Creation Cafe

update

2007-07-12T18:33:00.000-07:00

currently in LA helping out a major studio with key art and cool projects :) for a few months.
I will return soon with new paintings photography and more :)

24 carat~ sold~

2007-03-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

24 carat

Original Oil Painting By Katya Walker
2007©
5 by 7 inches
Oil on Belgian Linen
with archival mount
on 1/4" maple wood.

If you have any questions please feel free
to email me at creationcafe@gmail.com

snow coming~available~

2007-03-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

snow coming
Original Oil Painting By Katya Walker
2007©
5 by 7 inches
Oil on Belgian Linen
with archival mount
on 1/4" maple wood

If you have any questions please feel free
to email me at creationcafe@gmail.com

bidding ending soon

2007-03-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

on the egg easel pencil
please bid soon :)
and good luck! :) update on impression of the day

and more coming soon :)

impression of the day blog

green and white ~available~

2007-02-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

green and white
5"x7" oil on linen
archival mount on maple board
©CKWalker 2007

green and white in process

2007-02-18T20:07:00.000-08:00

clouds rain came in,
hope can finish tomorrow or it will be a raw sketch :)

green eve ~sold~

2007-02-17T22:34:00.000-08:00

green eve
5"x7" oil on linen
archival mount on maple board
©CKWalker 2007

egg, pencil and easel~sold~

2007-02-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

egg,pencil and easel
5"x7" oil on linen
archival mount on maple board
©CKWalker 2007

Countdown

2007-02-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

I begin painting on Sunday ... baring anything way out of the ordinary,
though all is new to me here now.
canvas large waits behind me,
pallet in the front yard leaning against the cabin,
easel on the deck. If it rains it will be inside, something luscious...
If sunny or clear, perhaps the tree overlooking the valley or creek,
or something simple that caught my eye in it's purity the other day...
Working on getitng satellite set up so
I can up load larger pictures and getting
the newer higher resolution camera in the mean time...
just to paint on my birthday is the beginning :)

last days in LA

2007-01-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

painting is just 2 weeks away... hands are itching to feel the brush again.
enjoying last few moments before the final move to painting paradise.

Shifting

2007-01-09T19:23:00.000-08:00

from the observatory taken winter 2005 Sunset over Los Angles
©2007 ckw

So soon the new art will be here and on Impression of the Day blog.
Packing, preparing the cabin for full time residency, wrapping up the life in LA,
Can't wait to get back to clean air, open spaces, a whole floor of my home is my studio.
hands covered in oils..
And only seeing color - not even objects just color and shape against color and shape :)
Hope everyone is enjoying the new year :)

Impression Jan 1980

2007-01-02T03:22:00.000-08:00

apples ala Sergi, done Dutch style
oil in linen
11 x14"
1980
private collection of the artist
I was seventeen , just about to turn 18 , when i had my scholarship with Sergi Bongart.
he had taught me he said all he knew and wanted me to explore other artist and gave me so many assignments to follow. This one was find a dutch master still life painter and copy they style of it, then to bring it into the next class. There was no place in my mom's house to paint ~no room, I remember sitting on the edge of the couch, in front of the TV with on a small table next to it. the set up... and the painting held by my left hand pallet in my lap.

detail

New Day, New Year, New Life

2007-01-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

I welcome the New Year with open arms.
Packing is foremost, clearing out a lot of old portfolio work from Entertainment Art Direction work. That! Feels very good :).

It's funny i have never had one movie poster i designed displayed any where in my house, even the award winning ones…. It has always been the enjoyment of the puzzle of how to get someone interested in watching the film and i was fortunate, I had good instincts and had a few successes with that, plus i think my artistic training and skills added to what i bring to the table in that industry.

Not much to say right now, more words will come later ~then the canvas will take my words away for a while. I will be filled with color and oils and brush strokes and light.

•~•

It is funny, now that i am a bit more mature i want to discuss art and I do have things to say.

When i was younger and first selling my work and having openings thrown by people and for me and i was asked what was my intent behind a still life of apples? Or the portrait the gay cowboy ~i was so appalled by the audacity for the need of explanation~ to me it was self evident. I was painting the beauty around me, trying to wake up others to it as well. Giving a window in wall where only TV was focused on before, or a shiny new car as the prized possession.

I often would refuse to go to my unveilings and private parties thrown in my honor. It seemed absurd to me. It was the simple thing of ~ i paint, you commission or purchase and you get from my painting what you will.

I see now though i was such a rebel in my own unique way, painting in the style of old masters at the mere age of 17 when it was fashionable to put vomit on a canvas and call it art. Or to enamel a toilet red and say it was worth 20,000 dollars because of the “concept” and yet they could not draw a stick figure.

THIS is why i stepped away when my paintings were selling very well top private collectors and then one of them ~ an art director, illegally it turns out~ without my permission put it in a movie that made my very selective collectors upset to see their artist, their similar pieces, in a comedy of an actor whose reputation was not that high at the time...

Also when a painter began to copy my work almost verbatim to the point friends were calling me congratulating me on my cover in a prominent newspaper calendar section when it wasn’t mine. And i have been painting the subject matter and style for years before then and the other straw~i had some of my prized private collection stolen from my studio on Abbot Kinney, in Venice, California. I think the combination at the time.. was enough to push me away from the canvas to in front of a computer.. more days than not....

I took a break. Did what i thought was easier money and helped contribute to the success of some huge films, other peoples careers and continued to be the simple artist inside. I was painting every day ~not with oil and canvas and brush as i had been doing everyday of my life the previous 15 years.

So now, a new year begins. A new life. One of truer realities. New complex and yet simpler avenues to getting my work out. New things to learn, new people to connect with, new life and experiences, a new city, a new home, though I have had it ~I never lived there… a new way to make a living by I haven’t done solely~in 15 years…and most importantly~

A new engagement with my deepest love~ painting :)

The New year!

2006-12-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

cheers!

impression #2

2006-12-31T01:03:00.000-08:00

Koi 5.5' x 8' all rights reserved by the artist
1985
oil on canvas
commission
( very loose up close,
looks very tight
from a distance)

I was taking a break and tiptoeing through the paintings and came across some high quality hyper realists, not in the old term of the 70's and 80’s, yet that venue of contemporary realists. Lovely craftsmanship, yet i was left chilled, all emotion gone, almost sucked from the very image.
I think what struck me so when i saw Duane Keiser's work was it had some emotion without being contrived or forced; at least it feels that way to me. I did see this. Almost cannibalism of ideas, I do not know where it started, was sort of shocked to see a painting almost exact composition I did at 15 and similar tones though mine was a study in black and white as directed by my teacher. The subject a dress on a hanger. I have done a few of these and plan to again ~i see someone lovingly has made them a theme of their work, yet i felt as if I was looking at a dead dress. I think that is it, all emotion removed.
And it's good to see some homage to the Dutch painters, reminds me of my again student work, though again when i approach these subjects i try to imbue life in them rather then, Remove it.

It is a stark contrast to the many people who think painting is just putting color to canvas and attempting to render something. Usually without training or eye, or a studied hand or hows of real practice and disciplined devotion.
The in between area or craft and emotion. Of truthfulness and. resonance, of observation and gift to the viewer is what i seek, what i appreciate, there are a few very few i see who are willing and able to do that...
Most interesting revelation, sad to see "designed" work supersede true painting, and that so many who just scratch think they are painting. Painting is joyful and yet a painful process at times, revealing much of your soul to yourself when you’re in fact painting!!!! Not just copying or designing in paint to some marketing limited lane of subject matter and expression. It evolves takes you as the artist and viewer. It engages, it's a conversation that is silent yet penetrates...in my humble opinion.
This is why i am so enthused about this venue. (I must pack 3 more weeks i am out of here and free to begin again ;) (!)) And what Duane Keiser has wrapped around that view and the resonance it has called to any of us who engage to be that intermediate between the creative process, the artist's expression and the appreciative viewer.
I do not know Duane Keiser, yet after seeing what is happening currently in the world of contemporary painting my first impression again renewed.
And the building passion within me to let that creative explosion to be let loose is increasing in divine pressure an a bit of frustration but i must remember the coming blast of light as i pull back the curtain.

Today's painting

2006-12-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

It was all in my mind as i watched this amazing scene unfold before my eyes this afternoon. A father two children girl age four or five, the son maybe three, the little girl unbridled running to watch the magnificent dappled grey Arabian as the trainer put him through his paces, the setting sunlight rimming the mane of the horse and the girls dark curls, turning them on fire, an impossible red halo surround her crown.
As i am struggling with a noisy neighbor, longing for my quiet and own land again, the freedom to be out of LA proper on open spaces, old Indian land, i had to take a respite with the trees and horses.
And was reminded of the amazing beauty tend miss in our daily lives of struggle. I adore the smell of paint; i am yearning for the old familiar stains on my hands. For the endless hours of concentration of me canvas, brush and color. As my dear friend said remember to pull back the curtain there is blasting light there.
I long to paint that light so soon, i can taste it smell it:) though, i won't lick my brushes like Van Gogh or Fetchin.
Off to more packing

egg number 2 • 1991 • another painting a day

2006-12-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

i loved theses two pieces so much that though i had friends who wanted to purchase them i kept them.
(i might be convinced to let them go though usually the first one of new series ends up being precious to me).
They are well loved were in my kitchen, slight splatters on the raw linen showing.
That was one thing that happened~ i loved the grey texture color of the primed linen so much i used it as a tone itself, as if i was doing a pastel.
very fast, very impasto. the light in the shadow was my focus and color as you can see and with the fewest strokes how could i define this form, usually for warm up and fine tuning i paint white on white (those will be coming.. white eggs, onions on white table clothes, sometimes accented by a dark object, like a bottle of wine.. here i had brown range free eggs and was craving the form, painting an egg is so sensual, as it curves in such a beautiful manner. and if you don't look an pay attention it doesn't feel solid , or well formed. also i was playing with the angles, these were painted on fine portrait linen ~ i like how the smoothness shows the strokes. 9x11", oil 1991.
& as with all images on all my web pages and sites, all rights are reserved by the artist

My original Eggs "a painting a day"

2006-12-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

Painted in August 1991 in my studio in Westchester California, a beautiful home once overlooking the Playa DeleVista Bluffs, before homes were built. I was so touched by a now rare stretch of empty land that had foxes and birds and all manners of wild life still thriving there. That I painted the egg, symbol of the beginning of new life, very appropriate to the changes in my life now as well :)

First Oil Painting

2006-12-29T15:07:00.000-08:00

The road I will see and paint. It's a painting with every view ~ endless subjects, endless beauty.

I have been painting since I could touch my finger to the wall, my first oil painting was when I was three. I had discovered my mother's paint box, hidden in the garage. I was mesmerized but this magical tubes and began smearing the rich
Alizarin Crimson all over my hands and then the depth and vibrant Thalo Blue and Prussian Blue.
I then took off all my clothes and. continued to paint myself.
Once i was satisfied i ran through the house touching everything i could with these wonderful colors, my first conceptual piece. I was hooked though I was already drawing at1 and painting in watercolors at 1 1/2.
these jewels in tubes were now my passion and as you can imagine off limits to me as well for many years.

Packing a painting a day

2006-12-29T03:15:00.000-08:00

4 seasons nyc
watercolor
7x10"
2004
(all rights reserved by the artist)

It's the middle of the night, I should be asleep yet I am packing the urge to be at the cabin in my studio and outside painting is so overwhelming. sleep will come later. I love the thought of having this dialog with with art lover's and collectors in a way that is more direct, less informal. Sharing a glimpse into an observant studied creative life that is part of the discipline of doing a painting a day.
This is a water color I did at the Four Seasons Manhattan.
The Met is one of my favorite places to be and I have come to love New York.

impression of the dayof "A painting a day"

2006-12-28T23:22:00.000-08:00

Patterns of Life
36 x36" oil on linen
1986
sold~private collection
{all copyrights held by the artist}

As my life is returning to fine art full time once again and consequently as I was wandering along the Internet looking up old galleries, my teachers {Sergi Bongart and Del Gish}, so great to see they are now respected and known:) and researching post card paintings as I have had a certain concept I started in 1991 I wanted to now pursue…I stumbled upon very interesting phenomena which in my past experience makes perfect sense.

I give kudos to Duane Keiser and his beginning the marketing of A Painting A Day; I highly respect his work and the avenue he found.

I had been doing this in my own way for years including we share so many of the same subject matter, such a shock and thrill to see :).
I began painting single eggs on linen in a small format in 1991, Though small studies have always n been a part of my work, two apples on linen (I’ll post this later) was one of my scholarship pieces and I have done many such pieces since that first one, it began my fascination with painting apples.
Yet these are also common symbols and elements of our lives and human kind itself, basic principals…so it is why they also hit such a powerful cord.

I would sell small paintings to collectors friends as it is found most galleries would not carry the " gems' as they would, not fetch enough money for the valuable wall “real-estate” of high end galleries, unless very highly priced by well known artist’s.

I understood this, yet as much as I love panting large
{See other blog. Koi (66" x96")} a lot of my commissions and portraits are also usually large format as well s many other subjects including still lifes.

I have always used the daily work as a tool to make sure I am looking and observing as well it's a joy I can readily share as well.
And sometimes a large piece will take up to three months to complete, so a spontaneous creation is that instant gratification.
And this art I can share with many, in a way that is not limited to mass reproduction. My movie posters have been seen by millions over the years, yet I have been blessed to hear 9 I still dream of your paintings, or I can’t live with out t, it’s captured some piece of my soul.
And that hit’s the deeper meaning to me of why I am here on this planet, of what I struggled to learn my vocation, the sacrifices I made to be able to express the beauty in life.

Now I have to come to see there is this widely appreciated and growing audience of such little gems by good real artists and I enter the waters of this avenue with full joy and excitement.

I am currently moving from LA to my cabin to paint full time once again and It is a privilege and choice to paint ~ though sometimes I think we are born with this instinctive need to reflect reality creation the miracle of life around us. To point a focus of it, to share the shimmering reflection of our soul in away that communicates what we all share inside somewhere. Resonating spectrums strokes that capture some essence of a shared reality though with a slightly different perception.

I will begin posting my little daily paintings I hope very soon. These will be smaller than my gallery small pieces.
As soon as the move and things settle. So please return I hope by mid February to have my impressions available to share and for purchase.

Happy New Year and May a moment each day leave a beautiful impression in your life.