A little over a week ago Gia Canali, wedding photographer and all around great gal, stopped by and gave me two vintage process photos. (Pictures will be taken and posted very soon.) To thank her for being so lovely I gave her this painting:


Why do I love it?
It is loose and sort of unfinished, the colors are soft with a few darks thrown in and I love how the baby deer and little flying owl turned out. You could almost separate this into three different paintings and have very different stories.

Was it hard to not want to push it further?
Yes. I thought about finishing the deer on the left or covering the ink lines on the center deer but ultimately I thought it seemed fresh and left it alone.

Til next time,

Kellie

Scenes From An After Party

I am excited to be the next featured artist at theBANQUET, in Brooklyn. Pam Johnston and Miranda Bennett put together this lovely place. You should take a look at their talents both in jewelry and clothing design. Anyhow, since it is my birthday and I love parties I created a series of paintings inspired by parties, specifically after parties.

If you are in NYC or Brooklyn this Saturday, December 18th then please stop by to view some art, celebrate birthdays and this wonderful holiday season.

Saturday, December 18th
7-11pm
360 Atlantic Avenue.

Birds, birds, birds! I have been busy working at a start up company and getting married but have started to paint again. I painted these birds for escort cards at my wedding and used them in my invitations too. I also made a little bee that I pressed into name tags on honey jars, menus and other pieces of my invites... pretty fun.

Recently listed on Once Wed.

Photos are by Gia Canali, the best photographer ever. Seriously... look at her website or blog.
Save the dates were printed by my favorite printers, Night Owl Press.

Loooooong time... no post... So I won a juror's choice award for Open Studio's this year, check out the painting @ http://artspan.org/bio/kellie-charlton. That was pretty exciting. For the event I painted a bunch of heads that I put in wooden square frames and mounted in a cluster on the wall, here are some of the heads. (check back for the other paintings that are more illustrative and in my typical style)

I am participating in a benefit for the Gorilla Foundation and Koko, the gorilla. The benefit will be an art show and silent auction at 111 Minna on November 18th. I grew up in the 80s being very intrigued by Koko, her adopted brother, Michael and her kitten, All Ball.

Hope to see you there. 
www.koko.org

I think I will start posting again. Hmm... I did this painting a while ago and titled it Minerva's Task. For those of you who do not know the history of Minerva(Athena) she had an owl that was associated with her called the Owl of Minerva. The owl has since become the symbol of philosophy.

In school I took a class, "quick studies," with Craig Nelson. A quick study is just a painting that you do typically in 30 minutes or less. Doing a fast painting allows you be free with your brush strokes and not too conscious of your color. I started doing these types of paintings recently when my friend Brett Amory told me that before he starts a big painting he will loosen up with a small one. These paintings are 5x5 and pretty fun. You finish quickly and feel accomplished which gets you in the right space to paint something more challenging! I think I will do a bunch more of these.