Dancing in the Wind

April 5, 2021 kingstoncovestudioabstract, Dancing in the Wind, gold leaf, how to sell artwork in a new town, oil painting, painting in an old garage, where do you paintLeave a comment

Back to my makeshift studio to paint. This is 60″ x 48″ and is designed to hide a water heater. Not the best reason to paint, but any reason in my mind is a good reason. When I sold my waterfront home, I gave up my perfect painting studio over my three car garage. It was designed to have perfect north lighting, lots of space for storage and close to main street where I could sell my art.

When I sold it, I bought a small cottage with a finished garage, so I could set up my studio there. It was great, people walked by and said hello and it was clean and organized with lots of storage. I still own the home, but do not live there.

Where I live now, really has no studio. It is a wonderful 1912 California Craftsman Bungalow with a not so lovely 1912 one-car garage. I’m not sure it ever really housed a car. It is unfinished, has that “old house” smell, and it has taken me a while to want to paint in it. In time we may dry-wall it, so I can hang some art and hopefully get some shelves so I can store some of my supplies. I did order a lamp this weekend to help with the lighting.

After the Fire

November 21, 2020 kingstoncovestudioabstract, abstract art, abstract paintings, After the fire, art, artist, Diana Bennett Wirtz. artist, painting in a new studioLeave a comment

Picking up and moving to a new place for half a year is proving to be an interesting transition. Definitely not a bad one, but traveling and hoping you have packed everything you need.

I brought a lot from my kitchen, as my new kitchen in the north is so much smaller and out of date compared to the house l sold. I do miss the view of the harbor when I am in my Washington home, but adapted by enjoying the trees (that constantly make a mess of my back yard), the deer wantering through and the smaller space. I finally had the kitchen of my dreams, but not the marriage. So the choice was be happy in the house and miserable in part of life or move on. I am very happy I moved on.

Then there is the packing of clothes. So very often when I get dressed in the morning I realize that I left a few too many things behind. When I arrived in California it was supposed to Fall, but it was still summer and I had no summer clothes. Thanks to Nordstrom Rack I found end of summer sale clothes, so filled in what was missing. (sort of). With the Pandemic having the right clothes certainly is not as important. I just needed a few lighter weight clothes and some T-shirts to get me to Fall.

Fall has finally arrived and I am savoring the weather and finally got a studio, of sorts set up in the 1918 garage. I got a heater, a light and have a folding table and one easel for my art. I got the heater after the first day I painted and had to wear tights, a turtleneck, a flannel shirt, overalls, a fleece vest, cashmere gloves, which I cut the fingers off, a hat, Ughs and I was still freezing. The heater has helped a lot.

The fires were finally under control in Central California, so I painted the above painting in honor or that and for all the people that lost homes, pets and loved ones. I usually do an abstract rather quickly, but I think I felt a little emotional over the fires that blazed so close. The painting was done for our home in Vacaville and seems to fit in perfectly.

Fire in the Air

October 3, 2020October 1, 2020 kingstoncovestudioabstract, art, artist, fire & water, firesLeave a comment

With the fires in Washington and California, both places I now live I felt compelled to paint about the fires. I call this one Fire in the Air. It is 24″ X 48″ and came together quickly.

The next week, as the air cleared and it was easier to breathe, I painted the one below. 36″ X 36″ and called “The Air is Clearing”.

Time for Changes

October 1, 2020 kingstoncovestudioabstract, divorce, music, Music in the Air, repaintLeave a comment

This 30″ x 40″ painting was done for my now ex-husband. He insisted he have it when he moved out, but after a bit sent it back to me. I decided I must have been a little depressed when I painted it.

There are musical notes added in the background with the use of collage, which is not my normal style of artwork. I decided best to paint over it, to remove the memory of bad times.

This one makes me smile a little more. The colors are lighter and the addition of more gold leaf add a little lightness to the piece

The Air is Clearing

September 21, 2020 kingstoncovestudio#abstract, abstract, art, baking, cooking for fun, Diana Bennett, galette, Nectarine, painting for fun, Plum, The Air is Clearing, whats for breakfast, whats for dinnerLeave a comment

It is so very nice to finally awaken to fresh clean smoke free air. Another day at last in my studio enjoying putting paint on a 36″ x 36″ canvas. With time in my studio and time in my kitchen life is good. I called the “The Air is Clearing”, as I could almost see the sky become blue during the day.

When I am not painting I seem to be cooking and made this Plum, Nectarine and Blackberry Galette in the morning.

My friend Reed really liked I think, as this was what was left after breakfast…

The recipe is in one of my earlier posts, and it is so easy and so delicious, you should make one. The last one I made with peaches and blackberries. I like to add a little cinnamon on top and four or five dabs of good butter, with an egg wash and a little sugar on the crust. I use Italian Joe’s Pie Crust recipe, as it is moist, flakey and goes together easily:

Italian Joes Pie Crust

Ingredients:

3 cups (375g) Plain Flour (unbleached and unfortified)
2 tbsp Sugar

I tsp salt

2 sticks (220g) of Butter
(small cold cubed)
1 beaten Egg mixed with
3/4 cup Milk (cold)

Mix flour, sugar & salt to evenly distribute the dry ingredients
Place mixture into a large bowl ( He uses a food processor, but I prefer doing by hand.
Add cold butter cubes with the flour mix and use cold bakers knives or your fingers until it transforms into small pea-sized crumbs
Add egg and milk mixture mixing by hand or cold utensils until the mixture comes together or take the mixture out to the work surface
Make a well with the flour crumbs mixture adding the egg and milk mixture in the well and lightly handling the mixture by hand or utensils.
(do not knead)
Incorporate all ingredients together to form a dryish dough
Wrap it well with cling film & refrigerate for 1 hour
Roll out the dough split it in half for two pie crust and roll it out bigger than the pie dish
Fit the rolled out pie dough in the greased and floured pie dish making sure pie dough is press all around the crevices of the dish so it doesn’t sink in or collapse when cooking.
Cut around the edge of the pie dish and refrigerate again for 20 before egg washing it and filling it with pie filling and cooking in the oven.
Enjoy!

I put the second half of the pie dough in plastic wrap, then use my Seal A Meal to seal it before I freeze it till I need it.

Red Meets Black!

September 14, 2020September 12, 2020 kingstoncovestudioabstract, black, oil, red, red meets black, Stacey Kent, the firesLeave a comment

In addition to sketching and doing a relatively impressionistic type paint, I love doing big abstracts. This one did not take much time, but just made me happy painting. I usually put on some great music and just enjoy the energy. Stacey Kent is my newest artist of choice. I was introduced to her music when staying a friend’s house. With all the fires going on in Washington, Oregon and California the idea struck me that the all the fury of the fires leaves behind the sadness of the blackened trees and lost homes.

This is fairly large at 48″ wide x 24″ tall.

The Choice of Direction is always yours.

August 8, 2015 kingstoncovestudioabstract, art, art classes, artist, artists, artists and nature, canvas, choices, flowers, paintingLeave a comment

Picked up my paint brushes for the first time in six months. It felt glorious. This painting has been sitting on the canvas half done for over six months. Life got in the way, and that should never happen to an artist. I truly enjoy selling real estate, but was with a team that wanted you to work 7/24 and cold call people whenever they signed online to look at houses. It made me feel like I was “Big Brother” watching what people were doing. I don’t like it when I get email for months when I was interested for a short amount of time, or now on Facebook anything that you have viewed online or in Amazon shows up on the side bar, till your next choice of searches.

When I finished this painting tonight and photographed it, I could not decide which I liked it best. Horizontal or Vertical. That is when I started thinking we all have choices to make every day of our life. Today I chose to paint after having a wonderful lunch with my beautiful God daughter. She inspired me to get back to what I love doing.

Not that I am not going to help people buy and sell houses, I am just going to take some time for me to do the things I love.

So you choose, which way do you like it better? Vertical or Horizontal? Life is so full of wonderful choices, just take one and get on with it.

Pen & Ink

March 3, 2015March 3, 2015 kingstoncovestudioabstract, art, art classes, artist, artists, artists and nature, bainbridge island, beach, black and white photography, boats, commentary, creative energyLeave a comment

This last weekend I had the pleasure of taking a pen & ink & watercolor class with a well known artist. Pen & ink has always captured my attention, especially after writing my book “Hand Drafting for Interior Design”

“

Working on the drawings for many days, I found pleasure in the hand drawn line and taking this class I got to put to use all the drawings and techniques I shared in my book.

The group of people that came together for the class were talented, funny and made the weekend such a pleasure. But the drawing was just pure delight, and learning a new way to add a tad or splash of color to the drawings, made me want to draw, draw, draw and water color a little.

http://www.dianakingsley.net

Back to Painting

February 20, 2015 kingstoncovestudioabstract, art, artist, artists, artists and nature, beach, black and white photography, boats, chroma, color, creative energyLeave a comment

For many years I took classes with a wonderful impressionist artist and enjoyed the time and progress that I made in the class and the other artists that came to paint and learn. I live on the beach and love my morning, evening and anytime of the day view out my back window to the beach beyond. Over the years I have photographed it and shared the photos here and on Facebook.

Taking the class I wanted to paint the scene in different moods and shades and colors, as it was always changing. I painted it about three times and our teacher decided for me that I could no longer paint it in class. I went along with it because she was the pro. I left that class about three years ago due to political differences. If we disagreed with her political beliefs we were yelled at, put down and not allowed to say anything in response as it was her home (garage) where we painted.

Time has passed and I do know I learned a lot about colors and how to mix them from her and from watching fellow artists; but I also have since thought about how many times Monet painted haystacks or a cathedral at Rouen in France. No one told him he could not paint a subject he was fascinated by. Kevin McPherson, a contemporary artist produced a book called “Reflection on a Pond”, where he painted his own pond 365 days in a row.

Yesterday having passed the real estate broker’s exam, and not being in my studio other than to sew I spent the afternoon painting my interpretation of my view. I just repainted my master bedroom in gray and have the desire to do a series of paintings in black, white & gray, with maybe one accent color. Here is the first of this series. I was inspired by another painting I did earlier called Airstream, that my youngest son loved, so I gave it to him.

Now I am finally inspired to paint again for the sheer joy of it with no intention of running all over trying to sell it or put up another show. I will post on my website: www.dianakingsley.net, but that is as much as I will do going forward.

Cha Ching Cha Ching

November 7, 2014November 7, 2014 kingstoncovestudioabstract, lack of manners, Lsing stuff, modern manners, rsvp, thank you notesLeave a comment

Okay, so yesterday I posted that in one week (last week), I lost a diamond out of my wedding band, and insurance covers the stone, but not the repair; lost a wedding gift from husband, a gold initial necklace ordered from England and $$$$, my iPod, my Fitbit, my favorite Purple Leather notebook and today THIS! Should I just accept this as part of life or wonder “What have I done to deserve this?”. Oh yes and a book I sent was stolen out of the package before it was delivered.

Beginning to think I should lock myself in a room and stay there for a week, or a month or whatever… This kind of thing happen to anyone else? Or is it a full moon? Two of my former students had a whole house full of staging furniture, art and accessories stolen this week. Is it in the stars?

I wonder about life in today’s world sometimes. Thank you notes are a thing of the past, greeting cards are hardly ever sent and RSVP is “what is that”? Wonder what life will be like in twenty years? Will people quit having parties, because with no RSVP’s you have no idea how many people to expect?

I for one am done giving Christmas gifts to adults, as I never even get an acknowledgment that what I sent was received, let alone a thank you note. An email is just not the same, and mostly I have not gotten one those anyway.

Betterif gifts had an automatic response card saying, I received it, I love it or hate it, but thank you for the thought. With the amount of stuff I have lost in the last two weeks I will be spending my money on replacing my own stuff. Maybe it is time I finally become self-centered.

What do you think?

diana bennett | artist | interior designer | cook

Interior . Kitchen. Bath . Office Design & Wonderful Food.

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