Pathways to Abstration, Carol Nelson Workshop at the Dena Wenmohs Ranch, February, 2014 by Nancy Standlee Texas Contemporary Fine Artist

Pop Star 14005   SOLD

Mixed Media 8x8 in.  

See other work at Daily Paintworks 

Fur and Friends 14004 NFS

Mixed Media 8x8 inches

(After a Carol Nelson piece featured on Carol's blog HERE.)

Carol Nelson and away we go for a 4 day mixed media workshop at Dena's ranch. 

I returned Friday from a mixed media workshop at Dena Wenmohs Ranch. "Pathways to Abstraction" by Carol Nelson was a 4 day workshop attended by 15 students. It was my third workshop with Carol. The first one I flew to Denver in March 2010 and it was Carol's second workshop, and I took one in Granbury in May 2011 and you can do a search on my blog for Carol Nelson and see these posts.  

"Fur and Friends" above was an interpretation of a piece that Carol brought as a demo piece and then I decided to run with the idea and paint my own faces for "Pop Star" and I have a second one to post in this series. I used liquid acrylics, collage paper, music, splatter, foils, ribbons, rusted paper, stencils, molding paste, old papers and many layers with my own red haired women that I love to incorporate into my work.

After the Granbury class when we used flat panels, I fancied myself as a carpenter, bought me a jig saw and tried to make my own cradles. Don't do this as that's the wrong kind of saw and it took a lot of molding paste to fill up the cracks where corners and edges did not meet. A cradle is the edging pieces that surround a flat panel and can be 5/8", 1 1/2", 2" or more. I used these cradled panels from Jerry's Artarama, American Easel Wood HERE in 1 5/8". Love these as all they need is a little white gesso.  Here is a side view of the painting and the "cradle" is the piece that surrounds the painting. You can use a flat panel but then you have to deal with how to frame. With a piece that has it's own cradle all that's needed is a varnish and put on the hanging devices and it's ready to hang.

Side View

Carol and Dena (Dena getting some Carol help)

The Bunkhouse Barn where all the work takes place.

Carol and Nancy in Dena's home. 

 Connie's Car.

 My front porch and was afraid I was going to have to take my car and caravan.(On the left in the chair is as far as I got with my spring potting soil for the tomato plants and basil that finally died a slow death in their little peat pots). Most people tend to think my house has been deserted when they view the front porch. I could clean up my act if there were not so many cool workshops I want to check out.

But with some creative packing we got it all in and used most of it in the workshop.

In my notebook I leave the first few pages vacant to list all the new art supplies that I hear about that I want to remember/ or buy and Jo Peterson gave us a great tip with a silicone pot holder, $3.00 that she bought at H E B grocery store. But don't look in the Lampasas HEB as Connie and I got the last two. It has a waffle design and it will make great paper prints. So now for the next week or so I will be looking in nasty gutters for rusty metal and browsing the grocery aisles for objects to repurpose. 

Carol will be giving another Texas workshop in March in Dallas HERE at Gallery at Midtown with Teta Smith.
It also lists her supply list which is always fun to read.
Dena's next workshops are with Peggi Kroll Roberts and Liz Hill and I've studied with both and both are excellent. 

Thanks Dena and Carol for a great workshop and to all my bunkhouse painting friends, it was great painting with you again and to my new friends, see you on Facebook. 

Texas Daily Painter, Mixed Media Painting, small acrylic painting, square format, figurative abstract, mixed media art,  Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, gallery wrapped boards, Square Painting, Check Advantage, Carol Nelson workshop, Dena Wenmohs Ranch, Etsy

Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:

Website:  http://nancystandlee.com

Purchase Paintings:: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/nancy-standlee-1131

Recent work: http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/NancyStandleeArt

Facebook Fan Page http://facebook.com/nancystandleefineart

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/

Affordable prints: http://nancystandlee.imagekind.com

                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html

Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.

http://new.checkadvantage.com/nancy-standlee-checks

contact: NancyStandlee@sbcglobal.net

Illustrations for the book, Dreams of the Turtle King:

Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/

Dreams otTK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreams-of-the-Turtle-King/523637907718244