another Beautiful Day in Paradise

We are half way through the Spring Art Tour and having a wonderful time.
Participants are producing some wonderful pieces. Just for fun we are holding a friends exhibition and aperitif on thursday 3 rd of June. To share the joy with new friends from this tiny village.

Today we continue to work on a complicated scene of a village on a hill that tumbles down to the river. The river has glass like reflections. A challenging subject that some have chosen to simplify, which was a very wise move.

We have had some wonderful Lunches - Sunday with Madame Murat, Yesterday at Hotel Henry. tomorrow a grand picnic and visit to St Cirq Lapoppie, Pech Merle and a secret village tucked into the cliffs. We will set up and paint some of the most amazing scenery, St Cirq Lapoppie is considered THE most beautiful village in all of France..now that is something! This is why it is filled with artist of course, and just visiting their galleries and viewing their work is great.

We have gone from simple subjects, to complicated. Many of them focus on composition and perspective. We have done some no drawing loose, wet in wet works, these are good fun. We will do some more!

Pure transparent glazing proved to be very popular and helped with holding the work together. Todays goal will be making patterns that work together and linking the darks.

explore each day with new eyes and remain in the now

until next time.... au revoir!

Painting to your hearts content

I missed drawing and painting for a few months now, got too busy with other 'stuff'. Now that i am back and getting ready for the upcoming art tour in may 2010 http://www.frozzysretreat.com/arttours.htm I feel like me again.
It's such a wonderful way to enjoy the now. One really does have to focus on just this, just the now or......make a big mess rather than an artist creation. Even the mistakes provide wonderful learning experiences. Our current weekly group in Armidale comprises of raw beginers to the more experienced. One thing I have observed is in the begining most are very timid, afraid of making mistakes or lacking the confidence to make bold marks. Overcoming the intimidation of a white page is a huge step. On the contary I get excited by a white page, I love to have a clean sheet of beautiful quality paper to make my bold marks on. If it turns out not as I expected or is displeasing, guess what? I just get another exciting clean sheet of beautiful white paper!
My idea of a perfect holiday... lots of clean sheets of white paper, glorous scenery, interesting pockets of light and shadow, topped of by a wonderful location, great company of fellow travlers. Pure joy! Come join us at Frozzys for "Painting The Lot" art tour. We will fill 12 wonderful days with fine art, fine food, fine friends, and fabulous accomadation. We would love to meet you there. learn more www.frozzysretreat.com

exhibition

The exciting news is: I have an exhibition booked for November- December 2009 at Studio Altenburg, Braidwood, nsw Australia The theme of this exhibition is "TWO LOVES, ONE WORLD". Many friends, and visitors to frozzy's ask me do I like Australia better or France? What is that makes you want to live part of your year in France? These sorts of questions I will aiming to answer in my paintings for this show.

ALSO..... we have 2 art tours planned for 2009, "PAINTING THE LOT". the first in spring -June and the second in autumn September. These should be great fun visit www.artykate.com/arttours.htm for more details. There are very limited places available so if your interested it would be advisable to contact me as soon as possible.....like, send me an email now!

We will visit some charming painting sites, enjoy wonderful local food and wine, and be enchanted by the local culture and colorful characters. You will leave with some very personal expressions of your tour of this somewhat undiscovered paradise.

art and life

it's been a while since I last posted. Now that I look a very long time!

We are back in france for a few more weeks summer seemed very short this year, perhaps because I was late arriving.

I have a new website www.artykate.com which I am working on to get fully functional. Ihave posted some of the new work there, take a peek and enjoy

Australian summer

Greetings all from sunny Australia.
We arrived after digging ourselves out of the snow on the 3 rd of Feb and a few days later drove to visit friends down south. While there we went for a bit of a tourist drive and checked out a cave in a National Park, somewhat isolated and wild.
Well ,Chris fell deep inside the cave and broke his back in 4 places and broke both feet. Then followed 6 weeks of hospital with him laying flat and not moving, and getting very frustrated. I stayed with my friends about an hour from the hospital. Each day I drove up to visit him and help him pass the time. He is now out back on his feet and recovering really well. The long term outlook is very good, though I think he would be wise to leave stone masonry to someone else, and major demolistion/renovations well lets say I won't be too disappointed that he can't do that. ( I get to be the offsider...well Im getting too old or lazy or girly to keep that up).

It took a few hours for rescue to get him out and 24 hours in hospital before we had some idea of the damage done. He was very lucky and though he has some pain and is surprised at how tired he is expected to make a complete recovery.

We are staying in Australia until he takes his back brace off, (he looks a little like robo cop) so the long flight will be more comfortable. His permanent residecy is due in the next month which is another reason to hang here until it's completed.

Nath and me heading for the ski fields. Chris is very good at skiing well shall I say passionate, so I am going to have to get brave and learn how to ski.

I was hopelessly anxious before during and after this experience, but I did manage to stop, and turn, that is as long as I was on a <10 deg slop going no faster than a slow walk...lol

skiing trip

After a hectic time to complete the current reno projects we took off for a few days skiing and snowboarding in the pyrenees mountians. It was fun/freaky/and the warmest weather we have had for a few months.

Nathan took to snowboarding like a duck to water. Chris was very patient with my tentative sking efforts.

The few days past very quickly though the aches and pains of the poor little body thought it was enough.

The big chill

The forcast big chill has it in full swing! The biggest snow fall in living memory. I hope the forcast warmup and rain arrives tonight, or we may not be able to get to the airport! This is my funny little snow man...sideways.

It has been snowing all day and is about 25cm deep now, who needed to go all the way to the mountians to ski, we could have done it in the back yard!


It seems that when I add more than one pic it gets a little confused, So the first is "the vegi garden" or was until it froze, the middle, my first little snow man and the right out white back yard.
I guess I will have to do this the slow way, one at a time...gggrrrr

enjoy and I will see all my wonderful family and friends in Oz soon :-)

Life in color

You will find a selection of water color paintings here, while many of them have been created for an upcoming exhibition I have made them availble to you at special pre-exhibition prices, unframed. This makes them easy to post and you can frame them to suit your decor.
If you would like to have a water color created to your special needs I do take commissions.
email your request to Katherine

Enjy your visit to this little 'gallery' and have a joyful festive season.

Wood carver

Every village has at least one village celebration per year. Not far from home is the village of St Capri, their speciality is the Chest nut fete in autumn. You can taste almost every version of chest nut recipe imaginable. Still the best is freshly toasted chestnuts with cold beer. No matter where we go we are still Australian! :-)
The local cafts people come out to show their wares at these festivals. I was particularly taken be this man as he looked like he was carving a digerydoo, but as it turned out it is an ancient version of fire bellows. Your lungs are the bellows and this instrument is used to direct your 'hot air' into the fire. Well even in ancient times they didn't want to burn off their eyebrows now did they!
The other really neat thing is the brace used to steady the wood is a roughly carved lump of tree with his left foot pushing down on a 'branch' to wedge it all in place while working.

Name: Artisan
medium: water colour
size: 50 x 40 cm
Price: $340 Aust
click here to email for payment options

enchanted stream

Enchanted stream holds much magic for me it is a crytal clear, icy cold stream 'teaming' with rainbow trout. A delightful place to cool off on one of those very hot summer days. Mind you the water is a shock to the system even in summer. Just to sit and listen to the water tumbling over the rocks and watch the fish swimming has an immediate calming feeling. A blissful place, it holds something special as it's where I was painting when I first encounted my darling husband. ahh the joy of life!

Name: Enchanted stream
medium:Water colour on paper (with the water from the stream)
size: 50x40 cm
unframed price: $395 Aust
click here for payment options

the Kitchen window

As the winter sets in the painting activities focus on the indoors.
the view of the kicthen window is light filled and a delightful place for a relaxing cup of 'tea'.

Name: dreaming of summer
Medium: water color on paper
Size: 48 x 39 cm
Unframed price: $340 Aust
click here to email for payment options

Home Sweet Home

Our home in a little village in the south of France.
It's a rather unique home and a little like a rabbits warren inside.
If you have a chance to get Mary Moody's new book "Lunch with Madam Murat" released this year you will see numerous fantastic photos of our little village and the surrounding area.
Name: home sweet home
medium: water color on paper
size:50 x 40 cm
Unframed price: $395
click here to email for payment options

Glacier in summer

The beautiful mountians between France and Spain have the most spectacular scenery. This glacier is above the famous city of Lourdes, it is truly 'gods' country there.
Name: In the heavens
medium: Water Colour on paper
Size:30 x20 cm
unframed price: $120 Aust
to purchase click here to email for options. Paypal is fast safe and sucure. other options available

Boats on the Lake

Paddle boats are a favourite activity of happy holiday makers on the lake at Frayssinet le Gelat.
Impressionist influence from the summer painting sessions
name: Frayssinet lake
medium: water colour
size: 26cm x 33cm
price: $180 Aust
You can purchase with fast safe and secure paypal email for this or other options click here

the latest watercolours

Here is the latest round of water colour images from France.
This one was done in summer and has impressionist influences. All the paintings here are for sale
Name: Foxgloves
medium: water colour
size: 26cm x 33cm
unframed price: Aust $ 180
click here:
you can purchase with fast safe and secure paypal
email for this or other options

new pics here now

Well I finally worked out what was the problem with the computer talking to my digital camera, well lets say I solved the problem, I'm not exactly sure what I did....

I just have to wait for the batteries to charge on the camera ggrrrr one thing follows another, but I did manage to use the brother- in -laws camera to take one pic before his battery went flat.

This water colour painting has been a labour of love and I am pretty pleased with the results, ignore the incorrect date that the camera put there, as you can guess it's now November 2005. I started this painting on my birthday this year..10/10/2005 and it has taken a number of weeks to get it to this stage.

Enjoy! let me know what you think?