Georgia Pears 14002, Oil Painting, Sketch Class for Free and Blue Mesa Menu by Texas Artist Nancy Standlee

Georgia Pears 14002

Oil on Linen on Canvas Board, 8x10"

Available on Daily Paintworks site HERE

Georgia Pears is now available on Daily Paintworks ready to ship without a frame. It has been painted on a linen on canvas board. I love painting pears and I've not painted in several weeks because it's that time of year when I have to gather up receipts for my not so favorite time of year - income tax time..grrr. I have my taxes done as my math maxes out at end of the month check balancing. Bravo to you if you can do your own taxes. 

Free Class:
But do I have some good news if you are interested in a sketchbook journaling class and it's free. Strathmore online workshop is offering 3 workshops with 3 different artists and the first one starts Monday, March 10 with Earnest Ward in his Back to Basics course and a supply list. From their website Strathmore states "Our online workshops are self-paced. Each workshop consists of four video lessons and supporting downloadable instructions. Students can participate in conversations and share their work." Earnest Ward is a Texas boy living nearby and I've signed up. See you in class.

Not so free class:
at Sketchbook Skool and yes, I've signed up for this one also.
6 weeks and 6 teachers for $99.00. Quoted from the website:
"Creativity isn’t about “talent.” It’s about having fun creating art and making it a regular part of your life. Anyone can do it and everyone should.

That’s why Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene founded Sketchbook Skool. To share with people how keeping an illustrated journal can rock your world. And to bring together the best-loved illustrated journal keepers to teach, inspire, and hang out with anyone who wants to be more creative."

I enjoy keeping a journal and here's a page from one of mine.

These are pages 18 and 19 from my 90 lb. Strathmore Visual journal from 2013. As you can see I use mine for a lot of note taking and reminders and it seems on these days I had an obsession with Lamy pens. Journals are so much fun to revisit. 

I'm also going to Kanuga for their watermedia workshops and study with David Rankin who uses the iPad and Paper 53, an app, to keep sketchbooks in the morning with watercolor afternoons. If you are on Facebook, David posts some wonderful art several times a week so make him your friend.

Here is a link about David Hockney about how the iPad inspires him.    

Thanks for reading and I hope one of the classes inspire you to make a journal entry after you get your taxes done. 

Just sold Pop Star and it stays in Texas and around the area where it was created.

Blue Mesa Grill:
Here is a blog post about painting some menu items for the Blue Mesa Grill. I was commissioned to go to the restaurant, paint some food items for their menu revision and the menu debuts in mid March. If you sign up to be a Chilehead on their website you will get Blue Mesa newsletters but the March issue has gone out but just in case you missed it I will include a portion of the very nice write up here about how this came to be. Yes, I did have some complications from cataract surgery, then some laser surgery, with both eyes dilated, went to the nearby Blue Mesa Grill to hang out, journal and eat because I couldn't see to get home but could see well enough to draw my food and stayed there until it was dark. Who wants to go home when you can eat some fresh southwest flavored food? Liz and Jim Baron liked the sketch and over a period of several months I ate and sketched, sketched and ate, felt like Van Gogh hanging out at a French cafe except I hung out at the Arlington location and was treated royally every time I made an appointment to sketch.

A portion of the newsletter: (the white plate on right is my original journal entry)

Recipe of the Month Like Us Find Us Contact Us

March 2014 Nancy Sometimes less is truly more. In mid-March we introduce our new menu. Simple, straightforward and honest are the menu's passwords. We believe our food speaks for itself. It does not need a lot of marketing spin - glowing adjectives, long descriptions, artistic photographs. People go to restaurants for different reasons - for status, it's new and trendy, a good place to socialize or meet people or it's kid-friendly. At Blue Mesa the main reason is the food. We really do make it all from scratch and offer bold and distinctive flavors of the southwest. We decided to focus on the essential elements. Simple descriptions of the food and honest pricing - e.g. $9 vs. $8.95. Less spin, more direct. When we were brainstorming this format, we agreed it should include small "jewel-like" illustrations that conveyed the artisan feeling of our concept. Coincidentally, a guest at one of our restaurants, Nancy Standlee, wrote to ask if we bake our sweet potato chips (we don't, we fry in a non-hydrogenated, zero trans fat oil), and she included an illustration she had done of the food she had ordered. We couldn't believe it - it was exactly what we were thinking of. We called her immediately and asked if she would consider doing the illustrations for our new menu. She agreed. So, all the new menu illustrations are Nancy's. They really capture the handmade quality of our colorful southwestern food. As Liz is always saying to Jim, if we consistently have the best tasting food, we don't have to spend so much time worrying about marketing ideas and social media trends. Good food sells itself because it is so rare. It is the meaningful difference that sets us apart. "Let's just do that, okay?" More sweet potato chips! Liz & Jim TACO FESTIVAL CONTINUES Two great tacos are featured every week through March. These are tacos we have offered as specials or on the menu over the years. We feature Korean short ribs with kimchee relish, chicken fried rib-eye with tomatillo gravy, buffalo chicken with wing sauce, jicama slaw and blue cheese, and Thai spiced corn-crusted grouper with macadamia nut-pico. I think you would agree this is a trifle different than the ground beef-iceberg lettuce-cheddar cheese taco that Glen Bell of Taco Bell fame introduced to hungry California customers. Tacos are $11.50. We serve two with ginger rice, smoky black beans, and corn cake. Enjoy one of the most popular food items this world over - and in a place that does a mighty good job with them. All locations CHILEHEAD REWARD QUESO SAMPLER Our queso sampler, one of our most popular appetizers, is offered this month. Three versions: classic queso blanco, chorizo and ground beef, and spinach-artichoke. Just print this page and bring it in, or show us this email on your phone. Available with the purchase of any entrée, any time through the month of March. Not valid in combination with any other offer. One per Chilehead, please. Expires March 31, 2014.

All this was going on in my October birthday month and they let me invite some girl friends to join me for lunch.

 Later in the week they hosted one of my sons and a friend.

As my musician son would say "This was a very good gig". Thanks Liz and Jim for a very pleasant commission.  Here is a page from my journal that started it all, a 9x6" 93 lb. Aquabee Super Deluxe journal, 6-21-2013 entry. (This is a nice size to stick in your purse/backpack to make entries during your wait times and it takes watercolor well enough.) Later when the menus are out I'm taking the whole family to the Blue Mesa to celebrate and yes, there will be photos and journal entries.

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Texas Daily Painter, Oil painting, small oil still life, pears, Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, Check Advantage, David Rankin workshop, Danny Gregory, Koosje Koene, Earnest Ward, Strathmore Visual Journal, sketchbook journaling, , Blue Mesa,

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