KATE LADD'S ART The Blue Heron Studio

February at the Joyful Jewel

2012-02-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

I'm the featured artist for February at the Joyful Jewel gallery in downtown Pittsboro. Here are some of my paintings, my booth, my featured wall, and a painted dresser with a marbelized top.

Abstract Seascapes

2012-01-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

"Birds on the Beach"

"Low Tide"

Some new paintings. I have been working on a series of abstract seascapes . I am fascinated with the colors and misty light at low tide, especially in the early morning and in the late afternoon.

I've used lots of washes and glazes with acrylic paints on gallery wrapped canvas. I'll be posting more pieces soon. These and other paintings can be seen in my Etsy shop.

"Birds on the Beach" is currently in a show at the Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro, NC.

A Dining Room floor

2012-01-01T07:52:00.001-08:00

I painted this dining room floor for a friend who bought a fantastic victorian house here in North Carolina. The center is marbelized and I used a stencil that I cut for the borders. The design is adapted from the design in her stained glass chandelier. The floor was painted with acrylic paints and then coated with several coats of a varathane floor finish, then waxed.

Happy New Year

2011-12-28T11:14:00.000-08:00

A new year is upon us and I've decided that it's time to start blogging again. Perhaps an easier resolution than losing weight or quitting smoking or walking a mile a day.

I have lots of pictures of projects that I have done in 2011 that I will share, as well as some of my new paintings - so here goes!

Still lifes with fruits and vegetables on 8 x 10 inch stretched canvasses.

These pieces can all be seen and purchased on my Etsy site.

Floorcloth in Maine

2010-09-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

I made this floorcloth for some friends who live in Maine. It is under their dining room table, it's 9 x 12 feet. It features a marbelized tile center, with fish and lobsters and seals on the border. Red, white and blue are the colors in the home.

I hope they enjoy their lobsters more now with the floorcloth under their table!

Painted Door

2010-08-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've just finished painting this door for some clients who live in a country farmhouse and love gardening. It's still leaning against the wall in my studio. I used PermEnamel glass paint for the window. This paint is very durable to paint on glass or mirrors.

These flowers are among the ones in my garden, the iris, echinacea, and sunflowers. I don't have a trumpet vine.

Floorcloth in "Please Match my Sofa " show

2010-06-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

I created this floorcloth for the "Please Match my Sofa" show at the Conn-Arts Gallery in Hendersonville, NC. Opening night is tomorrow, June 10th from 6 to 9 PM.

Please click here to see the gallery website, and click on "50 Artists" to see a photo of the gallery with my floorcloth [ in front of a sofa, of all things ! ]

Summer Garden

2010-05-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

Original oil painting based on my garden, from which I get lots of inspiration !

Painting can be purchased in my Etsy shop.

Crows on a Wall

2010-04-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

My latest painting was inspired by the old crumbling walls in Mexico and the incredible light at sunset when there is a stillness in the air like no other time of day.

I've been working on several new pieces recently as I'm getting ready for a solo show in May. It will be in Chapel Hill, NC.More details to follow.

In the meantime, this piece is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Spring Flowers

2010-03-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

I'm painting flowers in hopes that I will soon see the real thing in my garden. The daffodils are blooming and all kinds of other perennials are starting to shoot up.

Here are a couple of my recent paintings, they can be purchased in my Etsy shop.

Thanks for looking !

Full Moon in Mexico

2009-09-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

This painting was inspired by a book that was written by a friend. He had a house in a small village in Mexico and the book is part memoir and part fiction about a week that he spent there during the full moon.

I also spent some time in this "sleepy little fishing village" and his book brought back memories of what a magical place it is. My son went there recently with his girlfriend and he reported that it's still magical!

The painting is 30 x 30 inches and painted on a gallery wrapped canvas. I used acrylic paints and a silver glaze on the moon and a teeny bit of glitter in the water. I'm submitting it to the Chatham Arts October/November show - the theme of the show is "Dreams".

The book is called "The Hourglass" - you can order it on Amazon.

Marbelized Table and new painting

2009-09-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

This painting is listed on my Etsy site and is for sale framed. The frame is a recycled piece that I found at our wonderful local Habitat store. The painting is titled "After the Harvest".

The table is also a recycled piece and has a green marbelized top and the wonderful ornate legs and base are antiqued with a coordinating green glaze.

This piece is currently being shown at the PAF gallery in Siler City. The current show is by Chatham Artist Guild members, a preview of our annual studio tour. There will be an opening this Friday at the gallery from 6 to 9 PM [ September the 18th] in conjunction with the Third Friday Art Walk in Siler City.

One Person Show

2009-08-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

I have just taken down the show of paintings that I had at Weaver Street Realty in Carrboro, NC. I was their featured artist for the Carrboro Second Friday Art Walk.

It was a successful show, I sold several pieces and talked to lots of great people at the opening.

The pieces in these photos are [or soon will be] listed in my Heronkate Shop on Etsy.

Watermelon Table

2009-06-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've just listed this watermelon table in my new shop on Etsy. This shop has my painted home decor items, my polymer jewelry, and some interesting vintage items in it.

Please visit , the shop is called Herons Treasures.

Blue Day Lily

2009-06-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is my most recent painting, an abstraction of a day lily in my garden. It can be seen and purchased in my shop at Etsy, thanks for looking !!

www.heronkate.etsy.com

Floorcloth for Stagville Plantation

2009-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Entry hall of Bennehan house

Looking into the dining room.

Attaching tape to edges

I have just completed a large floorcloth for the Bennehan House entry hall at the Historic Stagville Plantation in Durham, NC. It is 9 feet wide by 11 1/2 feet long. It's a colonial design with white and dark gray marbelized squares and accents in an historic gold color.

The first photo is of the entry hall.

The next photo is a view of the floorcloth looking into the dining room. The color in the floorcloth coordinates with the dining room walls.

The last photo shows me with my assistant , Ducka Kelly, attaching non-skid rug tape to the edges.

If you live near Durham, be sure to make a trip to this lovely historic site.

Two new paintings

2009-05-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

These are my newest work. The luna moth is a painting/collage and the Summer City painting is more abstract than usual, I like it a lot and am planning to do more work in this direction soon.

They are for sale in my shop on Boundless Gallery.

Painted Floor

2009-04-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is a kitchen floor that I painted for a client last week. The design of poppies is done with a series of stencils that I designed and cut. The poppies are from a design by William Morris.

First I primed the floor and painted the background, then I added the pattern with stencils and some hand painting. Then I painted the border, and after everything dried, I put on three coats of Varathane Diamond floor finish. Very durable and easy to keep clean. I hope they're dancing on it tonight!

Floorcloth with trees

2009-04-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is a floorcloth that I recently finished for a client's powder room. The bold colors and design coordinate with the lovely artwork on the walls, black and white drawings and silk screen prints. The towels are green.

The floorcloth gives the area a focal point and ties together all the elements in the room. The room is small so I couldn't get a photo of the whole thing!

New Orleans Datura

2009-03-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

The datura is one of my favorite plants. The huge white flowers open at night and have a wonderful fragrance. The bushes grow very tall, especially in warm climates. I painted this picture for a client who saw datura growing way over her head on a trip to New Orleans.

The Oldest House in Pittsboro

2009-03-08T07:43:00.001-07:00

This is a painting of the oldest house in Pittsboro. It's locally known as the "Yellow House" and it was built in 1787 by Patrick St. Lawrence. I painted it for a show at our Arts Council gallery called Chatham county history. It is 20 x 24 inches, painted with acrylics on stretched canvas.

Four for $35.00 or Less - Framed original paintings

2009-02-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Today I'm listing four of my mini-paintings. These are original acrylic paintings on canvas. They are all framed with frames that I have found at local thrift shops and recycled.

They can be purchased in my Etsy shop.

"The Road"

"Blue Eyed Luna Moth"

"Iris"

"Tile Roofs"

New Life for Old Pots

2009-02-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

These pots are on a ledge above a stairway in a clients home. They were dark and boring

so she asked me to decorate them. The colors go with the rugs and other pots in the room.

I decided to take photos of them in process, so here they are.

Floorcloth, Painting, Fish

2009-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

A few of the things I've been working on lately.

[This post edited Jan. 2012 - all these items have been sold]

DINOSAURS!

2008-11-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

This week I have been painting a mural of dinosaurs in a local dinosaur bones and fossils museum. Children from local schools come to the museum and are fascinated with the petrified bones, vertebrae, and fossils of fish, plant life, and many other interesting items. The big dinosaur is over 8 feet high, and that is about one tenth of his actual size!

Painted table

2008-09-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

This table was brought to me by a client. She got it from an uncle and it had sentimental value for her so she wanted it to be painted as a focal point in a bathroom, using bright colors .

Here are "before and after" photos. I enjoy projects like this, they are a form of recycling!

I wonder how her uncle would have liked it !

Assemblages - Pearl Diver

2008-08-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here is one of my newest pieces, made from mannequin faces that I've found at the flea market. Each one is first glued onto a piece of plywood, then I look at her and decide just who she is. "Pearl Diver" has sea green eyes that look amazingly like my Mother's. My sister thinks so too! However my Mother never dove for pearls.

She has hair made from natural sea sponges and painted a pale aqua with many embellishments; pearls with brass tassels made from tiny chains, seashells, glitter and beads, a piece of faux oriental money from Chinatown, a pair of little frogs, and the frame is painted with a pearlized paint.

She can be yours, she is for sale in my Etsy shop.

My next assemblage is called "Mardi Gras Girl" Look for her right here, soon!

Laurel Ridge Kitchen

2008-07-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

The kitchen at Laurel Ridge Bed and Breakfast in Chatham County North Carolina has been painted and decorated by me with a theme of wildflowers on the walls and on the cabinets. First I faux finished the walls and cabinets in a pale blue/aqua ragged finish. Then I painted flowers on the walls, above the tiles, on the cabinets and along the baseboards. There are also some bugs and butterflies that the guests have fun discovering. There's a ceramic sculpture by Joyce Bryan of Stone Crow Pottery in one corner, with a "faux" garden behind him.

Laurel Ridge

2008-07-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've just painted a pair of tables for Laurel Ridge Bed and Breakfast in Chatham County, North Carolina, where I live, too. They are octagon shaped tables to go in front of their sofa. The bases are marbelized and the tops have a parchment finish with flowers painted on top. The flowers are painted in colors that coordinate with the fabrics and the lovely oriental rug.

Painted cabinet

2008-05-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I painted this cabinet recently to go in a client's entry hall. We had been looking for a piece that was the right size and that had some drawers for storage. I found this little huntboard at a used furniture store. It had a rather dreary pickled finish and the top was all scratched up, but I loved the shape and size and the tall legs that give it a more "open" look. So I bought it and "recycled" it.

The top has a marbled finish that goes with her Mexican tile floor and the sides are finished in shades of taupe and greens that coordinate with the lovely stained glass piece in the window. [Made by her daughter !] Also terra cotta and black, as there is a black wrought iron piece in the hall, too. The pattern is taken from a "flamestitch" fabric and I cut the stencils myself. Then I used a glaze and a rubber comb to create the striped overpainting. Then several coats of waterbased varnish.

Lotus and Fish

2008-05-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is one of the paintings that I have for sale in my Etsy shop. It is an acrylic painted on canvas and I've used copper paint in the circle and in the moon. The fish at the bottom have a glaze that is combed through to give the illusion that they are in the water. The night sky is in the background and the day sky is within the circle.

Poppy floorcloth

2008-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is my latest floorcloth. I made it for my friend Suza who is a gardener and loves flowers. The colors were mixed to match a rug that she has in her living room. The floorcloth is in a hallway off the living room and the hall leads to a blue bedroom. I designed the border to go with the border in the rug, and the poppies are from a William Morris design. It's a focal point for her hall and she loves that it's so easy to clean and she can just wipe those cat hairs off with a damp rag. It's five feet long and three feet wide.

See my other posts for more information about floorcloths.

ACEO's

2008-03-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

ACEO's are my newest obsession! They are small paintings, collages, photos that are collected and sold or traded. ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. Mine are all original acrylic paintings. The only requirement is that they must be 2 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches. That's a SMALL painting. They look great in groups or matted and framed in a standard 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 frame. Some people put them in magnetized frames and decorate their refrigerators with them. Mine are for sale in my Etsy shop. Here are a couple of my recent ones.

Floorcloths II

2008-03-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

More floorcloths! Please read the below post for more info. about floorcloths. The one here with the compass rose in the middle now lives in Maine in a beautiful home overlooking the ocean. It's in their front hall, so gets a lot of traffic from both people and dogs. Floorcloths are VERY durable.

The other one has more of a southwest theme with stencils of spirit animals that I designed and cut. It is now in the home of a friend who is also an artist.

Floorcloths

2008-03-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like to do best is to make floorcloths. I have designed and painted about 150 of them for my clients. A floorcloth is a rug painted on canvas . They were made of sailcloth and used in the colonial days before linoleum was invented. I have made floorcloths up to 8 1/2 x 11 feet. Each one is different and designed to go in a special place. I make a few as samples and to sell on Etsy and on the annual Studio Tour that I participate in. Here are two that I currently have for sale on Etsy. My next blog will have photos of some of my custom floorcloths.

Folding screen

2008-03-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

I've just finished this folding screen for one of my clients. She wanted to block the view into her kitchen from the dining room and a door would not have worked because it would have opened awkwardly in any direction. I found two sets of wood folding doors at our local Habitat store and used three of the four panels and replaced the hinges with folding screen hinges so that each panel can fold either way.

The side facing the dining room has a large tree spreading over all the panels to create a picture of the tree as if one were looking through a door. The other side is more whimsical with castles, elephants, camels, trees , and birds. More to look at while working in the kitchen!

The edges are all "faux bois" which is woodgraining. Originally they were all white.

Elephants!

2008-03-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Elephants are my latest subjects. I hadn't painted any elephants in my circus series, then I painted a folding screen for a client [pictures of that later in the week] and the screen has elephants on it, among many other creatures and things. So I painted elephant # 1: then an Etsy creative challenge came along and the challenge word was bubbles. I saw the elephant blowing bubbles in my mind, then there she was. I'm thinking about the next elephant picture now! Keep posted!

Gaudi and Barcelona

2008-02-27T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have been fascinated with the architecture of Gaudi for as long as I can remember. A number of years ago I finally got to go to Barcelona to see his buildings. I spent most of a week traveling around Barcelona on foot and by subway to see as many of his buildings as I could get to. In the process we saw many areas of Barcelona. The fish market near Las Ramblas. Lots of shoe stores. A terrifying ride on a cable car. A funky little bar at the waterfront. A flasher in Parc Guell. The flea market. The view from the top of one of the towers at La Sagrada Familia. That one for a very short time; it swayed in the wind and we took the first elevator down. Gaudi built his own house in the Parc Guell and I did a painting of it from a photo I took there.

I loved Barcelona! and hope to go back someday!

The Circus !

2008-02-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last summer a traveling circus came to town - for ONE night! I went to see them unloading and setting up the big top and all the other attractions. I even saw the camel getting a bath. He loved it on such a hot day!

That night I went back with my friends to see the circus. Lots of the performers were the same people who had been setting up the show that morning. As you see, the camel was dressed in his finest! When the show was over they started taking everything down and getting ready to move on to the next town. We had barely left our seats when the bleachers were being loaded onto a truck!

This is for sure a vanishing part of America.

Fish placemats

2008-02-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

Fish! They are fun to paint! I've done several sets of four, all the fish are different. They are cut out of heavy canvas, usually the ends left from making a floorcloth. Then I prime them and paint the fish, then varnish with several coats of acrylic varnish so that they are wipeable. They last for years, I know because I gave a set to a friend 4 or 5 years ago and she uses them constantly and they still look new! The backs are painted too, with waves in shades of aqua.

Dancing in the Moonlight

2008-02-21T18:07:00.000-08:00