The Crown

The Crown (c)2017  9.5x7.5  $900 colored pencil

Sometime around 1875  Elias J “Lucky” Baldwin brought over from India a modest number of peafowl for his ranch in Arcadia.  After he passed away his daughter sold off the ranch to the state of California and Los Angeles county, which together bought 111 acres. The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden was then created and is an official wildlife sanctuary with some 250 different species strutting the grounds of the arboretum!

I love seeing these residents every time I visit the arboretum, and no matter how many times I have seen them through the years,  it's still thrilling!!

 Come out to the LA Arboretum and Garden in Arcadia, CA on March 25th for Peacock Day!! The Pasadena Society of Artists Peacock Exhibition is in the library with the reception from 5-7pm

Woofstock 90210

Even tho this show was a bit of a bust financially, it sure was super fun seeing all the magnificent dogs, talking to people about art, having lovely neighbors to our left and seeing a few friends too!!!  

If I had done better I might have come home with a heavenly pitbull puppy I fell in love with at one of the adoption booths, so perhaps it was meant to be and I will get a few commissions down the road from this event instead of potty training a puppy!

Before the event started my friend Robin (below) painted my daughter Emilys face with dolphins!!

Weirdly dogs kept pulling their owners into my booth all day, I swear I didn't pay them off with promises of biscuits and bones, they just liked it in there by us!!

A big shout out to my wonderful daughter for all her help, it wouldn't have been as much fun without her!!!

Olive's twig digs!

Sweetie (c) 2014 8x10 Kathryn Hansen

As my enjoyable commission of Sweetie is now completed, I thought my next drawing to tackle would be for an upcoming gallery show at Segil Art Gallery. The theme for the show is "Home." As I perused numerous photographs of my own and on PMP, racking my brain for the perfect idea, I decided to go with another Jennie Norris photo of a morning dove snuggled into her twig hideaway.

I wrestled with the idea of creating this in colored pencil, or maybe even a tinted paper, but in the end I just decided to go my usual route but with a different type of paper. I've become super unhappy with the sizing in Strathmore's bristol board lately, so checked out the various papers at my local art store, Swains. Disappointingly they had very little in the way of drawing papers, so decided on a 300 lb watercolor paper called, Lanaquarelle. I started the piece on Sunday morning, and did my research on it on Monday, and yikes, I found out the company uses animal products in their sizing just like Arches...bad company! So...well...I guess it's back to another art store to see if anyone has Fabriano paper...that seems to be a very popular drawing paper who's sizing is all plant material! Now that's a good company that I can support!!

a sweet couple in my driveway that my cats didn't chase away!

2014 LA Art Show

not quite sure why i didn't enjoy this show as much as i have in the past but really, nothing  popped out at me, moved me, or made me want to take one more glance before i left. i was still feeling under the weather with the flu, so i'm sure that didn't help the situation. but my girlfriend sorta summed up the show in this way..."i think young adolescent boys would love this show!"

but anyway...here were some of my favorite pieces:

i loooved these mobiles with dyed rice paper by Jade Oakley

i'm always excited to see Arcadia Contemporary, especially Julio Reyes!

unfortunately i do not remember this artists name...bummer!

well, there's always next year to look forward to!!

Moo is mooving along!!!

although i haven't drawn since last wednesday night...moo is coming along pretty quickly.

my last commission, jessica and crystal are safely in my clients hands! 

the two day art show i participated in with 14 other awesome artists went very well. i received another commission, sold some prints and small pieces and was approached to do another show for designers and interior decorators! so, aside from exhaustion and a small cold, all in all it was a wonderful weekend!

and jesus orchestrated us with his magic red paint brush!! what more could we ask for?!

move aside pete, it's raining cats and dogs!

remember my post about pete last week...well, just in that one week since, i received two more commissions...so 6 in total now!!! that is a new record for me and it's not even christmas yet!! yikes! sooo poor pete is now set aside cuz there are a lot of cats and dogs needing drawing!!

i finish up jessica and crystal over the weekend. so one down!

Jessica and Crystal  Kathryn Hansen (c) 2013 8x10

and started drawing out moo thursday night but got into the finer details over the weekend.

Moo

also framed up two drawings for a show this coming weekend at st george's church in la canada. there will be 15 artists in all, so if you are in the los angeles area, please pop in and say hi!! it will be super fun!

a leisurely day brimming with art!

we had a full day in laguna beach on saturday, hitting up 3 art fairs chock-full of incredible and inspiring art and lively music! i ended up talking to so many artists this time about cameras, animals, other exhibits they were participating in and more...so fun! i have to say my favorites pieces of art were from carol heiman-greene, ray brown, michael ward and michael r crook! i wish i were incredibly rich, i would have gone home with an arm load of art from these artists! darn kids need to eat tho...but boy it was tempting!! 

acag spring show...a huge success!!

what a fun night this past saturday turned out to be! the angeles crest art guild had their annual spring show at the modest fly gallery with 21 out of 35 members participating. i am happy as can be to say that one of my pieces...a little birdie told me...sold to a lovely judge, who will be putting it up in his chambers!! the show will be going until may 11th if you want to pop by...it really is a wonderful show, chock full of paintings, ceramics, photography and much, much more!

below are many of the members in this amazing group...all working artists with lots to share! i can't tell you how elated and lucky i am to be in this group!!

~and~

new on the drawing board...harry the hippo...that won't be the final title of course, but it just seemed to fit him!! it's hard to see here, but i added 3 oxpeckers to his back just to...well...because i can!! he's long too, just shy of 20 inches. i'm going to enter him in the tag gallery show this summer...so exciting cuz last year my elephant drawing got in and sold!

and a bit more progress on coonie!

**thanks to athena for the photographs...i was a dummy by forgetting my camera!!**

one more show!

 one more show for me this coming sunday at the Modest Fly Art Gallery. it's a one day event from 12-5pm. i'm not quite sure what to expect, but i'm SO happy to be juried into it!

photo courtesy of modest fly

i am super hard at work framing up 7 pieces for the show...let me tell you, framing is a long process, especially when two drawings aren't quite finished yet! but they are lookin' good, if i do say so myself!!

 saturday nights reception at Segil Art Gallery was an enormous success! not that any red dots were seen...(yet!!)...but there was a huge crowd, despite the rain, lovely music, carolers, i got wonderful comments on my drawings by so many, and i ended up talking non-stop to lots of very awesome people! that last part is big for me as i get a bit intimidated and shy when i'm at gallery receptions. i don't easily strike up conversations because i feel like i am pushing people to buy my work. but maybe because the gallery was more intimate and i actually saw people i knew, but hadn't seen in a very long time, that it was a really great experience and gives me a bit more confidence when mingling at art receptions!

upcoming show

the 10th annual holiday small works show is happening from december 1st through the 29th at the segil fine art gallery in monrovia, california. i SO hope you can join me at the reception this coming saturday from 5-7pm. see details here!

 

this is one of two graphite drawings juried into the show. the photos i shot for this drawing were taken at deukmejian park, a skip and a jump from my home. over the long holiday, my dog josie and i went back there for another challenging hike. we took the trail to the left that curves down into a beautiful ravine where josie loves to wade in the narrow winding stream. then climbs high into the sand colored mountain range overlooking the foothills, just north of los angeles.

i'm very blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful place with so many gorgeous areas to hike and a dog that even at 9 can out hike me!!