These images are of the four panels that make up the Town Dogs Mural. Each panel is 20 x 24 inches and is done in oil. I started this project last fall, asking people in my town of Chevy Chase, Maryland, to volunteer their canine family members to model for me. I had a great response and spent most of the autumn photographing all kinds of dogs, from standard poodles to miniature schnauzers. I worked on the panels over the winter, finishing them in April. They will hang in the Chevy Chase town office until the end of May.
Giclee prints of these paintings are available. They are the same size as the originals, printed on high-quality canvas, and stretched on museum-grade stretcher bars. The price of a giclee of one panel is $350. If you would like to order one, please contact me at paintings@kathrynfreeman.com.
I have started the third of my Opera Murals for my wonderful clients on Capitol Hill. This one is based on the opera Carmen, and will be about six feet wide by eleven feet tall. Like the others it will disguise a secret elevator door. There will be a tiny doorknob which when pulled will open the mural to reveal-an elevator! The bottom image is the drawing on canvas of the lower part of the mural. It is charcoal, on fire retardant muslin that has been primed with tinted gesso. The main figures of Carmen and Don Jose will end up just about at the viewer's eye level when the mural is installed. In the foreground are the women from the cigarette factory as well as little street urchins and some matadors in fancy hats. In the middle ground is Don Jose's rival on a white horse. (I can't wait to paint that!) and in the distance is the bull fighting arena with a bullfight going on. The image on the top is the upper part of the mural, also drawn in charcoal on canvas. This is the balcony above the arena. It is populated by soldiers and ladies in hats holding fans. I am about to start with the color, so please check back to see the progress.
