The Sunnyvale Sun

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Cooney crafts exhibit with produce, cotton

By Tiffany Carney

Self-taught photographer and painter Katie Cooney is a master at mixing her professions with one other. But it's in a nontraditional fashion that uses cotton balls and toothpicks.

After 23 years of painting and photography, Cooney, a Silicon Valley Community Newspapers freelance photographer, is participating in her first solo art show.

Her exhibit Decorus Vegetabilis, featuring hand-painted photographs, will be on display April 1-29 at the Pacific Art League's Norton Gallery, 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto, with a reception April 6, 6-9 p.m. where the public can meet, greet and ask questions about Cooney's artwork and unique technique.

Cooney's art education came from classes at Los Altos High School, where her interest in photography came into focus.

"I have always loved art my whole life; I was that kid in high school who took all the art classes," Cooney says, joking.

Cooney adds that hand-painting photographs is a way of "combining two types of art that I love into one thing." She started hand-painting black and white photographs two years ago, after she attended an art lecture and demonstration at the Pacific Art League and fell in love with the technique. The four- to five-hour process, not including driving or drying time, often starts with fruits and vegetables from the Los Gatos Farmers Market.

She named the exhibit Decorus Vegetabilis, Latin words for beautiful vegetable, because she wanted to keep the name simple yet interesting. "I think fruit is just an accessible everyday item for everyone to look at, and I like it because it's decorative and pretty. It's simple beauty," Cooney says.

Cooney uses a Hasselblad, all-manual camera to take still-life photographs of fruit and vegetables against a black backdrop. She then gets her negatives developed in Palo Alto and heads to a darkroom, in San Francisco to print them herself.

"A lot of people do it now with Photoshop, but when you do it in a darkroom it is this magical thing to see the photograph appear right in front of you. I love that," Cooney says.

Once they are printed, the black and white photographs are hung to drip-dry. When they are dry, she is ready to paint. Cooney uses oil paints, but not in the typical manner.

"I actually paint with cotton, not with brushes," Cooney explains.

She uses cotton balls, Q-tips and toothpicks to create a life-like image using depth and shadows.

It takes a half-hour to develop the photos in a darkroom and one to two hours to paint, she says. Although she says the process is time-consuming, it is also relaxing and energizing, she says.

Starting with the darkest colors, she paints the black and white photograph using a real digital, color photo of the still-life as a guide.

"I actually paint the black and white to be color again," Cooney says.

Each 13- by 13-inch piece on display at the exhibit will range in price from $350 to $450. Cooney says she will have 11-12 original, limited -edition pieces on display at the gallery.

Cooney, her husband Kamlapati Khalsa and her son Harpal Khalsa, 17, are all vegetarians. When Cooney was young, her family always grew their own fruits and vegetables.

"Now everything comes chopped and bagged. When I was a kid we had a huge garden, and we ate tons of stuff from that garden," Cooney remembers.

Cooney's main inspiration comes from the Dutch Masters period when artists painted realistic still-life pieces of fruit, flowers and daily life, she says.

"I just like people who take very simple objects and focus on the simplicity of it all," Cooney says.

Although her art is on display at Curves in Saratoga, Pacific Art League and Aegis Gallery in Saratoga, this is her first solo exhibit. Cooney is excited to have the whole Norton Gallery filled with only her art pieces.

Her past work includes portrait and wedding photography and what she calls travel photography, but Cooney's goals involve painting people and landscapes. She loves the California landscape and plans to paint photographs of hills and trees as her next project.

Originally from New York, Cooney moved to California when she was 16. She has lived and painted in her West San Jose home for the past six years. Her home is decorated with art she purchased and created. In her kitchen, there are photographs of people she's met and places she's been all over the world. The family includes her two dogs, Wolfgang and Gretchen.

Cooney works for the El Camino Hospital Foundation, but in her spare time, she loves nothing more than to pack her bags, grab her camera and head out of the country. Cooney enjoys traveling and taking pictures of people from other cultures in their own element. She has spent four of her birthdays in other countries.

"The arts allow people to be creative," Cooney says. "It creates this incredibly fabulous way to communicate between everybody in the world, regardless of language barriers."

The Pacific Art League is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.katiecooney.com or call 408.431.6175.