My Ostraka:  History II: xiv  

70 x 140 inches

Nefertiti has haunted me since childhood-seeing a replica in our best neighbor's house in Chicago.  David Salle made a reference to this stunning masterpiece. Salle wrote about Alex Katz in March T & C. Katz apparently started his list of favorite artists with "jackson Pollock and the guy who made Nefertiti" (who was court sculptor Tutmose.

I lost count of how many paintings of mine use her image and I do not tire of attempting to replicate her stunning beauty.  This is a large sumi ink and gouache painting also done in my Cincinnati studio.  It measures 7o x 140 inches.
The studio was mercilessly cold in winter, since I was the only tenant other than my son's rock band that practiced there.  The isolation and lonliness probably fueled lots of "what ifs?" such as positioning the seductive face of Nefertiti between two seductive archaic Greek vase designs.

Special thanks to Owen Jones's 'Grammar of Ornament,' a book which has been in my collection since graduate school.  He set me on a rich path of discovery of ancient designs and symbols.

Watercolor Explorers' Club

You are cordially invited to participate in the inaugural session of the Watercolor Explorers' Club.  We have an auspicious beginning: the Ewing Cultural Center has invited us to premier at the Ewing Mansion, so save the date: 

Date/Time: Friday, March 22, 10 AM to 12 Noon.  

Location: The Ewing Cultural Center is on the corner of Emerson and Towanda Streets 
in Bloomington.

Morning's Itinerary: Executive Director Toni Tucker will give us a short tour of Mrs. Ewing's watercolor collection.  Following the tour, we will paint at Ewing, in their spacious conference room.

Topic: Choosing subjects that have meaning to you.  Please bring family heirlooms or mementoes from your travels. I will make a group still life to which you add your special heirlooms or mementos. We will paint from our specialized still life and I will review watercolor and composition basics and my demo will focus on mixing vivid colors.

Cost/reservations: All Watercolors Explorers’ Club events cost $25 per session.  An optional 1/2 hr group mini-critique will follow for anyone interested. Future watercolor sessions will mostly alternate between Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons at various inspiring locations once a month. Please call ahead or email to reserve your spot.  I am happy to answer any questions you may have.  

309-661-2537.

Ms. Kukla received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Cynthia has exhibited her paintings, watercolors, works on paper and sculptures on four continents in over fifty solo shows and over two hundred fifty curated or group exhibitions. In 2006, Cynthia was inducted into the Watercolor Honor Society which has only two-hundred members nationwide. 

Knossos, Crete

Three on-site watercolors made at the 

famous archeological site at Knosos, Crete.

I will be sharing my Greek watercolors with you I made in my 2006 sabbatical since I return in my 2014 sabbatical.  Lovely Greece is on my mind.

The bull fresco pavilion (featured here in 2 paintings) is heavily restored.  I am researching these ancient bulls, called aurochs, now extinct.  Polish nobility kept them alive into the 1700's on a special reserve in Poland but viruses from domiesticated animals brought about their demise.  Aurochs were enormous, fierce animals, the stuff of ancient legends, cited by Julius Ceasar himself.

Recently, I archived all my watercolors done on site in Greece, Crete and Istanbul, along with watercolors I made in my studio at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.  I used Fabriano watercolor paper for on-site work because the paper allowed for the paint to dry quickly.  Sometimes I would be running to the exit gate at site closing time, holding up the wet watercolors like a waiter holds trays of food.  Luckily, no watercolors got damaged in the late afternoon sprint.

Acrylic painting Workshop at Quincy Art Center, Quincy Illinois

Sponsored by the Quincy Art Guild

In November 2010, I gave a watercolor workshop during my solo exhibition at the Gray Gallery at Quincy University.  We had a dynamic experience with a very dynamic group of painters, and the group loved my acrylic paintings in the exhibition, so they asked me to teach an acrylic workshop.

It is always a wonderful experience to share what I know with dedicated artists and those who aspire to learn more and become better artists.  I learned how much is missing in the teaching (or lack of it) when it comes to acrylic paints.  There is so much more than just sticking your brush in some paint and water and trying to paint!  So we had a great day learning and sharing.  Besides, since it was fall, there way a bountiful harvest to paint and share thanks to secretary Liz.  Big thanks to my hostess, Ann, president of the QAG. Her house and garden are awesome.  I'll come back anytime to Quincy!

Magical Thailand

Here are a number of small watercolors I did on site at various temples and ancient ruins in Thailand when I was a visiting professor there in 2011.  These works were seen first in a solo exhibition at Quincy University shortly after I returned. In June, 2012, I showed them at Main Gallery 404 in downtown Bloomington.

Thailand is magical.  Buddhist statues, especially from the Sukothai era, are profoundly beautiful.
A colleage, Pimol, took me to a special locak temple with a particularly beautiful Sukothai Buddha statue.  The temple was not on the tourist route, rather, it was an important local temple.  I painted the Buddha there for two days.  I was pleased to see that the monks of the temple noted my discipline, painting for hours on my knees in the temple.  We spoke and I gave one of the monks one of my small paintings.  These are treasured moments and nothing we do alone in our studios compares to painting or drawing on site and having interactions such as these.