Working on a New Series

 

Still Life with Cats

For the longest time (20 years?), I have wanted to do at least one painting called "Still Life with Cats" based on the disasters even attempting to set up a still life my cats would cause. I thought it would be hilarious to show the actual disaster with the cats in the middle.

Fast forward to today and I have new plants on my porch balcony that my cats would not leave alone. I haven't felt like doing large paintings for awhile, just 12" x 12" oil pastels, and this girl just wants to have fun right now. So I've started a series of cat paintings. Some will be cats with plants, but I also have a couple with cats and partially knocked over still life ideas in mind. We'll see what happens.

I'm not offering these for sale yet. I have a fantasy of showing them all in a group with the name of show being "Still Life with Cats." The idea still makes me laugh.

Raven and Bowl of Cherries Painting

 

Copyright 2026 by Sheryl Karas

A funny thing happened the same week as the show at MONCA I wrote about in my last blog post. I suddenly decided to change direction with my artwork, at least for now.

I recently retired from my full-time job. That was unexpected—my choice but a year or two earlier than I planned. But things changed there, I wasn't willing to go along with those changes, and now here I am a "free bird." It's been a bit of a shock, but little bit by little bit I realized that I'm going to be alright. So now the thought is "what am I going to do with my life?" now that I have time and I'm no longer working like crazy to "make a living." 

I also don't need to please art teachers or art critics or nose-in-the-air level art galleries. I don't even have to get into museum shows (even though that has been nice). So what kind of art do I want to do? What kind of art do I want to live with? And the answer that came pretty much immediately was fun whimsical stuff that makes me smile. 

If I think about it, that is the kind of art that made me want to be an artist—the art I would see in my favorite children's books. I'm not sure I can let myself get that kid-friendly today but it doesn't matter. I liked things that were bright and colorful and that made me laugh or smile. The same thing is true today! So why not go there? Life could be a bowl of cherries, right?

The original for this is the smallest painting I have ever done as an adult— 8"x8" on canvas. I like it that size. It's very accessible and I don't have to worry about where it will fit in my house. I might sell it—you can ask. Or you can get a print, framed print, or print on canvas at Fine Art America.

Actually, the original of this was gifted so it's no longer available.

Small Wonders Show at the Museum of Northern California Art

I am very excited to be participating in the "Small Wonders" show at MONCA (The Museum of Northern California Art) here in Chico. MONCA is a wonderful art museum and they have beautifully curated juried shows featuring work from the Sacramento and the Bay Area and north. So I am always thrilled when I get into one of them and this time I have three pieces! Those are the three a person at the reception was looking at above.

The Small Wonders show features "work inspired by the beauty, mystery, and significance of the microscopic, the miniature, and the overlooked. This exhibition offers an opportunity to magnify the unnoticed and reveal worlds within worlds." The exhibition is currently on display and will continue through May 3rd at 900 Esplanade in Chico, CA.

Abstract Geometric Quilt

I worked on this last night and this morning. It's made from several of my photographs and previous art pieces layered together in numerous ways in Photoshop. It's VERY fun and engaging to do because surprises happen and sometimes that's the best part! All of the pieces in this are botanical subject matter. It feels to me like the workings of the cosmos.

Prints and prints on canvas and various other materials are available on Fine Art America.

Desert Bunch Grass Abstract

I decided to reach back into the archives of photos I took in the Arizona high desert, probably 15-16 years ago.  There wasn't a lot of vegetation where we lived besides Juniper trees and  little bunches of grass that waved wildly in the wind. Layered over a colorful background, Nature's work creates an interesting abstract painting effect, but this is a photographic piece with a couple of digital effects. Prints are available on Fine Art America.

Raven Dreams of a Brighter Tomorrow

 

I know that I improvise using this bird on a rail a lot. I relate to this bird looking out into the horizon. I want to know what he or she thinks about or dreams of flying off to do. This is multi-layer digital collage combining several images in unusual ways.

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on FineArt America.

Bird Abstract Botanical

 

This is the same series as the last two posts. I used the same images I used in the first two but layered them in different ways, and then put a bird on it just for fun.

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Abstract Botanical

 

Because I use so many images layered multiple times with different layering effects, the number of potential choices I could make at times seems infinite. Often it boils down to what mood I'm in. Do I want to see something almost realistic? Something more abstract expressionist like this one? Or something in between? This piece uses the same images as the last one I posted on this blog. But in this one I was attracted to the almost chaotic but quite deliberate effects that occur when the same images are used multiple times. Deliberate in terms of making specific choices based on hunches and wanting to shift what doesn't work for me, but also with the desire to be surprised and delighted. And that's when I call it "good."

This is all done digitally but prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Blue and Orange Flower Abstraction

 

I probably did 20 versions of this idea tonight, some so surreal you wouldn't recognize them as starting with the same floral subject matter. I might work up a few of those as final pieces as well. It's multiple layer photography with multiple images and patterns combined, some images used multiple times with different layer effects in Photoshop. It got crazy in my laptop art studio tonight!

Prints and prints on a variety of surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Tree Frogs and Lilies

 

I'm having fun combining some of my old photos with new elements. And for some reason I want everything bright and saturated these days. That's probably been mostly true forever but especially now. I broke out of my foreboding raven stage and decided to use all the colors in my crayon box!

Prints and prints on a variety of surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Wipe Out

 

I've had a half-finished painting of this guitar on my easel for two years and another half-finished one in a different style on my table. I hit a point when I couldn't finish them because I didn't like something that I couldn't figure out how to fix. And then I became frustrated because they just looked too boring to bother fixing! But I had worked so long on these that I wouldn't give myself permission to move on to something else before I finished one.

Well, THAT was a mistake! Talk about putting a spoke in the wheel of creativity! I finally decided to play with it in Photoshop and it's not boring anymore! And I'm done. I won't be painting it so my studio is finally free again. Whew!!!

I call this "Wipe Out" because that song got stuck in my head as I was working on it. In fact, I added an ocean wave because of that in the very area that didn't work for me before. I'm good with it now. Thanks for looking!

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America. I pretty partial to how it looks on acrylic.

California Landscape

 

This is a digital painting derived from layered photographs and a variety of layering effects. I'm pretty sure that the photographs I used were taken, for the most part, at Upper Park in Chico, California.

Prints and prints on canvas and other surfaces are available at Fine Art America.

Raven On My Back Fence

Another "Raven Interlude." I'm enjoying finding out what I can do with wallpaper samples and other decorative and hand-painted papers I recently scanned into my computer. This would probably be called a digital collage. It's made with multiple layers and multiple layering effects.

You can find prints and prints on multiple surfaces on Fine Art America.

Raven at the Beach

 

The "Raven Interludes" continue. This series is allowing me to explore new ways to combine digital with painting-like effects. I recently scanned a large collection of handpainted paper, wallpaper, and other decorative papers of all sorts that I have been collecting for 20-30 years. I used to use them in cut-paper quilts but now I'd like to collage them into paintings, at least digitally. This is one of my first forays into this kind of work. It's fun for me to see the handpaints in the bird's feathers and in the fence rail. The background combines multiple photographs with digital painting effects. 

Prints and prints on canvas and other materials are available on Fine Art America.

Dreaming of the Bower on a Cold Rainy Night

 

I call this one "Dreaming of the Bower on a Cold Rainy Night." It is a digital collage with some of the images transformed into digital paintings and others layered with multiple effects in Photoshop. It's been fun going through my stash of bird photos I haven't known what to do with. I'm enjoying this new series very much.

Prints and prints on canvas, metal, and other materials are available on Fine Art America.

Raven Greets the Day #1

 

"Raven Greets the Day." This is a digital collage with pieces layered with multiple effects in Photoshop. I'm combining images altered to be digital paintings with maps and unaltered photographs including the trees outside my bedroom window. I'm not sure whether that's the moon behind the raven or the sun coming up in an overcast sky. Dark and mysterious for October. Prints and prints on canvas, metal, wood and other materials are available on Fine Art America.

Meadow Plantscape in Blue and Brown

 

This mixed media piece is another progression of the piece I did in my last blog post. It combines a drawing I did in oil pastel combined with digital effects to mimic conte crayon, in this case with a wider variety of colors but still a conte crayon like result. This is possibly my favorite rendition of this image. Again, for people new to my blog, I've been working on and off on a long-time series based on close-up views of low to the ground plant life. Instead of simplifying my images I increase the complexity to emphasize the diverse abundance of nature allowed to run wild.

Buy prints of this piece on various surfaces on Fine Art America.

Meadow Plants in Conte

 

This mixed media piece combines a drawing I did in multiple colors of oil pastel combined with digital effects to mimic conte crayon. I keep revisiting my long-time series based on close-up views of low to the ground plant life. This is a subject I can remember fascinating me since I was a toddler plopped on the grass and allowed to entertain myself. There's a whole world going on down there! But I don't really depict it realistically. My reference photo is actually multiple photos I took layered together. Instead of simplifying my images, I increase the complexity to emphasize the diverse abundance of nature allowed to run wild.

Find prints on various media on Fine Art America.

Overgrown Path in the Woods, Mixed Media Impressionist Landscape

Overgrown Path in the Woods, © Sheryl Karas 2024

It's been a long time since I've done any original art. And this piece represents a new evolution where I've taken one of my hand-done pieces (oil pastel and oil pencil), scanned it into my computer, and combined it with other images in multiple layers, using multiple digital effects. So it's mixed media but the final result is digital art, available as a print. 

What I like about this piece is its ethereal, magical, quality. It reminds me of dense overgrown paths in the New England woods where I grew up. But the light coming down from the trees makes it seem like there's a fairy grove somewhere in there with elves and magical creatures just out of view.

This piece is available as a print on various surfaces and products on Fine Art America.

Kuan Yin in the Lotus, Digital Art

I've been in a bit of a creative lull (creative slump?). This piece helped (although I may not continue in this direction). I decided to try something quite different than I usually do in my digital art using similar techniques: multiple images and digital painting combined with multiple layering effects.

The idea here is Kuan Yin in the Lotus. In China, Kuan Yin is as known the Goddess of Compassion. She is often depicted sitting cross-legged in a large Lotus flower. 

This piece is available as a print on various surfaces and products on Fine Art America.