Snail Mail 🐌 💌

It’s fun to receive and send mail. If you’re a friend you probably already knew this because you’ve likely had something arrive in your mailbox from ME! Postcards are a favorite thing for me to send because a few lines, an address, a less-expensive stamp and easy-peasy-pie — it’s done!

The above photo are postcards of some of my marsh paintings. It was the silliest epiphany for me when I realized I could make postcards of my own work! I have bought and sent the entire box of 100 Pantone postcards (it’s fun to choose just the perfect color to send to someone) and at museums I’ve enjoyed selecting books of postcards by other artists to send to friends. But this? What fun — a postcard from Marsha-Marsha-Marsha!

I customized the back because I could. Put the stamp where the star is :) Address to the right side of the paintbrush :)

I love our Mother Earth so I used compostable string to package up these postcards of six unique images. They’re printed on excellent coated card stock locally by Printworks in Walpole, MA, a woman-owned business and my go-to for all my printed everything.

If marshes aren’t your favorite sort of landscape fear not! I have a postcard collection of Cedars — my favorite wee conifer — in all different times of day and using all different and fun colors.

I bet I’ll be sending a lot more mail in the future. They’re on my website under “stationery” if you’d like some, too. Also you can purchase them at Heirloom New England, Norfolk, MA and Custom Art Framing, Norwood, MA. All women-owned businesses and all would be happy to have your support. Thanks!!

Watch Party

It’s Friday after my new art show aired on local community TV and YouTube. And so I watched me and saw the painting I made appear on the screen. Weird! I hope if you’ve watched you enjoyed it. My youngest told me that the show is relaxing. Wonderful!

We watched two episodes of the five uploaded to YouTube.

I’m looking pretty wistful in this quick screen capture. It took a dozen photos to get one where I didn’t look pretty silly.

What would you like to see on future episodes? Do let me know!

Thanks for reading and watching and supporting. I appreciate it!

Kim’s Art Show (!!!)

I don’t quite know how to say this without overdoing the exclamation points, but I have an art show! (!!!!)

For years now I have done painting demonstrations for local art associations so this jump to painting in front of a camera isn’t too much of a jump. It seems the timing was right for this because when I asked my local community TV station about the possibility the reply was yes.

While the first taping was beyond stressful, it was also beyond exciting. I found myself counting the days to the next time I’d be in the studio, and I don’t mean my art studio ;)

My set up in the studio before I got to painting

Gouache has been my medium and I’ve been painting marshes. Of course I have; they are my comfortable place and painting subject. I added some resources and link to my site to accommodate the things I’ve mentioned in the show. It’s exciting for me to work on all of this!

This is my deer-in-the-headlights face

When recording the first episode was through I was excited and relieved. And my painting was not too shabby either. Of course, making a painting in 30 minutes in front of three cameras — even when it’s a familiar subject — isn’t a sure thing. As with demonstrations I’ve done for art associations, I never know what’s going to happen in the end.

The finished painting— after a little more attention at home

This show will cover whatever I’d like and that’s so exciting. Part of the reason it’s named “Kim’s Art Show” is because it’s simple and has a nice wide focus. “Let’s not overthink it” — Station Manager Steve Gay. Sounds good to me!

This is the back of Steve, station manager and the one responsible for saying yes in the first place. Andrew and Ben are working the cameras. When I’m back to record the fourth show I’ll have to remember to get better photos of these important folks.

The show is 30 minutes long and I’ve yet to watch it myself. It’s exciting and scary and fun and I do hope you enjoy!

Shifts and changes

Oh this week is a big one — my eldest leaves for college. Perhaps what I can best say about this is that I love being a mom more than anything else. My role in that is changing. It’ll be an adjustment and it’ll all be great. She is so truly ready and excited and that positive energy will get me through.

Priorities get shifted with parenthood, and now a shift will happen again. I’ve had painting ideas percolating for years — maybe 18 of them! Time to see what they are. This is pretty thrilling for me.

I took this photo YEARS ago. No kidding it was years ago- maybe it was 16 or so. This is it. The embodiment. What does it mean? I have ideas.

In the meantime, while we enjoy the winding down of summer and the few days with my girl at home before college, I percolate and prepare. Can’t wait for all that is coming up!

Studio sale

I am on the cusp of some fun things and new artwork; I can feel things stirring creatively. This summer I’ve been busy with new ideas, making new plans, and an exciting new project (more to come on this soon).

When you’re feeling this “newness” it makes sense to clean up and clear out. Time for a STUDIO SALE in my shop, here on this site.

The prices are low. The work I’m proud of, but it’s not doing me any good sitting in my studio.

Maybe you’ll take advantage?

The best references

I paint from life and from photos and from sketches and from memory. Sometimes the best references are bad photos — blurry, blotched, and black and white. When the references are like this we are free to interpret more about the scene. The resulting painting will be what it needs to be rather than a copy of the clear reference. It’s how I make paintings.

Sometimes I try to put photos away, too, and not look at them too much when I am in the latter part of my work. It can be super freeing to do this, and sometimes super stressful.

These marsh photos look better in this photo than they do in person. They have paint on them and the finish is all marred and inconsistent. I love painting from them, though.

A small pastel I did years ago and sold (it’s one that got away) was inspired by the drive home from my visiting my boyfriend (now husband — yay! It makes the memory even better). Mars was in the sky for a bit that summer. It was a lovely dot of warm reddish light in the deep blue night sky, visible even with a bright moon. I pulled over on a farm side road and drew a sort of painting map of the view on the back of a check deposit slip (showing my age here). Main shapes, value and color notes were made with hatch marks and pigment names. I stared out at the sky as if memorizing what I saw.

The next day I went to the studio and made a painting from that “map” and I loved the result. It was loose and minimal. The end piece represented all that I needed it to be. No details that were too busy. It was distilled to what was necessary.

And now I feel inspired to do this again!

Thanks for reading

everyday could be a painting

Parts of everyday scream out to me to be paintings. Today was perfectly summer - hot, humid, sunny, and filled with possible paintings.

While gardening, I noticed my veggies looked beautiful against the sky and the varieties of green were glorious. While driving to play practice for my youngest, I noticed the pond’s deep blue against the brightness of the morning sun-dappled trees. The winner for me, though, was the blueberry bushes, overloaded with their deliciousness, when I picked this afternoon.

Look at the blues! The pinks! The purples! and the greens. Gorgeous! A painting? It would be complicated for sure, but there’s potential!

Look at them all! Thank you, Jane and Paul’s Farm, Norfolk MA. They are delicious!

About my small works

When my girls were little, I was always torn between things I had to do. Time to paint was short, even when they were both napping, and I always had in mind that I could be disrupted at any time, since nap time varied from day to day.

My solution was to paint small and quick—zoom! Pastels were my medium of choice then with their pre-mixed direct color. I’d wear gloves and paint and listen, enjoying creative time until they woke.

Working whilst they slept was such a shot in the arm for me during their early years. I’d made a contest of how many smalls I could complete and still be proud of my work. I learned to make all the painting decisions quickly: what will I paint? What are the colors? What mark will I make next? And what more does the work need?

Now my girls are 16 (tomorrow is my youngest’s birthday!!) and 18 (headed to college in less than a month *sigh*) and I’m wistfully remembering all the times from “before.” So many changes. Constant thought the years though is that I love to paint small and quick.

In this photo of my standing desk are two small gouache (opaque watercolor) paintings at center and two pastels to the right. The small paintings sometimes get worked up into larger works. I wonder if any of these may…

Marsh-a Marsh-a Marsh-a

I love to be in the marsh landscape. I have enjoyed painting marshes for as long as I’ve been painting.

The above marsh is an amalgam from the Great Salt Marsh in Newbury on the Rowley line of Massachusetts. It has a long history in fine art paintings, and when I paint it I enjoy feeling the connection to other artists in assorted time.

What is it about a marsh that makes folks enjoy paintings of them?

And is there a place you connect with? If you’re a painter, is there a spot you love to paint again and again?

My guy Tim has been known to call me Marsha for obvious reasons ;)

My basement space

We moved into our present home nearly five years ago during the housing crunch of the pandemic. I had few asks of the new-to-us spot except I wished for a studio space. The bottom level houses the garage and the basement space so the basement space became my studio.

This basement is half the width of the house, and I have it packed with all sort of creative things. In the photo above (shout out excitedly with me: I FIGURED OUT HOW TO ADD A PHOTO!!) you’ll see the nook I use as my sewing area. There is insulation showing in the ceiling above, a support post is just out of the frame at the left, cords from my perfect make-it-work lighting (a game-changer in my space thanks to friend and fellow-creative Steph Ackley), and a bulletin board for all the things that are front-of-mind and need to be seen.

My bulletin board may be the same one that I had since high school. I would rearrange all the items on it periodically and take such joy in doing it. Little has changed.

This photo packs a punch of special items, starting on the wall, moving to the lower small shelf and then to the bulletin board from left to right:

• the Yosemite page of an old calendar featuring the cabin in the woods where I live in my dreams

• wee painting of a favorite home in Norfolk, MA

• a painting of me painting in Clare’s barn at Pipe Dream Farm, Henniker, NH

• the Worry Less decks I illustrated and designed with friend Carrie Vinson, PLLC

• assorted photos, stickers, cards, etc with my illustrated label for my friend Becca’s egg cartons from her days at Sweet Georgia P’s farm in Vermont

• my pastel of the marsh I adore revisiting again and again. It’s an amalgam of all the marshes I’ve seen and painted through the years

• my name is from my section at a show at Zullo Gallery, Medfield MA

• a 5x7 study of the study in our former home - I loved that room….

• more wee paintings in gouache because gouache rocks

• Tootsie pop wrapper with a Native American archer on it because it’s good luck when your wrapper has the archer 🏹

• Pont-Aven, Brittany, France panoramic photo because my heart is always there

• pins and such on a velvet ribbon because resisting is important

• gnome patch from Heirloom New England, a retail shop and my lifeline to creative souls locally

My fabric shelf no longer is a bastion of organized goodness and instead now spills onto the floor. And we never plastered the wall when installing the blue board. We dropped it and the corner smooshed a bit. With so much to see in this space, I don’t even really notice it much anymore.

All that in one teeny tiny corner of my space. I bet you can’t wait for more posts about the rest ;)

Interwebs

And so it begins again, my attempt to make a website that shows myself as a creative person and not a brand, a marketed item, or someone attempting to be somehow influencing others. For years I have had this squarespace website and for years I’ve had myriad reasons not to figure out the how of getting this done.

My eldest will be in college in a month. She’s not going far (thankfully) but I’m acutely feeling the changes happening. She was a wee one when I first secured kimweineck.com and it’s humbling for me to realize I’ve been avoiding this task for so long….

Bear with me whilst I figure it all out. I have goals: show up, discuss what’s going on creatively, share what’s inspiring me, and offer my work to you. Seems like something I can do!

Already I’m struggling because I can’t figure out how to add photos to this blog post. *Grumble grumble.*