My Newest Painting

I finished this painting on Wednesday - it is based on a trip I took to New York City earlier this year (in case you couldn't tell from looking at it...). The photo's a little dark, but you get the idea!

(Painting copyright Katherine Downie 2014)

What I Do

I was talking to my friend Brian the other day about how hard it is to blog sometimes with a sister as hilarious and witty as mine. Now I don't mean to sound (too) bitter about this, it's just that, well, she's funnier than me! (And I have proof.) And I'm OK with that. While I feel fairly confident with my writing skills, I think my strengths lay in writing fiction or thoroughly researched (and thus slightly boring) papers and critical analyses. (Don't feel bad, I just fell asleep writing about writing them, so your snores don't upset me.) ;)

So here's my plan: I was thinking that, while I still plan on blogging about the usual boring stuff (the foundation upon which my blog was built), I might occasionally share with you something that I'm just slightly more comfortable with: my (and sometimes others') art! As a grad student at Kendall College of Art and Design, I eat, sleep, and breathe art (a little uncomfortable at first, but I've adjusted), so why not blog about it (a little), too? If you don't like art, I hope you'll still give this a chance. Like my 20th Century Art History professor told us, I don't have to make you like it, but I'd love to help you understand it.

To start off on this path, I thought I'd share with you a few paintings that I've done. I work mostly (~96% of the time) in watercolor, which is what these are. These three paintings are on 23" x 30" Arches watercolor paper.

This is a painting I did in 2007 of some of the knights at the Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan.

A more recent painting (done in September/October 2009), this one is from a new series I'm working on called "What's On Your Table?" This is a collection of items that reflect my recent move to Grand Rapids from Saline.

This is the second painting in the "...Table" series, and is really just things that were, at that time, on my coffee table. Through this series I'm working on photo realism and am continuing to paint larger and larger (the most recent that I'm still working on is 3' x 4'). They are also becoming more personal in their content (I'll post those when they are complete).

(Please note that the paintings I post here are copyright 2014 Katherine Downie, so please don't reproduce them anywhere without permission. Thank you!)