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16 Sep Feeling Lucky!

For most of us career-artists, at some point we realize that we don’t/didn’t choose Art.  It chose us.  At this stage in my life I feel like one of the very lucky souls that has been given the gift of “being chosen”.  Not the gift of “easy” but still Lucky, Blessed, Grateful and so happy to be able to keep working!

This week’s work took my artist-friend, Diana and I,  to her family camp.  A very special place in the wilds of Michigan’s upper peninsula (da’ U.P.), the Yellow Dog Plains and conservation preserve.  We had a marvelous day of hiking, painting, and learning about this very special and environmentally important preserve of old timber, bogs, meadows and water shed area.  Here is a picture of our view.

At the end of that already perfect day I received word that my painting, “Meet me at the Market”, had won the Holbein award at the National Watercolor Society’s (NWS) 104th International Exhibition!  Doubly thrilled because it’s so hard just to get into that highly competitive exhibition (I have the “rejection slips” to prove it), but then to win a top award!  Lucky?  Yes! Grateful? Absolutely!

Beauty is everywhere.  Sometimes it’s in front of our face and other times, we have to go hunting for it.  Take a hike somewhere in nature and it will be there waiting for you.       Happy Autumn!  Kathleen

15 Jul Mastrius Mentorship Program

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM STARTING SOON

I’m throwing my “hat in the ring” (brushes in the paint?) with MASTRIUS.COM, a highly organized venue for mentoring that gives amazing support to artists and instructors alike with emphasis on maximum flexibility for artists to study with different instructors.  You choose your small (3-8 artists) group to facilitate personal artistic growth, networking with like-minded artists, marketing skills and building an online community of creatives.  I’d love to have you, my friends, be in my first class starting August 6.  Check it out on: https://www.mastrius.com/kathleen-coover-mentorship/

Across from the large water falls at Lake Tahoe was a small run off flowing over stair steps of rock on its way to Lake Tahoe.

NEW PAINTINGS!

Once again, I had a lovely invitation to join 10 other artists to paint on location at Lake Tahoe.  We lucked out with perfect weather, companionship and creative energy to try and capture the grandeur of this beautiful place.  There’s nothing better than painting with art-ful friends.  So grateful!      I painted this piece called “Eagle Falls” while there.  You can find a series of new paintings from this trip in my Hot off the Easel  gallery series.  You can find it here.

MEET AT THE MARKET

The National Watercolor Society (NWS), one of our premier water media organizations, has accepted my new work, “Meet me at the Market”, for their annual 2024 exhibition.  I’m honored and thrilled (and always hopeful for a nod from the awards judge later this year).

Enjoy your summer, my friends.  Kathleen

15 Jun Gifts

“The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away.”  Pablo Picasso

I love this quote.  It applies to all walks of life.  I was told years ago that my love of Art is the gift I was given.  To teach is the gift I give back.  I like that.  It gives me comfort to think that I am doing exactly what I am “supposed” to be doing.  Meeting and being with people I love in this “business”, and having fun along the way is truly a bonus gift!

Attending the annual awards dinner and reception for the Transparent Watercolor Society of America (TWSA) in Kenosha, WI was a hi-light this month, and it was so much fun!  I was there to applaud the wonderful artists who carry on the tradition of totally transparent watercolor, our historic roots to my main medium of experimental water media.  This wonderful exhibition will be on view at the Kenosha Public Museum until August 4, 2024.

      Every place is an opportunity to paint! 

Back home in my garden in Marquette,  my favorite poppies have bloomed their short, vibrant lives, then gone again for another year.  An unexpected gift was that some wild ones even bloomed by my telephone pole!  So what’s an artist to do when she’s prematurely mourning their leaving?  Paint them!  Happy and colorful summer to all!   with hugs, Kathleen

15 May Tribute and Making Memories

The first time I saw the collage work of Carrie Burns Brown I was fascinated by the richness of color, depth of texture, and fresh, exciting compositions.  It was so very entertaining!  Carrie passed away in April but will always be one of my creative heroes.  Not only an excellent artist, such a “fun, fun” person to be with, but she was a stellar teacher.  I was inspired and taught by the best.  I carry the baton forward every time I get the opportunity to teach collage, by sharing the Carrie Burns-Brown paper-painting and embellishing start to each class.  Thank you, dear Carrie.

Also in April, the paint was flying while 10 artists painted roadside poles in the small, Florida community of Matlacha.  This is one of several communities devastated by Hurricane Ian and some colorful “frills” along side the continued clean up and infrastructure-construction was a fun community project.

Back in Michigan now, my dear friend and web manager for decades, Carol Fitzgerald, and I had the rare opportunity to spend some FUN time together.  Here’s a blast of color from a perfect day at the Holland, Michigan Tulip Festival.  Happy spring to all!!  Kathleen

15 Apr Teaching my Workshops!

I LOVE the people I meet and work with in the Arts!  I had the pleasure of being an instructor at Kanuga Watermedia Workshops, in Montreat, North Carolina again this year.  And it was Wonderful!!  Old friends and new friends all connected under the creative, encouraging, growing umbrella of our watermedia world.  The arts can truly unite and we need that now more than ever.

This might be my shortest blog ever because I’m pretty consumed this time of year with getting ready to head back north to home #1 in Marquette, Michigan.  I’ll leave you with a final but good quote by Mary Oliver, “Instructions for living a life:  Pay attention.  Be astonished.  Tell about it.”  My version is: “Pay attention, be astonished and paint it!”

Creatively yours, Kathleen

15 Mar Thank yous and Good News!

Thank you to many of you for the very positive responses and sales from the latest newsletter!

The biggest Thank You goes to my web manager, Carol Fitzgerald, who does a fabulous job keeping my whole website updated and keeping the lovely newsletters coming and keeping me on task (not easy).  I think we’re going on 35 years now, from the beginning when she took classes to learn the complicated HTML language.  She’s amazing and I really could not do it all without her! (she is having a hard time writing this and feeling very puffed up … is it really 35 years!)

This month’s painting image is Contemplating Flight, a 22″ x 30″ watercolor.  This is a very recent painting which was accepted in the International Watercolor Exhibition (IWE) by the Watercolor Art Society of Houston (WASJ-H), TX, and won the lovely ET Kraycirik Memorial Award.  Then it sold before the exhibit even opened…doubly lovely!

The magazine publication business is interesting.  Golden Peak Media (GPM) is the publisher of Watercolor Artist, Artist Magazine, Acrylic Artist, ArtistsNewwork.com, and much more.  When I agree to write an article I also sign many release forms to give them full rights to publish all or parts of my article.  To my pleasant surprise, I’ll find the same article pop up in the different magazines over the years.  The latest, Deeper Meaning, is in the Winter 2024 Watercolor Artist magazine (pgs. 60-63).  Such an unexpected bonus!  Here is one of them.

Enjoy! Kathleen

15 Feb Fast Start!

This year is off to a fast start!  Shortly after my arrival in Florida for the winter,  the online educational project of Artists Network, WATERCOLOR LIVE!, aired for a week.  I was one of the 20 demonstrating artists.  “Free Range Poppies II” is similar to the painting I demonstrated online and is available in my “Hot off the Easel” gallery.

Next was a trip to the lovely Big Arts and Culture Center in Sanibel for a friend’s painting exhibition.  It’s heartening to see a lot of progress happening in the recovery from Hurricane Ian, though it will still be years for many to put their lives back together.  The following weekend I participated in artists’ demonstrations to attract visitors to the recovering community of Matlacha.  It was a big success for reopening businesses, restaurants, and artists!

Now I’m on the plane returning to Florida after teaching and judging the annual international competition for the Missouri Watercolor Society (MOWS).  The entries were wonderful, the task of selecting the award winners daunting, and the artists in class were great!  It’s always a lot of fun to work with other artists who are as excited about the Watermedia world as I am!

Soon I’ll pack my bags for New York to judge the awards for the Annual American Watercolor Society (AWS) exhibition.  This is such an honor it’s hardly a “job” at all, yet the responsibility is, again ….. daunting.  Now it’s time to care for and spend time with a few of those I love … home sweet home.    Kathleen

15 Jan Happy New Year!!

No New Year’s Resolutions here! But I enter this new year with hopes, plans, projects and most important – gratitude!  I am so very appreciative of the many wonderful people in my life.  It reminds me of an African saying I learned, “If you want to travel fast, go alone.  If you want to travel far, go with others”.  I love this life-of-Art that I work in:  It’s a dream come true.  But I would not/could not have made it here alone.  It is the wonderful “others” I get to travel with in my life that have made it possible for me to go far.

Because “others” have recommended me, my first new experience of the year will be as a participant in the online educational program, WATERCOLOR LIVE!   http://watercolorlive.com/    On January 24-26 I will be one of 30 artists giving demonstrations of our painting methods and techniques.

If you have ever wondered how I approach my paintings like “Sunset Poppies” you can find on my website here .  My 50-hour process is simplified and condensed to one hour in this online workshop seminar.  I’ve painted my favorite flowers….poppies!   No surprise there!

Happy New Year to you all!  Kathleen

17 Dec Growing our Souls

I love this quote from Kurt Vonnegut, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.  So, do it.”

Whether working on the “art” or making memories during this special season, creating gifts, or practicing our usual usual art forms, let’s just get out there and do it because … it’s all good.  We’re growing our souls!

With little time to reminisce or assimilate my African Safari inspiration into my paintings, I’m back in teaching mode through the online program, WatercolorLive! (http://watercolorlive.com/).  I am one of 25 artists to be featured next January 23-26, 2024.  I’ve just finished taping the raw footage for a one hour demo of a start-t0-finish painting “Free Range Poppies”.  If you are interested in signing up for any one of their offerings over the 4 days and use the code CONOVER they promise a 10% discount.  If you do sign up/sign in, I’d love to know what you think.  I know I’ll be there watching and thoroughly enjoying 24 of those 25 artists!   Maybe I’ll see you online.

Happy Holidays, Kathleen