Summer Dream

More from my archive, Summer Dream, triptych, 22x30",  circa 2002
Happy New Year!

Have a Warm Winter Solstice and Happy Holidays!

Birdsong can conquer the gloom of shorter winter days-- in case you don't have any birds singing in your yard here is a link to listen to a audio clip. Happy Holidays!

Archive

I've been going through some old slides of work in the hope that I can eventually get them all scanned and edited.  Some of the slides are pretty bad, the exposure is wrong and the color is off, but I hope with photoshop I can fix them up a bit--at least enough to be presentable.
These two pieces are from around 1999-2001. 

Cathy Kiffney, Butterfly and Flowers Fan, 15 x 13 x 2", 2001

Cathy Kiffney, Rabbit and Roses Fan, 17 x 12 x 2, 1999

The Sly Red Fox

The Sly Red Fox, 9 inches diameter

When I see all the new pieces from this winter and fall I can really tell how the look of my work is changing--less carving and glazing and more surface painting with slips. I'm at a place where I am wondering where it will go...exciting but hard!
Just listed this piece on my Etsy site.

Chicken or the Egg?

Chicken and Egg Plate, 9" hand made hand painted ceramic wall hanging plate
Cathy Kiffney

Fox with Blue Eyes

White Fox with Blue Eyes,  9" handmade ceramic plate

Quail on Egg

Quail on Egg, 9 ", hand made, hand painted plate

Joe Rowand's Art Collection Auction

Someone just sent me a link to this, it is a vessel sculpture from around 1990.  Back when I used to show at Somerhill Gallery , Mr. Rowand purchased this piece.  Somerhill has closed and he is auctioning off his personal art collection at Leland Little Auction.  I need to get out my old slides and put together an album of my work from back then. I wonder what the bidding will be?  The auction is November 2, 2011.The auction catalog lists hundreds of artworks, fine furnishings and other goods.

Four Armed Vessel, 23.5 x 19 in. 1990 Cathy Kiffney

Nice to be home

We had a wonderful week at the beach, long walks, reading, eating, resting--fabulous!  It is nice to be home and feel renewed and refreshed and ready to start some new projects. It looks like two or three commissions!  It will be fun to document them here on the blog.

Thanksgiving

Thank you to all of the friends and fans of my art. Your support and encouragement is very important to me! A big thank-you to everyone who liked or loved a work of mine enough to buy it, live with it, and enjoy it! It is truly a privilege to be a part of your life. Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of the cloud pieces that found new homes.

Welcoming Committee

It was such a beautiful weekend for the Open Studio Tour and we had a great turnout. Lots of pieces found new homes. Now I am replenishing the walls and the super sale area for the second weekend so there is still a great selection to choose from.  It looks like the weather is going to be nice again and I hope some of you will be able to come out!

Comet welcoming everyone to the studio

beautiful fall basket courtesy of my mother--Green Pony Garden

Animal and Hummingbird Urn, this piece was sold

Trellises set up around the yard

What's with all the rabbits?

Setting up the studio today for the show it has come to my attention that there are a lot of rabbits around here. 20 and counting. Here are just a few. And here is a link to what they looked like before glazed.

Happiness is a kiln load of goodies

Before

After

Newsletter and Invitation

Just a quick link to my newsletter and invitation to my annual open studio show.  The newsletter contains lots of information about the Studio Tour of Orange County and all the links to the preview shows and web site for the maps.  I will have a stack of the maps at my studio so come on out and enjoy the tour!

Cathy Kiffney Studio Newsletter

A Giveaway!

In celebration of my annual Open Studio Show I am having a give away.!   I'm posting this over on my Facebook page.  Everyone who comments will be entered into the random drawing to win the piece. 

So I invite you to join in, thanks so much!
Cathy Kiffney Studio on Facebook

Glaze Mixing Mayhem

My day, sigh.
I've been working on simplifying my process of glazing so I've been slowing retiring old glazes and consolidating glazes, over 100 glazes is too many!  My frugality wont let me just chuck them out, so I've been mixing the left over into big buckets and adding a little colored oxides, tin oxide and other glaze ingredients, then testing to see if they are any good. So far I've consolidated about 25 glazes into 4 buckets and have some great colors-- never to be reproduced.

Annual Open Studio

Open Studio is three weeks away! I am working on my newsletter/invitation with all the details and a give away. I hope to send it out this week. So much to do in the next few weeks-- all good!

Just realized this might be easier-- link to the sign-up for my newsletter and invitations.

A Few Foxes

A few frisky foxes--continuing my series of slip painted plates. These are in the painted, unfired state. The foxes,  rabbits, chickens and quail will go in the bisque firing this week and then glazed next week, I hope!

Comet and his foxy friends

The view from here...

Going home on Dairyland... I hope you had a wonderful day!

Drawing and Painting on Clay

I'm getting back to my roots -- when I first started really working on the surfaces of my clay pieces I uses colored slips, stains and terra-sig. That was over 25 years ago. Over the years I developed my style of deep relief surfaces and began using more glazes. Although I continued to use colored slip and undercoatings and for some parts of the decorating, for the past few months I've been getting back to using the surface of the clay as a drawing surface, with very little carving. The work is becoming more pictorial and it is really challenging me to work in a different mode.  I'm not sure where I am going with it, but I will continue to explore this more.
Here are a few I'm working on now, unfired and not glazed yet.

Fantasy Orchid Wall Sculpture Flower

Orchids are such amazing flowers. All the incredible beauty and diversity make them truly fascinating. I've just listed this piece on my Etsy site for sale. Art print below is by Ernst Haeckel.

Hand built ceramic wall hanging sculpture, 14" diam. about 3" out from wall.
by Cathy Kiffney

Detail. Ceramic wall sculpture by Cathy Kiffney

Ernst Haeckel

Love Birds, Starry Night

 

Starry Night Love Birds platter by me, 20" diam.  Rainbow Lorikeets by nature. The photographer, Janine Duffy  from We Love Birds web site.  The Lorikeets usually mate for life; so they’re often seen in pairs, and during the heat of the day, spend their time perched together, preening each other

American Goldfinch and Thistle

Every summer the male goldfinch turns bright yellow.  They are still bright around here, but in the fall they will return to olive brown color.  This is a platter from this summer, aprox 12 inches diameter.  Hand built, carved when leather hard then painted with underglazes and glazes, fired to 1900 degrees fahrenheit.

Comet's Birthday

A wee pup...

Just a boy...

A straping young lad...

Blue Moon Comet!