Anniversary Roses & Zinnia with just one yellow flower open
Welcome to mid-season studio update with news since mid-spring. This is another favorite time of year of harvest, when we take shade behind the Morning Glory wall, and reap flowers and food from spring’s plantings. The picture below captures my sense of serenity as I express gratitude for bounty: the before and after of the south bed for tomato plants, the before and after of salad ingredients.
Drying herbs, making herb salts and fig leaf powder. Vegetables to process, helpful insects. Brown Betty, our Carolina Wren, nested in the porch table drawer. After the third attempt, we let her be. Greg is propagating Thymus Minus, hard to find, he’ll be selling it soon for fall planting. He is also expanding the footprint of the greenhouse.
Garden Delights
The theme for art and life in this cycle is celebration. There has much to celebrate and I am so happy to give and receive thoughtful gifts for birthdays and Mother’s Day, and gathering with friends.
Celebrations and Gifts
From the Studio
Daily Art Practice pages from journal
Brian Rutenberg’s book “Clear Seeing Place” and his studio visits on YouTube have given me much to consider about where my art springs from, and how. He describes himself as a landscape painter, firmly rooted in his upbringing in South Carolina, living in New York. My themes have always derived from nature and its invisible energies. He has helped me to define my clear seeing place as my memory and imagination. Not having a hometown has been a lifelong challenge. I still have no hometown, but I have nature in abundance.
Clear Seeing Place by Brian Rutenberg and Sky view from studio
Part way through creating “June Celebrations” I cleaned the studio. De cluttering and putting construction paper on the table and floor refreshes the process. Sitting at the table I noticed the triangular shape in the space above the back of the room. It is a shape that appears in most of my paintings. Right in front of my eyes.
The mystery and magic of painting is that when I continue to choose colors, brushstrokes and composition when I don’t know what I am doing, it leads you to realization.
Cleaned Studio and view from the table
June Celebrations series
June Celebrations is the title of my recent series. I chose the theme because many of my most happy occasions occur then. I wanted to convey how the elements sustain the happy state when occurrences do not match that vibration. Not knowing how to achieve this by painting is the ingredient for pursuing its desired expression.
Trusting intuition brings results and awareness that cannot be predicted, but are always appreciated. The shift in consciousness brings me closer to knowing myself and a sense of expansion and space. The place was in my childhood memory, to Vesuvius, as I have written about.
The dates and flowers from my garden are symbolic of this process. The short videos on this blog reveal the layers of this exploration.
June Celebrations series, Cut and Come Again, Day and Night, What Was Lost is Found, & Clear Seeing Place
And here are a few more paintings since May 1. To see them all please come to the Open Studio November 7!
Recent Work, Mystery World, Atmos 4, & Waiting Blackbirds
Pam Miller Downtown Art Center, City Gallery exhibit
Summer Celebrations invitation
I am happy to invite you to “Summer Celebrations”, a two person show at Pam Miller Downtown Art Center, City Gallery. You will see nineteen paintings of mine and several oil paintings by Marianna McDonald. Together, the paintings celebrate summer, not just as a time of year, but as a state of mind—radiant, expansive, and alive. The dates are August 7- October 3.
Art on display at Pam Miller Downtown Art Center, August 7- October 3
Historians & History Lovers Meet & Greet
Historians & History Lovers Meet & Greet, August 21
On behalf of my husband Greg Orth, I am pleased to invite you to
Historians & History Lovers Meet & Greet
Mercer County Public Library History Center
114 N. Main Street, Harrodsburg, KY 40330 859-734-3680
Hosted by Greg Orth, local historian
August 21, 2026 5:30-6:30 PM
We will gather for a fun and casual event, introduce ourselves and share resources, favorite Kentucky history topics & areas of study, and meet others with similar interests! Events will be quarterly where we can share updates, resources and more.
Jean’s Fancy Prancy Red and White Horse
Enjoy a revisit to Art of the Garden Tour, a PDF from 2020
Each update is a joy to see and read Kathleen, your message is unique and new each time, yet your voice is familiar and consistant. Your colors are always vibrant and delightful without being repetative or predictable, and your images are always invocative. Thank you for all the work that you do to make the word a better and more beautiful place.
Greg, I appreciate that you have been reading my updates, and can see the time I devote to revealing what is behind the work I do in the studio, and the inspirations that result in my art. I always hope that it touches a chord of interest to others. I enjoy the process of reviewing the past 3 months of any update and putting that into a visual and literary format. Thank you!