Karen Richardson Virtual Studio

To say an artist is ‘talented’ or ‘gifted’ somehow implies that they have not needed to try as hard as the average person to make great art. This could not be farther from the truth – artists become good at what they do through sheer hard work, determination and tons of practice.

That being said, there is a huge advantage in using the best of materials and equipment to make art. Inferior products often result in inferior paintings, despite artistic skill.

My watercolour materials and equipment come from Europe and I recommend all of them to my watercolour students.

From England comes Winsor & Newton’s sable/synthetic brushes and watercolour paints, from France comes Pebeo Drawing Gum and d’Arches 300 lb. 100% cotton paper and from Italy comes MaimeriBlu superior watercolour paints.

These professional quality tools and materials work predictably and consistently to produce the most wonderful results."

~Karen Richardson

Virtual Studio

From fall through spring, this page is updated every few weeks to give you a glimpse of my life in the studio and beyond. Find out what I have been up to lately - paintings in progress, artistic achievements, excursions, exhibitions in progress and art classes I have taught. Please visit often!

During the summer if we are making any interesting trips, I keep a picture journal of 'Tales From the Road' at artistjourney.karenrichardson.ca. I invite you to take a look from time to time and I welcome your blog comments and emails.

February 2010 - Week 2

My husband John and I went on a four day snowmobile trip in the Timmins area this week, along with our old friends Rick and Nancy. Here are John and I on our 'sled' below. We have three pieces of luggage strapped on the back and sides, as we had to carry all our clothes and emergency equipment. We're getting really good at packing light!

Below are the three drivers with their machines - Rick, John and Nancy.

One day Rick was leading the group and he stopped his machine on the trail because he saw an animal up ahead. Here are John, Rick and Nancy shown above, walking towards it (the black speck on the left side of the trail between the guys' shoulders).

This is the animal we saw - a lynx. It had caught and eaten a mouse or a vole on the snowmobile trail and then moved off into the bush as we approached on foot. The photos were taken with my zoom lens so we were not really close to the lynx. The footprints it left on the trail were about 4 inches across. A big cat!

We had good weather for our trip, although it was cloudy most days. The trails had only opened two weeks before, which is really late for northern Ontario. On Valentines Day John and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. How the years have flown!

February 2010 - Week 1

After the Station Gallery show was over, I delivered my cactus and lizard painting 'Desert Compadres' to its new owner. Patti already had a spot picked out in her foyer (shown below).

This week my Tuesday afternoon 'Georgian Bay Light' class began and I taught a two day 'Open Water' workshop on the Thursday and Friday. Busy week, needless to say!

Pictured below is a student who has been attending my classes since I started teaching at the Station Gallery in Whitby several years ago. I have enjoyed Dianne's company in many of my classes and she has progressed really well, as you can see by her two lovely pieces in progress below. These were the subjects in the 'Open Water' workshop.

January 2010 - Week 4

There was enough interest in my beginner level class 'The Value of Values' to run it twice this month. Below you can see the students hard at it and the lovely paintings they created.

January 2010 - Week 3

There is a four month exhibit of my paintings going on in the gallery space of Herongate Barn Dinner Theatre on Altona Rd., west of Pickering. The exhibit opened in November for their last play of the 2009 season and continues during the first play of their 2010 season. You can enjoy a delicious meal, take in a humourous performance and view sixteen of my paintings before the play and during intermission. The first show 'Run For Your Wife' ran Nov. 13 to Dec. 31 and the second show 'Secrets of a Soccer Mom' runs Jan. 29 to Mar. 13. Here are some photos of the exhibit.

January 2010 - Week 2

Our first snowmobiling day this year was absolutely magical. There was fresh snow so the trees were loaded with white icing. I got some great photos to inspire new paintings.

I'll let my photos tell the story...

January 2010 - Week 1

Happy New Year!

We had a very relaxing Christmas holiday with several special dinners and get-togethers with friends.

For New Years, John and I organized the 10th anniversary party of the Y2K bash we had in 1999, at our friends' cottage near Bancroft.

Eight couples contributed all the food with an Oriental theme and we began with hors-d'oeuvres and a scavenger hunt at 4 pm, followed by a Wii Fit Bowling competition. Everyone joined in with enthusiasm, as they could earn play money which they could use to bid on valueless prizes at the end of the evening.

We changed into formal attire for the 8 pm dinner, had our group photo taken (at right) and continued the Wii Fit games afterwards. Everyone contributed photos and mementos to a time capsule that will be opened in 20 years.

At midnight, John used a projector to shine the 10 second countdown onto the ice on the lake and then the fireworks went off over the lake (shown below). It was a lovely evening and everyone had so much fun.

December 2009 - Week 4

My 'Desert Compadres' painting won honourable mention in the Whitby Station Gallery's juried show, which runs Dec 12 to Jan 3.

Here I am standing beside the painting on awards night. There were about 50 pieces in the show, selected from over 100 entries.

As I mentioned last month, my husband John volunteers as chair of the building committee for the library expansion here in Port Perry. This multi-million dollar project will break ground in February 2010. In early December, the design was chosen and the contract awarded. Coincidentally, each Christmas the library stages a display of gingerbread houses built by local people, so John and I got cracking and in two days baked and assembled a gingerbread model of the new library for the exhibit. Below are photos of our creation. It is about 8 inches tall and weighs a ton! Pretty good for our first foray into cookie construction, don't you think?

December 2009 - Week 3

The winter issue of Surfacing Magazine hit the newsstands recently. This is my ad which was featured at the bottom of the front page. This publication showcases Durham Region's artistic and creative people and is issued three times each year. There is a photo of me working on a painting in an ad for Durham Tourism on page 2. Click here to see their ad.

December 2009 - Week 2

I'll bet you're wondering what the heck this picture is about.

Some background: Earlier this fall I was one of 100 Canadians selected to create a piece of art from a Canadian military helmet, which I then donated to the True Patriot Love Foundation. All the helmets were auctioned in November at a spectacular gala dinner in Toronto in support of Canadian military families in need of financial assistance.

This is the artist's statement that accompanied my sculpture:

HELMEETA

Protecting Today / Preserving Tomorrow

"Recently I heard a story about a Canadian soldier whose mission in Afghanistan was to help protect women and children. Since the Taliban forbids the education of women, our soldiers protect young girls going to school. Muslim women cannot be seen naked by male doctors so there is insufficient medical care for women. Our soldiers escort them to Canadian field hospitals providing prenatal and post partum care.

This story resonated with me. In fashioning a concept for this helmet, I envisioned a tangible symbol of the Canadian military protecting families. Using plywood and acrylic paint I transformed the helmet into a pregnant woman named Helmeeta. The helmet protects her today and preserves hope for future generations.

Helmeeta also symbolizes the support of Canadian military families by the True Patriot Love Foundation."

Here is the back view of Helmeeta.

She stands about four feet tall.

The dinner was attended by 1,700 guests including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, various captains of industry including Galen Weston and his wife Hilary Weston, Michael Ignatieff and former Ontario premier Bill Davis.

Over cocktails, guests bid on helmets decorated by artists, rock stars, sports teams and other famous Canadians. Each of the helmets went for hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of dollars. Helmeeta sold for $300. With the help of presenting sponsor Telus, more than $2 million was raised for the foundation. In turn, the foundation will donate the money to the Military Families Fund, a fund created in 2007 by General Rick Hillier.

I would love to know where Helmeeta ended up when the evening was done. So if you spot her someplace let me know!

December 2009 - Week 1

Oh boy! We woke up to our first real snowfall this week. The landscape looks so different covered in a white blanket.

This time of year is tremendously busy for me as I have to do my annual newsletter mailing to all my clients and contacts. I started sending out my newsletter, called 'Studio News', in 2005. It began as a semi-annual update on my artistic accomplishments and future shows, and the last two years has become an annual issue, mostly due to economics and logistics.

The whole process of writing the newsletter, printing it on my home computer, printing the address labels, stuffing envelopes and then paying for postage has become overwhelming, both in terms of my time as well as the substantial cost. So I am converting to electronic format and only sending out 'Studio News' via the internet in future.

You can view and print all my past newsletters at any time at Studio Newsletter.

Here is the notice I sent out this week with the Fall 2009 issue of Studio News:

"In keeping with the popular trend to ‘Go Green’, this is the last annual newsletter I am sending out by Canada Post. The transfer to a web-based Studio News has already begun; I have emailed over 400 newsletters recently. My entire mailing list is about 1,200 households. Think of the paper, ink, postage and labour I will be saving over the years!

If you would like to receive my studio newsletter in future via the internet (and I hope you do!), simply send me an email at karen.richardson@sympatico.ca listing your name and request that Studio News be emailed to you.

Thanks for helping out this starving artist!"

The other seasonal task I look after at this time of year is an enjoyable one. I design a new Christmas card on my computer each year, based on one of my winter paintings. Using a heavy cardstock, I print over 100 cards, fold them, write a little note inside and place them in envelopes. I print the labels, stick on the stamps and mail out cards to family and friends, as well as to people who have purchased a painting or taken a class from me this year.

So now, both those big jobs are done and I can get my web site updated, start my Christmas baking and maybe even put up our Christmas tree. (Shouldn't painting be listed in there someplace?) Thankfully we do not have to buy many gifts any more, so for us the holiday season is mostly about getting together with friends for lunches, dinners and parties. We are busy right now planning the menu and games for a New Year's Eve party that friends are hosting at their cottage. Also, John is booking a week long snowmobile trip that we will take with two other couples in January. Lots of neat stuff to look forward to...

November 2009 - Week 4

My 'Skies With Attitude' Weekend Workshop was one of the best classes ever. All of the students and myself really 'took chances' to achieve some amazing results. As usual, we used just primary colours. Below are two of the four skies I demonstrated and to the right are my students smiling with their favourite creations.

I am always amazed how unique each student's painting is, even though we all began with the same reference photo.

Below are another two demo paintings from the 'Skies With Attitude' Workshop. We did the small version first and then a panoramic version of the same type of sky.

November 2009 - Week 3

As you may have read in my Artist Journey Blog, my husband John and I spent three months touring the American Southwest earlier this year, so I was able to gather lots of subject matter for new paintings.

'Desert Compadres', shown left, was started during the trip and completed as a demonstration piece at the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival in August. I had a buyer before the painting was even framed!

Here is the second painting from my Southwest series, titled 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place Again'. It was a demo in my 'Let's Rock!' Workshop this fall.

I came across this shrub growing out of a crack in the sandstone walls of Black Dragon Canyon in southern Utah and marveled at its tenacity. The angle of the sun was just perfect for casting interesting shadows too.

'Hiking the Canyon', shown left, is the third painting in my Southwest series and was my demo painting in the 'More Rocks' Workshop. There is a tiny hiker to the right of the large rock in the river, to give some scale to the scene. This painting was inspired by our hike in 'The Narrows', a famous slot canyon in Zion National Park in southern Utah. We spent a whole day hiking in the river a few miles upstream and back, using special boots and hiking staffs. Exhausting but memorable!

November 2009 - Week 2

Last weekend was tiring but really enjoyable as we spent four days setting up and manning my booth at the Fall Cottage Life Show at the International Centre in Mississauga. This renowned show is hosted by the folks who publish Cottage Life magazine.

Since this was my first trade show I rented the smallest booth I could (5 x 10 feet) and used it to show a sampling of my Canada Rocks! watercolours and my art cards, as well as to advertise my custom paintings of homes and cottages and my watercolour classes.

Attendance was steady so the time went very quickly and I had lots of conversations with interested visitors and other exhibitors. Most people came to do research so I didn't sell much at the show, so time will tell if the show was worthwhile, in terms of future commission work and class registrations. I've rented a booth at the Spring Cottage Life Show (March 2010) which I understand is much larger - perhaps three times the number of visitors. I can hardly wait!

This photo above shows my husband (and favourite roadie) John helping me set up my Fall Cottage Life show booth.

One of the fantastic benefits of exhibiting at a variety of venues is the networking that occurs among the exhibitors. For instance, at this show I met an excellent wood turner, Geoff Kelk www.woodlotharvest.com, who had a large booth a few spots down the aisle from mine.

When Geoff saw my Canada Rocks! paintings, he thought they were great and invited me to a summer art show next July called 'Art on the Rocks'. About 30 artisans gather on a private island in Georgian Bay and have an afternoon art show for all the cottagers in the area, who arrive by boat. Next July will be the 19th annual show.

I have enjoyed painting a number of watercolours of Georgian Bay rocks, trees and water in the past couple of years and most of them have been sold, so I am really looking forward to creating some more Georgian Bay 'gems' to have ready for 'Art on the Rocks'! I am fascinated by the geography of that region of Ontario.

November 2009 - Week 1

The four students above are busy working on their creations at my 'Whitewater' weekend workshop. We spent both days working on one piece and you can see in the photo at right that everyone was pleased with the river scene they completed.

My husband John and I attended the annual fund raising dinner auction to benefit the Scugog Memorial Public Library in Port Perry this week.

John volunteers as chair of the building committee for the library expansion, a multi-million dollar project that is expected to break ground in the spring of 2010.

I donated 'Snow Sunrise', the watercolour shown above, to the auction and the lucky bidder was our good friend Christy Stone-Curry, owner of Port Perry's historic Piano Cafe and Inn. Seems her husband Rob is getting an early Christmas present...

October 2009 - Week 4

I delivered this painting above, titled 'Mom's Garden', to a client who commissioned me to paint it as a tribute to her mother, who sadly passed away last year. My client said her parents built this home and her Mom created the beautiful gardens, so the painting had to showcase both aspects of the property. This year would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. As often happens with commissions of nostalgic places, my client cried happy tears when she received the finished painting. I got a little misty too...

A friend invited me to join her at the Scugog Women's Networking Breakfast which is held the last Friday each month at the Masonic Lodge in Port Perry. These monthly get-togethers are for women to share and promote business services, fellowship and knowledge.

We had a hearty hot breakfast, listened to a presentation about why credit ratings are important and what affects one's credit rating. Then we each took about 30 seconds to introduce ourselves and our businesses to the group of 50 or so ladies attending.

I had such a good time I joined SWNB for the next year. At the November breakfast some of the members will be displaying at tables promoting their business so I will be offering my art cards and Doors of Port Perry posters.

My painting of Indian corn, shown at left, was accepted into the PineRidge Arts Council annual juried show this week.

'Simply Amaizing', was one of 68 paintings chosen by the jury from 189 entries.

The paintings are on display in the McLean Community Centre in Ajax until Nov. 28.

October 2009 - Week 3

My fall classes started off with a double header this week - a workshop on the weekend and another on the following Thursday/Friday. In the photo below are the students in my 'Let's Rock!' weekend workshop working on their pebble paintings. The photo at right shows their finished works - all really well done!

Here are the students in my 'More Rocks' Thursday/Friday workshop. We really learned a lot about composition, strong value contrasts, colour mixing from the primaries, wet-in-wet washes and masking to save fine highlights. All of us worked hard and the paintings turned out great.

October 2009 - Week 2

Monday we drove home from Deep River, I unpacked all the paintings and hung them up in my home gallery.

Tuesday I cooked a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner for my Mom and John's parents.

Thursday we drove Mom to the airport for her flight back home.

Friday we packed up our RV and headed over to a farm near Orangeville to attend the 2009 Dry Stone Wall Festival. John took a two-day dry stone wall workshop to learn the ancient techniques and I was in the artisan's tent demonstrating painting pebbles in watercolour.

The weather was very cold ( I had to paint with my gloves, two coats, hat and boots on!) so there were very few visitors to the festival and I sold only a few cards. You can see my setup below and to the right are the traditional mortarless stone walls John helped to build over the two days. He says his aching back let him know it was definitely a sport for the younger fellows.

October 2009 - Week 1

At the end of this week we made the drive back up to Deep River for another two-night stay to host a closing reception and take down the show.

There had been many visitors in to see the exhibit since the opening and when it was time to pack up I had sold seven paintings and 140 art cards. That is marvelous and far more than I had hoped for. I made enough profit to cover the 1,800 km of driving, motel and restaurant bills and have a little left over to pay me. What a concept!!

The folks pictured with me below are the Library Arts Committee volunteers who helped me put on the show. Pictured right are some photos of the exhibit.

September 2009 - Week 4

Somehow we managed to cram 40 paintings, Mom, John and me into our SUV and drove about 450 km up to Deep River to set up my solo show in the Library program room there. This is the town where I went to public and high school back in the 60's and 70's.

I was thrilled to meet my high school art teacher Hazel Herriot at the reception. The photo at right shows her on the left, my Mom in the middle and me on the right. This photo also appeared in the North Renfrew Times newspaper. (Oh I've hit the big time now...)

Another absolute thrill was to meet my former grade one teacher, Jacquie Slater, shown below at the reception with me. We also met some previous neighbours and a few former classmates. It was really nice.

September 2009 - Week 2 & 3

With the abundant rainfall in Ontario this summer, our lawn and gardens stayed green and lush well into the fall. These red canna lilies in my front garden stand about six feet tall. The two windows on the right are in my gallery and teaching room.

My mom arrived from Vancouver this week for her annual visit and will be staying with us for a whole month this time, so she can accompany us on two trips to Deep River for my two week solo art show. Mom is 89 and lives for baseball and cross-stitch, often enjoyed simultaneously. She listens to her team (Washington Nationals) almost daily on our satellite radio, so she is really easy to entertain.

Our 2010 Lake Scugog Spring Studio Tour monthly planning meetings started up this week. I am secretary again this year and we have the largest group of artists ever - 47! Our website is being redesigned now and will be on line shortly at www.scugogstudiotour.ca so you can preview all the artists' work.

My husband John is a fabulous handyman, mostly self-taught. His latest project at home is tearing up the old vinyl flooring in our kitchen and laying a new ceramic tile floor. What a good job he is doing, but the dust has settled into all my kitchen cupboards - time for a fall cleaning. Fortunately Mom is able to help me with this a few hours each day so we are making headway. As long as it doesn't interfere with her baseball games we are all happy!

I've been invited to show my watercolours at the Fall Cotttage Life Show at the International Centre in Toronto in November. This will be the first trade show I have done, so hopefully the response from show visitors will make the booth rent worthwhile. I have been looking for appropriate markets for my work in Toronto and I think this might be a good venue to expose both my custom paintings of cottages and homes, as well as my Canadian rock and landscape paintings. Wish me luck!

September 2009 - Week 1

Painting at the CNE

As volunteers for the Township of Scugog, my husband John and I worked in their tourism booth for three days at the 130th Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The CNE runs for 18 days and is the largest fair in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, attracting 1.3 million visitors annually.

I displayed a half dozen paintings and demonstrated watercolour all three days, since the theme of the booth was arts, culture and tourism in Scugog. We talked to lots of people about the great things to do and see in Port Perry and I finished three small pieces while there. You can see my setup in the photo at left.

This half-page feature about my Canada Rocks! series appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Surfacing Magazine, a full colour publication that has been showcasing the artistic and creative people of Durham Region for a year now. Check them out at www.surfacingonline.com.

As a result of this article, the Herongate Barn Dinner Theatre invited me to exhibit my paintings in their gallery space north of Pickering later this fall and winter. Cool!

Review of Summer Shows

Lake Scugog Spring Studio Tour May 2-3

I displayed the completed 'Simply Amaizing' (shown at left) at the annual studio tour, which was fairly well attended this year. I was pleased to sell three paintings and a good number of art cards during the weekend.

Collingwood Show '11 of Us' July 1-26

I was part of a group of artists who rented the gallery space owned by the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts on the main street of Collingwood for the month of July. I was away in the Southwest but did get to see the show on it's last day and it looked very professional. I had about 30 paintings on display alone, so you can imagine the selection in total. The location was ideal (see the three pictures shown at right) and foot traffic was excellent most days I hear. Some artists sold really well but only one of my paintings sold - fortunately it was one of my largest pieces, 'Royal Family', and I met the buyer on the one day I was at the gallery, so I was delighted. You can see examples of work from every artist involved at our web site www.11ofus.com.