Details
Details
Details of wrought iron scrolling from a railing.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Grand Entrance
Grand Entrance
This is the entranceway into a very Victorian building, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, founded and built so that city folk could get some exercise through everyday sports. The building had such wonderful details but this ceiling stopped me in my tracks.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Art Glass Window
Art Glass Window
At first glance it looks like the common diamond pane casement leadlight window you’d find in any small mid-century stone house with a Tudor or medieval theme, but someone took an artful turn with it. It’s just a small light in a front door, at most 10″ x 24″, but it makes a statement in all that darkness around it.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
A Composition of Hopes
A Composition of Hopes
We wish it was spring, we wish it would snow, we wish the sun would come out, we wish the meeting would never be done.
The yellow, the gray, the snowflakes, the green plant, the indoors, the out, the grand building, the neighborhood homes, the gathering of friends.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Reaching Light
Reaching Light
Sunlight flows into a hidden window behind the stage and reaches through the backstage curtains make its mark upon the stage. It seemed to be reaching right for me.
On stage at Carnegie Hall, at Andrew Carnegie Free Library in Carnegie.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
The Patterns We Set
The Patterns We Set
The patterns we set
unaware of the impression
or the effect we leave behind.
copyright ©2014 Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
We are participating in Inspire Me Monday on Create With Joy.
Drum Cat
Drum Cat
That’s just what it is, drums and a cat.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
Stage Ready
Stage Ready
I just like stage scenes.
Do you suppose the instruments are talking to each other? And the chairs?
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Up and Up
Up and Up
A stairwell from an interesting angle, and with interesting lighting.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Iron Heat
Iron Heat
Do you want to guess what this is?
Okay, it’s a cast iron radiator at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, catching the afternoon sun at just the right angle to highlight all the gingerbread decoration. A purely functional thing, but so beautiful.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Winter Vegetables
Winter Vegetables
One brief stripe of sun
last chance
before sunset,
the pause to smile
when leaving,
turns onions and potatoes
to bronze, rubies and gold.
Another new poem, like the Winter Sunset haiku. Perhaps it is the sunset in these dark days that is so inspiring.
poem © 2014 bernadette e kazmarski
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Bubbles
Bubbles
Angled autumn sun catches all the bubbles in the glass, the glass itself, and all the sparkles on the leaves and branches outside in the morning. It looks positively effervescent.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Blue and Yellow
Blue and Yellow
This time of the year is always about the first bursts of color, especially blooming things. I always have a stem or two or more of forsythia in my kitchen, and in those brief moments of sunshine the yellow is warm and brilliant before the classic Blue Willow dishes.
Morning Shadows
Morning Shadows
The morning sun comes in at such an angle just in these few weeks to cast shadows onto the white cabinet.
Morning Blue
Morning Blue
The sun shines in at an angle through the cobalt pitcher and across the enamel table with the red edge.
Snow Light
Snow Light
Not coincidental with yesterday’s photo of my black kitty Mimi, who is mom to these two, this is one of my favorite photos of them, and of snow light in January. Photographing this family of black cats in everyday room light, capturing details in their fur while not overexposing the background, is a constant but exciting challenge.
Mewsette and Mr. Sunshine are simply so gracefully composed, and that grace and pose are completely natural. The cool light from the winter morning washes the background in cool colors, so the amber of their eyes and the art glass sparkles.
Nothing special, just brother and sister quietly sitting together looking out into the backyard from the second floor window. It’s one of the best vantage points in the house; from the top of the little armoire at the top of the stairs they can see into the two bedrooms, down the stairs and out the back window and, to a limited extent, out the front windows in the bedrooms.
I have many photos of my cats atop this pine wardrobe, but this is one of my favorite photos of that scene, and of my cats in general. You can find more photos of them on The Creative Cat.
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Changing Light
Giuseppe at the door.
Giuseppe stands at the door watching the birds and chipmunks, hence his very alert and somewhat aggressive stance. The sun comes down the hill at an angle and filters through the leaves and branches of my river birch and then through the garland of grapevines around my door, creating lovely and changing patterns at all angles on the porch outside, the screen of the door, the floor inside and on Giuseppe, who has no idea he’s modeling abstract shadows and seems to emerge from the sunbeam itself.
This was today’s Daily Cat Photo on The Creative Cat
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Summer Tea: 2011
Summer Tea
A colorful tea set with a backdrop of colored glass lit by they sun on a bright afternoon. Seen in Carnegie Antiques, it was all just so colorful and gleaming it was hard to resist.
It’s always interesting to see what is collected, what is saved, and what survives to be shared again, sometimes the most unlikely things! If you’re local to Carnegie or the Pittsburgh area, don’t forget to stop in at Carnegie Antiques, and the shop’s owner is also hosting an estate sale this Saturday, July 21 that looks like a collector’s dream.
Shades of Green
Mewsette and Jelly Bean in reflected green light.
I thought I might share this photo today from The Creative Cat.
This is not to take off on the title of a certain series of books, it is actually the first thing I thought when I looked at these photos; there were, of course, more than one. Now that the trees have leafed out the sunlight reflects green into the house and enhances all those green eyes. Even my yellow art glass bowl hanging in the upper right corner looks green, and the wall behind—actually those are seen in that lovely round antique mirror, the wall and ceiling of the stairwell colored green by the light from the big window in my office at the foot of the stairs.
What wonderful faces to greet me at the top of the stairs.
Blue and Yellow
Blue and Yellow
This time of the year is always about the first bursts of color, especially blooming things. I always have a stem or two or more of forsythia in my kitchen, and in those brief moments of sunshine the yellow is warm and brilliant before the classic Blue Willow dishes.
At Carnegie Antiques
Vintage Glass, pastel © B.E. Kazmarski
I spent the afternoon minding the shop at Carnegie Antiques today and decided to paint a little sketch of a table of glassware that has recently arrived at the shop.
Judi, the shop owner, had organized this table of decorative glassware last week; when I was in I was enchanted by all the colors and shapes and patterns. Remembering it, I decided the next time I was in I would paint that table of glass.
Unlike other subjects, glass is translucent, both having a shape and allowing other shapes to be seen through it. It has a color but other colors can be seen through it as well, modified by the color of the glass. And instead of casting a deep shadow, it casts a pool of colored light on a table top.
Detail of painting.
This painting is about 10″ x 12″ in chalk pastel on Wallis sanded pastel paper; you can see the color of the paper in the lower left corner and here and there throughout the painting. I painted it in about 90 minutes, then touched up a few things when I got home with pastel colors I didn’t have in my little traveling box. There are four different shades of blue here, two shades of green and three of the cranberry glass. My traveling box is a cheap set of mostly primaries and secondaries, perhaps an extra shade of some of the like red-orange or apple green, plus black, white and mid-gray. I can capture quite a bit with those pastels by blending in place, but not always the nuances of glass.
I see things I’d like to work on—the background for one, which I like rough and sketchy but I want a little more color in it and can’t decide which. I began with pale yellow, then added blue, then green then pale violet. On the table I may mess around with the glass a little more to define the pieces, but mostly the doily under the blue bowl in the center does not look like a doily. It will come to me.
Detail of painting.
But there is glass from nearly every era there, opalescent milk glass, Depression glass, colored, etched, painted, plus napkins and napkin rings over on the right and two hobnail lamps with cranberry glass, one a nice respectable table lamp and the other a naked lady with a lampshade on her head. Those Victorians knew how to entertain themselves.
When it’s done, I think I’ll buy one of Judi’s highly decorative vintage gold frames and use that to frame it.
Though the shop sells vintage items from the mid-19th century to mid-20th century, I have a room with my artwork in the building. It helps to be friends with the owner, and I’m grateful to have this display space and also enjoy my time there where I am totally unplugged—no cell phone, no computer or wireless, just a radio or a recorded book if I care to bring one. It’s a real break from the usual day. I put out the “open” flag and people stop in to browse, what fun.
Detail of painting.
I usually do a little rearranging and cleaning in my little room, sometimes a lot, but when I don’t have a lot to do I bring a project with me that, again, can be done while unplugged, like writing, which I will often do in pen on a good old-fashioned tablet, or a crochet project, and a take a lunch I can heat up. After the busy-ness of working at home it’s nice to get a quiet spot now and then.
Snow Light
Snow Light
Nothing special, just brother and sister quietly sitting together looking out into the backyard from the second floor window. It’s called snow light because the day was actually overcast but we had nearly two feet of snow blanketing everything so all that cool reflected light is flowing in the windows.
This is one of my favorite photos ever because Mewsette and Mr. Sunshine are simply so gracefully composed, and that grace and pose are completely natural. It’s looked like a painting for a long time, perhaps after all these sketches it may be time to get to it.
But I was also appreciating how my glass pendant so beautifully complements their eyes and their lovely graceful poses.
Winter Sunshine
Winter Sunshine
The sun keeps teasing us with colorful sunrises and shines into the east windows so brightly for just long enough for us to get accustomed to it, then the clouds roll over once again, blanketing us in uniform gray.
Here, Giuseppe, sitting in the narrow casement at the top of the stairs, absorbs the full force of winter sun through old wavy glass, studying the geranium leaves as if he’s never seen so much detail. Giuseppe can be a little melodramatic now and then.
I featured this on The Creative Cat today too, and while I usually have two different photos today I was so glad for the little bit of sun we got that I wanted to share it all. I think I’ll share another photo of my cats that I posted yesterday, actually from last year, which is also a nice composition.
Aside from handsome Giuseppe being melodramatic, I really liked the simple, colorful composition of this photo.
Today 