Be sure to check out Leslie Saeta's blog to see other artist's paintings from this challenge. I notice that many have dropped out by now. Sure hope I make it to the finish line! Below are my first nine paintings. I couldn't get the 10th one on there. color study that I used for inspiration (left) value study (right)
"Looking to the Future" $145 Watercolor and Acrylic (11" x 11" image) Well, what do you know? I made it 2/3 of the way through the challenge!!! These last 2 paintings are a set. I dug out an old painting that had failed, and used it for the background of these silhouetted birds. I wove the dark pathway to lead to the bird, and increased the contrast by adding white acrylic to the light areas. This painting and yesterday's painting are meant to be a set. If you are interested in buying both, the set sells for $275. Redoing old paintings is fun to do. I may be digging into that pile more often! So, there you go! Never throw anything away! My sister reuses coats and suits to make beautiful computer bags, and handbags. It must run in the family! To check out her work, go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/FunctionalArtWA She also has a Facebook page and it you "like" it, you will receive any new posts when she has new products. https://www.facebook.com/FunctionalArtWa/posts/297572400374192
"Hopeful Future" 11"x 11" SOLD I started this painting the same as yesterday's, so you can look back on the January 1st post to see the details. I often will paint 2 paintings at once, so that they will match. It's a great trick for sales for all of you artists out there! Clients may either pick their favorite of the 2, OR sometimes they decide to take both of them and hang them either vertically or horizontally. My husband challenged me to paint more colorful, bright paintings, so watch for some changes in the next few days. I felt that this painting seemed like the couple are looking out onto the horizon, wondering what tomorrow will bring, so I titled it "Hopeful Future". Be sure to check out Leslie Saeta's blog, http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com/ to see more of the other artists who accepted her challenge. 966 artists signed up!
Karen Carpenter photographed by Robert L. Knudsen while the Carpenters visited the White House on August 1st, 1972
Kom med indenfor i indretningskonsulent og grafisk designer Karen-Lise Yde Knudsens lejlighed i København, hvor væggene er prydet med forskellige tapeter, mens indretningen er blød og feminin.
"Quiet Moment Together" 11" X 11" SOLD Acrylic and Collage Knowing I had to leave my studio in the mid afternoon, I tried to keep today's painting more simple. Have you ever had tiny pieces of collage papers that you've thrown away? I use them in a complicated paper collage. AnneBagby taught me how to do this on her DVD. Placing the collage papers randomly over the entire surface, I have my "under painting". I use acrylic matte medium to adhere them to the paper. It is pictured below. Then I draw my subject on tracing paper, placing the center of interest wherever I like the collage papers the best. After my complete drawing is on the tracing paper, I get a print of the drawing that is only 25% of it's size. I then make a 3 value sketch on the new small copy. For me, I HAVE to do this on these paintings, because you are actually painting where the lights are. Below is my value sketch too.
Blog om billedkunst Undervisning Billedkunst Kreativitet Undervisning Forenklede fælles mål i billedkunst Årsplaner i billedkunst Tatjana
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful. The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called \"Announcement Number One.\" Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, \"Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since.\" Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today. This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.
"Happy Feet" watercolor $295 This painting wasn't easy, but I'm pleased with the outcome. I thought it looked as if he were starting to dance, so I called it, "Happy Feet". The question I keep asking myself, is why I'm making this challenge so hard?!! Illusionary paintings such as this one are very time consuming. The good news is that I like it, so it wasn't 8 hours in vain. The bad news is that I'm not enjoying the "process" when I work in pure watercolor. I know in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and that their deadline is coming up! I hardly EVER do pure watercolor anymore, so pickings are slim, if I were to choose to enter. For those who don't know about it, the paintings are awesome, and it's a national show. They get close to 2000 entries and they accept only about 90, so it's always an honor to get juried into the show. I'm a signature member, and I love to make an annual trip to see the show personally. It's held near Chicago, in Kenosha, WI.
"Suits" 11" x 11" image $145 Acrylic My husband's business moved to a new location, so I wanted to do a painting for his new office. The real painting will be 30" x 38" so this is a warm up for me. This painting started with a colorful underpainting, but I limited my colors to cobalt blue and nickel azo gold with a touch of pyrrole red. I learned how to use a limited palette from Carrie Burns Brown. She told us to pick 2 colors, and then make 10 mixtures from them with just those 2 colors, and then, adding white and black to get even more colors. It's a great lesson and keeps your painting unified. Below is the underpainting. After that dried, this was more about wiping out the lights than actually painting the figures. They were created by wiping out lights around them, using cotton balls with rubbing alcohol. I'm late posting this, due to going out with friends last night, and I had 2 margaritas. Needless to say, I didn't have the ambition to complete this painting when we got home, so I'm hoping to get one more done today to get ahead again. Only 5 more days to go!
Qui, du règne animal, est le champion de la longévité ? Certainement pas l’Homme, dont le plus vieux représentant fut la célèbre Jeanne Calment, décédée à 122 ans. Plusieurs candidats sont en lice et tous, ou presque, évoluent dans un milieu aquatique.
Kom med indenfor i indretningskonsulent og grafisk designer Karen-Lise Yde Knudsens lejlighed i København, hvor væggene er prydet med forskellige tapeter, mens indretningen er blød og feminin.
You're in for a treat today! Guest blogger Karen Knutson has a wonderful lesson on the Charcoal Pour.
Kom med indenfor i indretningskonsulent og grafisk designer Karen-Lise Yde Knudsens lejlighed i København, hvor væggene er prydet med forskellige tapeter, mens indretningen er blød og feminin.
"Rhythm of my Mind" Do you ever wonder where I come up with my ideas for abstracts? I have many different triggers to get ideas, but one of my favorites is to do "little abbeys" and then use that little 4" x 6" painting as my study for a larger painting. I start out by dragging my loaded brush across the cold press 140 lb. watercolor paper, and the skipping action is how the whites are saved. (I do this in a drybrush fashion.) Then I add collage papers to liven up the colors and add a center of interest by adding a totally opposite color in that area. After that dries, I weave a unifying color through the painting, and lastly add blacks near the center of interest. Below is the small study that I used for the finished painting, "Rhythm of my Mind". Even though the colors are different, you can see some similarities, I hope. I'm going to be giving a demonstration on this process this Thursday night for the Minnesota Watercolor Society. The meeting starts at 7:00 and is held at the Christ Presbyterian Church, 6901 Normandale Boulevard, Edina, MN. Hope to see you all there!
Highlights Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. About the Author: Isak Dinesen is the pseudonym of Karen Blixen, born in Denmark in 1885. 416 Pages Travel, Africa Series Name: Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books Description About the Book Originally published: London: Putnam, 1937. With new biographical note. Book Synopsis Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful. The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today. This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House. About the Author Isak Dinesen is the pseudonym of Karen Blixen, born in Denmark in 1885. After her marriage in 1914 to Baren Bror Blixen, she and her husband lived in British East Africa, where they owned a coffee plantation. She divorced from her husband in 1921 but continued to manage the plantation for another ten years, until the collapse of the coffee market forced her to sell the property and return to Denmark in 1931. There she began to write in English under the nom de plume Isak Dinesen. Her first book, and literary success, was Seven Gothic Tales. It was followed by Out of Africa, The Angelic Avengers (written under the pseudonym Pierre Andrézel), Winter's Tales, Last Tales, Anecdotes of Destiny, Shadows on the Grass, and Ehrengard. She died in 1962.
Kom med indenfor i indretningskonsulent og grafisk designer Karen-Lise Yde Knudsens lejlighed i København, hvor væggene er prydet med forskellige tapeter, mens indretningen er blød og feminin.
After a long, hard day at work, sometimes you’re just not ready for the 6 p.m. news. Dinner, then some comedy or crime drama on TV, or perhaps a book
"Morning Meeting" I'm preparing for my home studio "Painting Birds" workshop, and wanted the last day's lesson to be a very easy one. So, I decided to emphasize stencils and show them how to do a very easy illusionary painting. BTW, I only used 2 colors in this painting. (quinacridone gold and neutral tint) I will be having a mail order lesson on this process available soon, if you are interested. It's a fun way to paint! The image is 11" x 14" and is available for $145.
"Quirky Friends" Acrylic Accepted into the San Diego International 2020 Exhibition This painting started by me doing a blind contour drawing onto tracing paper. I did each girl separately and then held my finger on the side so that I could maybe position them where I wanted them. Blind contour means that you do NOT look at your paper, and you don't lift your pencil. It's a great way to loosen up and get some unusual free paintings. I had done a really abstract beginning, using acrylic and when I traced my new drawing onto the underpainting, I loved how the design cut through their faces. And the outfits just painted themselves, looking like the one on the right had bare shoulder. This was a total experiment for me, and was so much fun to do. I definitely plan to do more! Notice how the light pathway leads the viewer all through the painting. That's always very important to me. This painting was accepted into the San Diego International 2020 Exhibition, where there were 874 entries and juror, Michael Reardon, picked 100 paintings to be included in the show. This is one of the top shows in the USA. I'm honored to be a part of it.
K niinku Klara 7 - Sääliksi käy! von Line Kyed Knudsen
Photo Hans Feurer Model Vibeke Knudsen [IMG] vogue archive
"Golden Sunset" 5" x 7" image. Matted: 8" x 10" $45 Every now and then, it's just fun to do really quick paintings. These little gems will test your skills at timing in watercolor. I start with a 5" x 7" watercolor paper. Then I wet both sides of the paper several times, so it is very wet. Then lightly sponge off the right side and begin. Using a bright color (red/orange), I paint the sky and the water, leaving a big white shape. Then I pick it's complementary color and smear that into the first color to create a grey color and then have the complementary color (green) on the upper left and lower left corners. Switching to a 1/2 " flat brush, I double load the two complementary colors in a dry brush mixture to make the tree masses. I do NOT mix the color on the palette or it would be too wet. Pull down the colors to create the reflections. Use a thirsty brush to wipe out the water line. Then wipe out a ripple in the water. You can put more detail on the trees, using a small round brush that is double loaded with the 2 colors. That's how I was able to get the points on the top of the trees. You do all this is only 5 minutes! It's fun to do color studies using this process. Odd colors are usually my favorites.
Karen neighbor was so mad about fence installation. Momos Karens · Original audio
Karen Knutson paints in mixed media, trying to make her paintings fun and easy. A wide range of subjects, including landscapes, figures, collage, abstracts, florals, and birds. Many lessons are included on this blog to encourage her art students. Teaching across the country makes her life a great journey.
