Visit my Fine Art America shop - a selection of my prints!

Monday, February 24, 2014

Mardi Gras masks by students, adult art class

Mardi Gras Masks and some 'introduction to eyes & face' practice sheets - student work, adult art class, 2/24/14, Rockland Library

Saturday, February 22, 2014

"March Motifs" Adult Art Workshop Series with Catinka Knoth at Rockland Public Library, 2014



Press Release

"March Motifs" Adult Art Workshop Series with Catinka Knoth at Rockland Public Library, 2014

Rockland - Catinka Knoth  will lead an art workshop series for adults, on creating art around March Motifs. Participants will visit themes such as the Iditarod dog sled races, celtic designs for St. Patrick's Day, greens and the arrival of Spring, the 'Circus Comes to Town'. Each week will be a different subject. Classes meet 11 a.m. on Mondays,  in the Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80 Union St.  Led by Knoth, participants will  create their own art. Knoth provides the classes free of charge, with materials supplied. Friends of Rockland Library host the workshops, which are open to the public. FMI Knoth at 596-0069 or Rockland Library at 594-0310.

3/03    Iditarod sled dog races & husky dogs
3/10    Greens and the Arrival of Spring
3/17    St. Patricks Day & Celtic designs
3/24     'The Circus Comes to Town'  part l - acrobat figures
3/31    'The Circus Comes to Town'  part ll - circus animals


Knoth will provide instruction and guidance in drawing and creating March motifs. Participants will work with pencil, colored pencil, crayon, and papercutting, with a focus on drawing in color.

Knoth paints watercolors of Maine and whimsical animal scenes, which she offers as cards and prints. She teaches a free weekly children's drawing class at Rockland Public Library, which is sponsored by Wendy and Keith Wellin. For more information about Knoth's work visit www.catinkacards.com.



Attachments: Artwork by Catinka Knoth







Catinka Knoth
241 Broadway, Apt. B
Rockland, Maine 04841
207-596-0069, 207-691-5544

My website:
http://www.catinkacards.com

My blog:
http://catinkacards.com/cknotes

Some of my prints available at Fine Art America
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/catinka-knoth.html

Catinka's Fan Page on Facebook showing simple updates!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catinka-Knoth/76702205114

Catinka's Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/catinkarts

"Let's Draw A March Medley!" - Children's Drawing Workshops at Rockland Public Library, 2014

Press Release: "Let's Draw A March Medley!" - Children's Drawing Workshops at Rockland Public Library, 2014

Rockland - This March, children will draw the Iditarod Dog Sled Races, St. Patrick's Day, Spring, and the circus, at Rockland Public Library's ongoing drawing workshops led by Rockland artist Catinka Knoth. Participants follow along with Knoth as she demonstrates creating a variety of subjects for March. Husky dogs, mushers and dog sled teams, are motifs from the Iditarod Race in Alaska. The class may also experiment with papercuts of dog teams.  St. Patrick's Day has it's shamrocks, St. Patrick, leprechauns, pots of gold, rainbows, and Celtic designs. The first day of Spring in 2014 is March 20th. Traditionally March was when 'the circus comes to town', bringing acrobats, animals, clowns, and tents. 

Tuesdays; 4-5pm, "Let's Draw a March Medley!"

03/04    The Iditarod Races and Sled Dogs
03/11    St. Patrick's Day
03/18    Spring
03/25    The Circus

Sponsored by local patrons, Wendy and Keith Wellin, the workshops, for age 6 and up, and the young at heart, are free and open to the public.   All materials are provided. Children age 10 and under need adult accompaniment. Knoth expects participants to be able to work independently for the most part. Ongoing workshops meet every Tuesday, 4-5 pm., Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80 Union St., hosted by Friends of Rockland Library. FMI - Jean Young, children's librarian, 594-0310. 









Catinka Knoth
241 Broadway, Apt. B
Rockland, Maine 04841
207-596-0069, 207-691-5544

Website:

Blog:

Prints at Fine Art America

Facebook Artist Fan Page 

Youtube channel:


Friday, February 14, 2014

Making A Valentine - a Crow Story

(written 2/14/13) Making a Valentine

It was Valentine's Day. Cory Crow had heard the lady talking on the
radio program through the open window of the lady who threw out peanuts
for him and his buddies on most days. The radio program lady was
telling people to call in with their special requests for Valentine's
Day music. She was also telling people they could give Valentines to
anyone they thought did something special - give someone a Valentine
surprise she had said. Cory liked her idea. The music had been nice
too. It was mostly all classical music.

Cory wondered what he could do to give a special message for
Valentine's Day and for whom should he do this? He walked around in a
circle on the snow in the yard as he thought about his question. He had
just come back to where he'd started walking. There were footprints in
front of him now. At first he wondered who else was around him. He did
not see any of his friends around. It was just him. Those were his
footprints.

He flew up into the tree where he could see his footprints better. That
was a pretty good circle he had made. He knew what a heart looked like.
Could he make footprints that made a heart shape? He flew back down
where he could try it out in an unmarked area of snow. He wanted to
start at the top center of one wing, walk around and down to the point
of the heart he would make, and then walk up and around the other wing
or side of the heart to end up back at the top center. He would have to
walk an imaginary line. He did not know how he could keep the two sides
of the heart even looking. He might just have to hope for the best on
that one. Would it really matter that much if the heart was lopsided?
He just wanted his footprints to look something like a heart. He would
be happy if he could do that.

Cory set about making his heart for Valentine's Day. After he had made
about twenty footprints, he flew up in the tree where he could have a
look at his work. There was not enough to see anything yet. He went
back down to lay down more footprints. Another twenty and he flew up
into the tree to look down. Now he could see that he had interrupted
his line of footprints by stopping to have a look from the tree. The
line interruption made the heart edge look a bit broken and uneven. He
would have to just keep walking without stopping to check on it until
he got back to the center. Then the heart would be finished.

Sonya Squirrel saw him walking around the yard and came over to ask him
what he was doing. She was heading right over and was about to cross
his path with her own footprints. He saw her. Stop! I'm making a heart
design for Valentine's Day. You can do it too. Then we can have two
hearts in the snow. You can even have your heart mingle with mine.

Sonya liked that and started walking a heart that criss-crossed Cory's
heart. Billie Bluejay saw Sonya and Cory walking in the snow and called
out to them. Why are you two walking around over here when there are
peanuts out back? We're making hearts for Valentine's Day! You can make
one too. You can add a heart to our heart chain or you can make a
bigger heart around one of these hearts or a smaller one inside one of
them. Billie decided he would walk around the inside of Cory's heart.

Stevie Squirrel, Beliza BlueJay, and Carmen Crow saw the others at work
with their heart walking. They came over and added their own paths of
footprints to the hearts in the snow. When they'd done, they all went
up into the tree to admire the big Valentine they had made together.
Beautiful.

The lady looked out of her window and saw the beautiful Valentine heart
design in the snowy yard below. She was amazed to see it. She was
amazed anyway whenever she saw any of the animal footprints. To her
they always made such pretty patterns before they got covered over and
over again with lots of footprints. What a lovely Valentine's Day this
was to be able to see such magic in the yard.

Catinka Knoth

Sunday, February 9, 2014


Valentine Couple - A Crow Story
written 2/07/13

Brooklyn Museum: Crow on a Branch

Kawanabe Kyosai (Japanese, 1831-1889). Crow on a Branch, ca. 1875. Woodblock color print, 9 7/8 x 14 5/8 in. (25.1 x 37.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, 41.977

Cory Crow was wondering about Valentine's Day. He had heard people talking about it. He saw red and pink decorations in the shop windows - hearts, roses, flowers, ribbons,, lace, candies & chocolates, cookies and cakes, cupids, balloons, and frilly outfits. Also funny stuffed animals dressed in pink and red clothes. Some windows showed lots of pictures and cards with these same things on them. They also had writing on them. Be My Valentine! Happy Valentine's Day! I'm Yours Forever! Love to the best Grandma! Guess Who?

Restaurants had signs in the windows about their special Valentine's Day meals. The inns and bed and breakfasts were  advertising Valentine mini vacation stays meant to be for sweethearts. Some sweethearts would use Valentine's Day to ask each other when they would get married. Some sweethearts would celebrate that they were sweethearts. Some sweethearts would get married on Valentine's Day. And some sweethearts would celebrate how long they had been sweethearts for. It was a time for love and sweethearts.

Cory had wondered when he would find a sweetheart. He was very friendly with Camilla Crow. He liked how her black feathers glistened with tiny tiny blue and purple and violet sparkles  in the sunlight. Her eyes sparkled too whenever he came near her. She dipped her head from side to side when  he came close. She clucked  a kuhkuhkuhkuh like a little drumroll to him. He liked her so much that he had started bringing her peanuts and other tidbits of food to share with her. And she graciously accepted his food offerings. They would eat together and enjoy each other's company.


Brooklyn Museum: Two Crows

Kawanabe Kyosai (Japanese, 1831-1889). Two Crows, ca. 1870. Woodblock color print, 27 1/2 x 10 in. (69.9 x 25.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 37.435

Cory started to dance whenever he saw Camilla. He hopped around on a branch or on the ground, dipping and swaying as he hopped. He stretched out his wings a bit as he pranced around. Camilla was very taken with his antics. One day, just before Valentine's Day, Cory and Camilla rubbed their beaks together from side to side in a crow kiss. Cory asked Camilla if she would be his sweetheart, his Valentine. She said yes.
:
Cory watched people come out of some of the shops carrying some of these Valentine items. He was intrigued with the candies and balloons. The balloons were shiny and silvery, made of a foil material called mylar. They had designs, pictures, and words printed on them. Cory remembered a time when these balloons used to float up into the sky and disappear if they were not tied down. That was when they were filled with  helium gas. Now balloons were filled with air. They were not light enough to float away. If they were tied to a tall stick they would appear to float up in the air.

Cory was interested in the scraps he saw people throw away as they went to eat Valentine candy before the special day. They unwrapped shiny wrappers from their candies and sometimes let them fall to the ground instead of putting them in the trash. Some of these shiny wrappers were shiny foil on the inside. Cory, like most crows, loved mirrors and sparkly things like  foil and gold and silver. He collected some of the bits of foil wrappers and brought them home to his stash of things he collected. He wanted to find some shiny ribbons like he was seeing in the windows. It was his mission  the next few days to find some pretty ribbons to bring home to Camilla.

That afternoon snow began to fall. Cory and Camilla met up with the other crows in their favorite fir tree where they all roosted. Cory and Camilla and all the crows kept each other warm all night and thru the next day as the thick snow fell and the wind blew. The crows were safe and warm  through the storm together in their rookery. It would be Valentine's Day and Cory would give Camilla the shiny red ribbons he had found in a parking lot. Someone had opened an early Valentine gift. The ribbon had gotten stuck in the car door and later fell out of the car when the door was opened again. Cory gave it to  Camilla for them to start the nest they would soon be building together.

crow valentine papercut by Catinka Knoth

Valentine Papercut with crows and swans, by Catinka Knoth