mnartists.org: Katherine Clayton

Southern Minnesota Prairie Tree

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:15:22 GMT

Sheepdog Herding Trial at Gale Wood's Farm

Katherine Clayton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:41:18 GMT

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The pastel 20” x 24” painting called Sheepdog Trail at Gale woods Farm, a working farm that serves as a park in Minnetrista was shown at the Episcopal Church Homes Art Show in October 2009. [/size]The ancient art of sheepdog herding is exciting, awe inspiring, and beautiful. During the trials, the handler guides the dog to direct the sheep through gates, into a pen and the most difficult maneuver “shedding”, where the sheep are split into two groups. For young dogs, especially if this is their first trial, don’t know what they are supposed to do with the sheep. Avoiding the canine instinct to do what comes naturally to the dog like chasing the sheep as prey is difficult for the handler to train against in the young dog. During this trial, a first timer Border Collie entered and immediately at full speed chased the sheep off course into the woods (you can see where in the picture). It was hard not to laugh as it was a little unexpected after seeing many dogs do what they were supposed to and the handler must have been very frustrated at the outcome after all the untold hours spent training the dog. The dogs love this herding activity so well that when they are idling and waiting for there turn, study [size= 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Century]the sheep in their pens to learn more about them.[/size]

Near Winter's End

Katherine Clayton — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:07:38 GMT

This large pastel (46” x 32”) was created in 2009 over the year. The location of the old willow tree is Minnehaha Creek. It’s the time of year when winter is close to the end, but makes a go at extending itself withlarge heavy snows. I love when the creek (and Minnehaha Falls) have a mixture of frozen and running water. This piece was shown at the Episcopal Homes annual Art Show and sale in October 2009.

Lady of the Creek

Katherine Clayton — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:01:42 GMT

This found glass and copper wire sculpture finally came together after years of collecting flotsam and jetsam from Minnehaha Creek. Always an archeologist at heart, I once was on a dig many years ago at the old horse stables at Fort Snelling as a student at the University of Minnesota. So, when I have the chance to relive that experience I relish it. Many of the pieces within the sculpture are quite old- some are marked from the 1860's and it's interesting to see how an ancient Heinz ketchup octagon bottom hasn't changed (only it's now plastic). But there are many glass remnants of glass bottles that represent products and potions now extinct; potions from long ago closed pharmacies to Minnesota beers like Purity and Minneapolis brewing company. There are even many words and phrases contained: company for life, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Purity, old (really a sold with the "s" fallen off), assure. As I kept finding "not to be sold" as fragments , I had to fashion a Hamlet reference- To Be or Not to Be. The old patterns and designs were beautiful and varied with wavy lines, square patterns of all sizes, beavers, wings, birds, bats. As long as I was picking up all this glass: I generally hauled as much debris out of the creek as I can (and prevent it from going in the Mississippi river and to the Gulf of Mexico). At least glass is made up of natural materials and will become beautiful after it's been washing around and mixes well with rocks. However, the flip-flops have become a personal bane with me as I have found hundreds of these plastic nightmares that will take on eternity for the microbes to learn to break them down. Someone recently told me how the National Geographic did a story on how there is substantially less glass shards for the beach comers on certain coasts around the world because plastic has replaced so much glass.

Cog tile

Katherine Clayton — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:11:44 GMT

This is a hand crafted tile featuring cogs and other mechanical things. It has a three dimensional quality with irridescent gold and copper.

Deco Tiles

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 23:59:46 GMT

These deco styled tiles measure 4x4 and have a irridescent copper and a three dimensional quality.

Puddle Tile

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 23:52:14 GMT

This is a tile design resembles the pattern of rain falling on drops falling on water. I call these my puddle tiles. They are 4x4 (are available in larger sizes) slightly irridescent with a three dimensional quality. They are made to order.

Guardian Cloud

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:32:42 GMT

This children's illustration was created in pastel on paper I hand embossed. This story involves a happy and caring friendship between a cloud in the shape of a bird and a dog. The piece measures 18" x16".

Rose Window (rug floorcloth)

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:14:45 GMT

This design was created with the thought of rose windows and cathedrals in mind. Medeval cathedrals are a favorite archetectual theme and place to linger. This measures floorcloth- rug 3'x5' and created in acrylic.

Kelpies detail

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:56:39 GMT

This is a detail of Kelpies.

Kelpies

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:49:18 GMT

I met a lovable labrador retriever called Kelpie in Scotland, I thought it was a curious name. Quite a bit later I was reading some Scottish fairy tales and low and behold Kelpie is a water fairy and a devious one at that. Kelpies are spirts of the waters in the form of a horse. It was supposed to take delight in the drowning of travelers, but occasionally helped millers by emerging from the sea to keep the water mill going; the subject of my children's illustration. I decided not to depict the more ghoulish side of their personality. It was created in watercolor, gouache and ink.

Firebird-detail

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:02:00 GMT

This is a detail of Firebird, a Russian fairy tale, which was created using pastel on hand sculpted paper.

Firebird

Katherine Clayton — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:54:09 GMT

This is a children's illustration of a Russian fairy tale. It was created in pastel on hand sculpted paper.

water tile table

Katherine Clayton — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:05:39 GMT

I call these tiles in the middle my puddle tiles, remeniscent of rain falling on water or I guess they could be oceans or lakes, but I think I prefer to stick with puddles.

Deco Spheres (rug floorcloth)

Katherine Clayton — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:56:15 GMT

I have always admired Art Deco design and have fantasized what it would be like to be alive during that vibrant era. So I decided to create an original art deco design; this is a canvas floorcloth rug in metallic and irridescent acrylics and measures 36" x 57".