Moroccan Updates

Unfortunately the tablet I will be travelling with does not seem to like Blogger.com and will not upload images. So to see my daily sketches you will have to view my Catherine Mackey Studios page on Facebook.

I will be sure to post a selection of my work here on my return so watch this space!

Preparing for my Moroccan drawing trip.

Sketch from Rooftop - Essaouria 2012. Colored pencil and collage on paper

I'm leaving for Morocco soon. It's two years since I last visited and I'm really looking forward to joining a group of artists in the coastal town of Essaouira for a week of sketchbook work.

My packing is mainly working out which art materials to take with me. I'm having some fun prepping one of my sketchbooks with collage and washes.

Click here to see my sketches and photos on my Studio Facebook page from May 28th. 

Spring Offerings

Well, the daffodils are out and the sun is shining so I guess it's time for my 

Spring Open Studio

Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th

Noon - 6.00 pm

1890 Bryant St. #204

San Francisco, CA 94110

Preview: Friday April 25th 6.00- 9.00 pm

Interiors

Industrial

Piers

 
 

Posters from Foreign Lands

Posters from France

As many of my readers will already know - my paintings are almost always done on a collage base created with posters "appropriated" from the streets. In past years I would find most of my material on plywood hoardings around building sites in the Mission district of San Francisco. With the gentrification of the neighborhood and tighter city laws governing illegal postings and graffiti clean-up my supply of posters started to dwindle. At the same time a very good friend started to bring back posters from the streets of France after her annual visits. This has kept me going for a long time - thanks Diane!

About six months ago I met a couple who were interested in my work and were inspired by the story of my French posters. They subsequently did some travels of their own to places including Turin and St. Petersburg and decided that they would contribute to my stash of international posters.

(At this point I feel I have to tell you that I am not talking about a young twenty-something couple Inter-Railing around Europe with their backpacks. The couple in question are older, sophisticated, and very respectable. They shall be known here as Jean and Rod) 

Posters from Russia, Germany, and Italy.

This adventurous couple recently came back to my studio bearing posters, one of which was very large and several layers thick. Apparently, while attempting to peel this off a wall in Turin, Rod was disturbed and threatened with the police, at which point he jumped off the ledge on which he was perched, rolled up the detached poster, slid it down the back of his shirt, jumped on his bicycle and made his escape through the narrow streets. 

Part of a Russian poster makes it's way into an under-painting.

A big Thank You! to all my friends and followers who go to great lengths to bring me posters. 

But please - don't get arrested!

Bicycle Jigsaw Puzzle

After an absence of approximately thirty years I have re-entered the world of doing jigsaw puzzles!

As some of you already know one of my bicycle paintings was turned into a puzzle by Heye - a German puzzle manufacturer. I recently received my free sample and decided to test the product. I had no idea that it would take over my whole weekend! Every time I tried to leave (go to bed, do chores, buy groceries etc.) I spotted "just one more" piece that I could place and an hour later found myself still at the table. It was fun, addictive, and absorbing. But please....to all my friends out there: no puzzles for future presents - I have a life to run!

Here are some progress shots of my exciting weekend (the tulips in the background offer a sense of time elapsed):

As yet the puzzle is not available on Amazon but can be purchased from puzzle distributors and stores.
For those of you in Europe it is available from Heye.
In the US it can be ordered from Puzzle Warehouse.

Anyone who would like to have their puzzle box signed by me should bring it to my Spring Open Studio on April 26th and 27th.

Enjoy!

Urban Exploration - Kings Cross Central Development - London

 I'll be spending a few days in London in January. One of the things I always do when I'm there is explore an area that I don't know very well, usually with my good friend Geoff. This year we will be visiting the King's Cross Central Development just north of the King's Cross and St. Pancras railway stations. 

When we first explored this area several years ago we knew that it was was part of a major re-development plan which would bring drastic changes. At that time the area was a wasteland: elevated rail lines on rusting steel supports ran over old brick arches which housed all kinds of abandoned spaces. Large empty warehouses and the Victorian gasometer No 8 loomed over the overgrown sections of the Regents Canal in which we spotted turtles. The area was very edgy.

Here are some of my photos and sketches from that first visit. I'm looking forward to seeing how things look now. Stay posted.

New Painting

Pier 64 No 3. 36" x 48". Collage, mixed media and oil on wood panel.

After the disruption of moving home I finally got back into my studio and have been able to focus on a commission piece for a local client. As soon as I started mixing colors all the stress of the previous month just melted away! 
The painting is one of a series on which I am working based on an old pier on the West side of Manhattan which I drew and photographed several years ago. The pier is now gone, replaced by a waterside park.