Watercolor Sketch Claude Monet's Home in Giverny, France

Featured Artist at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden Florida

August 5, 2014 Kim Minichiello

I have shared everywhere else, Facebook, Newsletter, etc. that I am going to be the featured artist this month at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, Florida, but haven't shared on my blog!! I helped hang the show yesterday at the gallery with some wonderful fellow volunteers at the Winter Garden Art Association. The theme for this months show is "Pick Your Passion" and is only open for members to exhibit. The collection of work I've put together for the show represents two of my passions, painting and travel.

Although it has been a few years since I've lived there, I am greatly influenced by my time living in Hong Kong and France and traveling throughout Asia and Europe for many years. I have thousands of reference photos that are a never-ending source for inspiration! I just wish I could paint faster!

If you are in the area, the opening reception is Thursday night, August 7 from 5:30 to 8:00. The address of the gallery is 127 South Boyd Street, in Winter Garden Florida. The show will be up the month of August, if you can't make the reception and would like to see it. The gallery hours are Wed. through Sat. 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

I was getting my work framed which is such a nice feeling, not only to see it all framed which feels like the icing on the cake but to protect it as well. I posted this photo on Facebook of Odd Man Out with yours truly standing next to it to give an idea of scale. Many friends have commented since seeing it they had no idea it was that big! It's really difficult when we see work on websites or in Facebook without a human standing next to it, to judge the scale of one's work. Many of my paintings are quite large.

Tuscan Olives

June 27, 2014 Kim Minichiello

I have a few friends who are traveling in Italy right now. I can't say that I'm not jealous!! I hope they are having a great time and since I"m feeling quite nostalgic wishing I was there, I thought I would post one of my paintings that was inspired by wandering around the olive trees in Fiesole just above Florence. This and many other of my paintings are available as limited editions giclée prints and note cards. Click here for more information on Giclée prints and here for note cards . If you are interested in bigger sizes just let me know. Ciao!

Gate of Reverence

June 25, 2014 Kim Minichiello

I had to sit with this one a while in my studio before deciding if it was finished. I thought it was until I photographed and looked at it on my monitor. I noticed a few more things that needed to be tweaked. This is a great way to analyze a painting from a different perspective. After a few more hours of noodling I think it is finally finished.

This new painting is the second painting I've done that was inspired by a photo I took in the Passy area of Paris. When I’m wondering around shooting reference photos I’m often struck by something that speaks to me as a strong interesting design. It could be what I’m observing has a very graphic quality, or a cast shadow on an object that creates an interesting pattern. When I came across this gate with a stained glass window juxtaposed behind it, I knew I would eventually paint it.

First, I was immediately attracted to the design of the gate. I thought I might change the composition completely and paint something else in the background. However, the more I studied the photo the angel image in the stained glass started to speak to me as well. I modified the position of the image and the gate from the photo to create a better composition. I also like how the lighter values in the painting are in the background. Painting a stained glass window, something that is more graphic, made me paint a bit tighter than I normally paint, which was a nice challenge. I also incorporated metal leaf in the halo on the angel. If you look at the work in progress photos you can see where I intended for it to be but didn't add it until I put on the finishing touches.

Like Paris Passy Gate, this reminds me of the time I lived in Paris and a fond friend that lived near this gate.

Watercolor Sketch in The Alcázar Seville Spain

June 12, 2014 Kim Minichiello

It's been a busy week, I'm in the process of finishing Gate of Reverence, and am brainstorming and designing a painting for a special project which I will talk about when it's a bit further along. Plus doing a lot of general life stuff, doctors appointments, grocery shopping, you know the stuff that still needs doing while we try to squeeze in painting time!

Today I'm posting another watercolor sketch from my travels. I love Spain, even though, sadly I speak no Spanish. I have probably seen more there than in any other country in Europe. I have been to southern Spain a few times and this sketch was done on one of those occasions in the Alcázar in Seville.

After sketching in many places oddly there are those select few where you find out after the fact, it is forbidden to sketch there! This is one. My husband and I settled down to do our sketches. We split up, he a few yards away from where I was. We were probably about 45 minutes into the process, just about finishing up and we were approached by a guard asking us to stop. Mind you if we were painting oils, I could see there might be some issue painting in the garden. There were no signs posted, nothing in the literature we received when we paid our entrance fees. You were allowed to take as many photographs as you like. The guard gave us no explanation. Needless to say we were a bit stumped. However, we came away feeling like we had gotten away with something, a nice memory painting in the Alcázar and some pretty decent sketches.

see more travel sketches

"Gate of Reverence" More Work in Progress

June 6, 2014 Kim Minichiello

After Clowning Around, (no pun intended), my latest painting, I'm back to working on Gate of Reverence. I'm in the detail and value phase now. Since my last post, I have added more detail to the central figure. I've also tweaked the dark background on the sides just a bit. I thought the darks were too uniform so I went in with some pure water washes to do some lifting of pigment at the same time adding some washes of color to bring out a green tone in the dark background to tie in with the gate.

Next I will be adding more detail. This is depicting a stained glass window in the background, so I will be painting in the lead lines, maybe adjusting value a bit more and working on some hard and soft edges. This one has been a challenge for me, because I'm painting a bit tighter than I normally paint, but still painting representational and trying to avoid a photo realistic interpretation. Hopefully I'm achieving this goal!

The Actual Coral Reef Restaurant Menus at Epcot, Walt Disney World

May 28, 2014 Kim Minichiello

The Lunch, Dinner and Dessert Menus for the Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot

I haven't been to the Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot, Walt Disney World to order from these yet, but I did get copies to keep!! I am so thrilled with how they turned out! After I did the initial design with the sea turtle the folks at Epcot liked the design so much they wanted to do the dinner and dessert menus too. In order not to have to paint the entire painting multiple times, (It was painted on a full size watercolor sheet, 22" x 30") I painted the spotted eagle ray separately and it was digitally swapped out with the turtle. For the dessert menu they liked the lower left portion of the full painting and cropped in for the smaller menu.

For the interior of the menu I did a tone on tone painting to serve as the background for the copy. The graphic designer at Walt Disney Imagineering did the layout of the other elements on top of my painted background.

The Original Painting, Watercolor, 22" x 30"

The actual menus covers measure 8.5" x 14", however, I painted the image large because I wanted to have a larger surface to get more variation in color and not have to paint the details super small.

I couldn't me more pleased and can't wait to go and order food!

See More about my work for Disney

Watercolor Sketch at the Albert Kahn Museum and Gardens in Paris

May 27, 2014 Kim Minichiello

I haven’t posted a watercolor travel sketch for a while so today I’m sharing one I did when I lived in Paris. One nice thing about living in a city that one normally just visits is that once you have gone to all the museums and sites that are the most popular and that you would see as a tourist, you start to discover and explore places that are off the beaten path. The Albert Kahn Museum and Gardens in one of those places.

Albert Kahn was a 20th century philanthropist who made it his mission to document the planet. He financed many discovery missions all of the world. The museum houses his archive of autochrome Lumière photography (color photos on glass plates) collections from 60 countries.

The thing that is the most spectacular about the museum is it’s gardens. Comprising 10 acres it’s organized in sections modeled on gardens from around the world: a contemporary and village style Japanese garden, a rocky Vosgienne forest and English and French Gardens. There is also a Japanese tea pavilion where on certain days you can participate in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony led by a tea master from Kyoto.

I went to the gardens a few times in the spring because it was so such a relaxing place and was hardly ever crowded which made it the perfect place to sketch. This sketch was done overlooking the Japanese bridge.

If you are interested in going, the museum and gardens are located in Boulogne-Billancourt at 10-14 rue du Port. One can easily get there by metro or bus.

see more travel sketches

Work in Progress of Gate of Reverence, Watercolor

May 22, 2014 Kim Minichiello

I've completed the details on the gate's ironwork. Next I'll be adding details on the background, and then finally adjusting values overall until they are where I want them. I'm happy with the gate so far! I'll be taking a break from this one to work on another small painting. Stay tuned!

The Telfair Museums in Savannah Georgia

May 20, 2014 Kim Minichiello

Entrance to the Jepson Center of Contemporary Art

Just had another wonderful weekend in Savannah! A few months agoI wrote a post about the SCAD Museum of Art, which I didn’t get to this trip because the SCAD Senior Fashion Show took place at the museum last weekend and it was closed for that event. I saw SCAD’s production of Steven Sondheim’s Into the Woods at the Lucas Theatre which was excellent! And, I had a second visit to another set of museums that are definitely worth seeing if you are in Savannah.

The Jepson Center designed by Moshe Safdie

The Telfair Museums comprise three buildings which are three completely different museum experiences. You can buy a pass for all three for $20 which is good for the entire week if you want to spread your visits out beyond a day.

Telfair Academy, it is one of the oldest museums in the country opening to the public in 1886 after the Metropolitan in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Chicago Art Institute. It is a former mansion built in 1819 for Alexander Telfair, son of a Revolutionary War patriot. It houses their permanent collection of twentieth and nineteenth century art from American Impressionists who studied and painted with French Impressionists in Europe andalso works by artists from the Ashcan school. One will see paintings by: Alfred Smith, Gari Melchers, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, and William Merritt Chase to name just a few. They also have traveling exhibitions and featured a show recently on artist Robert Henri, Spanish Sojourn: Robert Henri and the Spirit of Spain which is now at the San Diego Museum of Art.

Just to the right on Telfair Square is the Jepson Center of Contemporary Art. This amazing building was designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and opened in 2006, after some controversy over whether the contemporary design fit in with the historic district of Savannah. This museum features a collection of twentieth century contemporary artists, including Jasper John, Chuck Close, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Avedon and others. Among it’s 7500 square feet of gallery space are traveling contemporary exhibitions. Currently on display are five different exhibitions including Marilyn: Celebrating and American Icon presented in a variety of media celebrating Marilyn Monroe, Helen Levitt: In the Street, photos and a video of Manhattan neighborhoods in the 1940s. In conjunction with this, is a video installation called Street by UK artist James Nares, who shot high def video out of and SUV of current streets scenes in Manhattan, slowing the source material down to view at more than a slow motion speed which would last 61 minutes if you watched the whole thing. At normal speed it would last all but three minutes. It is a mesmerizing time capsule of daily life on the streets of Manhattan.

By this time you may be hungry, but not to fret, the Jepson has a wonderful cafe on the second floor that features dishes prepared with fresh local ingredients. You can also lunch there without paying the museums admission.

The last building on the Telfair Museums excursion would be the Owens Thomas House. Just a few blocks walk from the other two. This can be visited via guided tours which take place every 15 minutes. Just show your day pass to get tickets for the tour. This former mansion was designed by William Jay, an architect from Bath England, who also designed the Telfair Mansion mentioned above. Competed in 1819 it is considered to be the finest example of English Regency architecture in the United States. It is a national historic landmark due to the fact the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolutionary war stayed here with his son.

The Back Entrance to the Owens Thomas House

There have only been three families live in the Owens Thomas house, aside from the brief stint it served as a boarding house before the Owens purchased the home. The original owner who commissioned Jay to design and build the home had amenities that no other house in the US could boast at that time. It had three cisterns that collected thousands of gallons of rain water, to provide water for all the indoor plumbing features, sinks, bathtubs, showers, and toilets. This was unheard of for that time period, 1819, and it wouldn't be until a few decades later that other homes in the US had these luxuries.

The Garden and the Carriage House, Former Stables and Slave Quarters of the Owens Thomas House

A good plan of action for a weekend visit is to take your time at the Jepson Center and the Telfair Academy and save the Owens Thomas house for the next day. There are also tours on Sunday.

Also, don't forget to see what might be happening at the Lucas Theatre!