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courtney khail

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Courtney Khail | Southern Watercolor Artist (photo by Elle Golden)

Hi, I'm Courtney.

I'm a Southern contemporary artist currently living in Athens, Georgia with my husband and our rescue mutt. Here you'll find a peek into what inspires me, new pieces I'm working on, and a whole lot of random thoughts. (Oh! And for those curious, my last name is pronounced “kale”.)

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I wish you could see this one in person- the depth and details and layers are just remarkable. Framed in a gorgeous natural, maple frame, “Fruit Snack” is the featured painting for Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas Sale!

Seriously, it&rsq
This is one of my absolute favorites so I’m kind of surprised I’m letting it go! Created in part by melting “paint popsicles”, Day 5 of my 12 Days of Christmas Sale is: Balloon Animals!

Part of my Sugar & Vice Collection-
I see you swooning over there about my full color floral pieces! (I get it. They’re beautiful!) Well no more standing on the sidelines because today is your day to get one of those stunning pieces up on your wall.

Day 4 of my 12 Days of Christ
FRAMED original art for less than $400? Yep! All thanks to Day 3 of your favorite 12 Days of Christmas Sale. (Basically like the greatest advent calendar there is without any pieces of disappointing chalky candy.)

Today’s painting? ASHES No. 2
I wish you could see this one in person- the depth and details and layers are just remarkable. Framed in a gorgeous natural, maple frame, “Fruit Snack” is the featured painting for Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas Sale!

Seriously, it&rsq This is one of my absolute favorites so I’m kind of surprised I’m letting it go! Created in part by melting “paint popsicles”, Day 5 of my 12 Days of Christmas Sale is: Balloon Animals!

Part of my Sugar & Vice Collection-
5 reasons to shop local (and not just on small business Saturday, because once a year just doesn’t cut it.)

1)You know you’re getting something special and one-of-a-kind (hand written thank you notes, beautiful packaging, and absolutely
I see you swooning over there about my full color floral pieces! (I get it. They’re beautiful!) Well no more standing on the sidelines because today is your day to get one of those stunning pieces up on your wall.

Day 4 of my 12 Days of Christ FRAMED original art for less than $400? Yep! All thanks to Day 3 of your favorite 12 Days of Christmas Sale. (Basically like the greatest advent calendar there is without any pieces of disappointing chalky candy.)

Today’s painting? ASHES No. 2


"Madly" watercolor and ink painting | courtney khail | Southern artist based in Atlanta, Georgia

"Madly" new watercolor and ink painting

April 13, 2016 in From the Studio, Portfolio

"Madly" new watercolor and ink painting by Courtney Khail

watercolor and ink on paper, unframed size 12" x 18" $1025

Sometimes I start a piece and have absolutely no clue what I'm doing. This one happens to be one of those pieces. I've really gotten into super close up florals and botanicals (like this one) but the morning I started this piece, I pulled back. I had a sketch from a while back of the outline of a flower (and I absolutely loved how it popped off the background) so I figured I'd explore that for a minute. I mean, why not, right? What's the worst that could happen? It's either going to be awesome, not good, but not bad, or absolute crap. And if it happened to be crap, it's not like anyone would ever have to see it. (That's something I stress repeatedly any time I teach. It's just paper. It's just paint. In the end, if it's the worst thing you've ever seen- the kind of terrible that probably wouldn't even make your mom's frig*- you can just recycle it and forget about it.)

While we're on that note- the same goes for Instagram and every other social media site out there. No one is making you share (and to be honest, no one wants to see everything any how) so curate away! (Unless you're one of my close friends who gets random photos deemed #notprettyenoughforinstagram. You know, like ones showing that I haven't put on real pants yet and it's already noon. Which for anyone who doesn't know this, pajama pants become "painting pants" during work hours.)

Yea. So, back to the art. I loosely sketched out kind of what was in my head, but like I said before, I wasn't really sure what that even looked like so I was pretty much winging it. Fast forward multiple hours over multiple days (you can't really ruse watercolors or you will end up with a muddy, sheet of "well this sucks") and I had the watercolor part done. And I was pretty excited about it looked.

And then came the inking. Which, pretty much throws me into a state of anxiety because an amazing painting can go downhill REALLY fast the moment I force a line or have too heavy of a hand. Spoiler alert: This was not one of those times. I actually love the line work here, which is precisely why you get to see it. And I do hope you enjoy it as well!

*or you know your frig. Nothing wrong with handing yourself a gold star every now and then. Did you shower today AND check your email? Gold star for you. Wait, what did you say? YOU DID TAXES?! Gold star AND a prize from the treasure chest. Good job adulting. You're rocking this. 

Tags: watercolor, painting
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