Hello it's Antries and welcome to another episode of the savvy painter

podcast. Before we get started I just want to let you know that for the next two

months the podcast will be released every other

Thursday instead of once a week. I have a couple of projects that are really important to

me and I need to take a little extra time for my studio this fall, but we'll be back on the weekly schedule very very soon I promise

Okay, my guest this week is Kathleen Sporanza I had a great time talking with Kathleen and we lost track of time a bit so this is a long

one so if it's late enough in the day grab a couple of beers from the fridge or a glass of

wine and get comfortable.

Kathleen is a painter from Massachusetts.

She earned her BFA from Boston University and her MFA from Yale. She teaches painting and drawing at Rhode Island School of Design.

Her current obsession is portraits,

portraits of flowers.

And according to Kathleen,

flower paintings are sometimes akin to stepping on the third rail.

There are so many stereotypes that go along with the subjects that tackling it can be dangerous, particularly for a female painter.

But Kathleen, I think, is fluent in the language of color.

She understands their subtleties and arranges them masterfully on our canvas, allowing each its place so that the subject sings.

This is a topic I am completely fascinated by, so I grill Kathleen on her palette organization, her interest in the Munsell palette, and when she

chooses to use it. We talk about life and yes, having one does inform your art. As much as we'd like to lock ourselves in an

ivory tower and paint 24-7 it just doesn't work. We circle back to this topic a few times as it relates to taking a break so that we have the opportunity to distill the stimulus into a painting.

We also talk about maintaining a painting practice after having a child and how that actually makes you a better painter.

And we get into a little aside on artists who have more than one kid and how badass we think they are.

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