Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

Cheerful and Colorful Paintings in Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage
nancystandlee@sbcglobal.net

Friday, April 29, 2011

"Breakfast at the Beach" ~ Kathleen Elsey Workshop ~ Santa Barbara CA ~ Art Journal Workshop TX ~ by Texas Daily Painter Nancy Standlee


"Breakfast at the Beach"
16 x 20" acrylic on canvas pad
Painted in the Kathleen Elsey's workshop
Santa Barbara CA
This morning my heart is in Santa Barbara with Kathleen Elsey and the last day of her "Paint the Colors of Spring" plein air workshop April 27-29 but check out her workshop page and there are two more coming up in Sonoma and France if you'd like to join us...wish, wish. This was painted in her "Paint Everything" April 19-22, in Santa Barbara overlooking East Beach.

How do I choose a workshop? This time I Googled Open acrylics and found Kathleen and knew nothing about her except what I read online - no friend recommendations or nothing!! Fortunately I was not disappointed. I walked into a studio situation filled with fresh flowers of iris, ranunculus, zinnias, fresh fruit and beautiful set ups to paint. We didn't use the Open's but Kathleen was using the new Winsor Newton Artists' Acrylics. I brought Golden in tubes, packed in plastic disposable containers but this is a reminder to me..put the plastic containers back into plastic bags as when the TSA finished looking or when the baggage was found and by the time I opened my bag the tubes were loose and wild in my suitcase; however still secure in their tubes. It could have been a disaster.

Kathleen recommended this Atelier airtight peel off paint palette for plein air. You order art supplies before the workshop, buy while you're there and then you discover new products like this palette or the name of a book and you have to order when you get home. During the year when any of my Canvas by Canvas group finds a new art supply, we covet and buy and sometimes they just go ahead and get 8.


In Kath Macaulay's workshop she introduced me to the Strathmore Drawing pad (400 series) 4 x 6 in. to keep close by to draw and watercolor in, making notes of places visited (see blog post HERE). I used it a lot in Santa Barbara and the image above is one quickly done. Notes can be made on the back page of the image. At my Love Your Life workshop scheduled for May 19 and 20 at Dena's Ranch I will demonstrate how I used this to record fabulous restaurants in Santa Barbara. Check with Dena as to price as she has it on her site as a 3 day and it's a two day and the price is lower.

This is the little journal I couldn't pass up at the Art Essentials store in Santa Barbara - A Holbein 6 x 9 Multi-drawing book from Japan with a tie..loved the ties. I had to record the centennial cup I purchased in Solvang for the first page.

Kathleen thinking about the colorful ranunculus against the cobalt cloth.


These flowers were brought in by a student from her Mom's garden.


First lay in of color.



The finished Rananculus Floral by Kathleen Elsey has been removed at her request . (See more of her finished paintings on her website HERE.)

Restaurants:
These are some of the fabulous restaurants I visited and made little notes about them in the Strathmore Drawing sketchbook.

Harbor Restaurant

Ca' Dario


Br0phy Bros. Seafood Restaurant

La Playa Azul Cafe


Holdren's Steaks and Seafood

The Boat House

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PAINTED PAPER COLLAGE PAINTINGS ~ TORN PAPER PAINTINGS ~ WATERMEDIA ~
COLLAGE ART ~ MIXED MEDIA TEXTURED ABSTRACT PAINTING ~ TORN PAPER COLLAGE
~ TEXAS DAILY PAINTER
~ NANCY STANDLEE CONTEMPORARY ART ~ ACRYLIC FLORAL


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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Really enjoyed your post Nancy, and your trip to Santa Barbara via the blog! I'm glad Brophy's is still there, lots of fun memories in Santa Barbara.

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks Nancy...all the restaurants were recommendations and they were right on.