Ochre Tint Floral ~ Plum Vase ~ Myrna ~ Da Vinci ~ Sovek

9 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas Board
I found this painting that I had started some time ago and thought I'd change a few marks in the foreground and now after several hours it doesn't look anything like the original.

I received my reward from Myrna for sending her 5 blog subscribers – a 5 x 7 drawing beautifully matted to an 11 x 14 size. Thanks, Myrna. I love my drawing.

While looking through some art magazines, I found an October, 2005, Artist Sketchbook with an article, The Key to the City about an artist I really liked – Charles Sovek. I went to his web site, and sadly discovered he had passed away in June. I ordered three of his used books from Amazon and have written his family about the purchase of others on his site. I got a response from Peggy Sovek saying the web site would be running again November 8, 2007. There are lots of his paintings on his site to enjoy.

Myrna posted about a new artist she found, Sarkis Antikajian, and while reading about him and his work, I found that Charles Sovek is a contemporary artist that had inspired him with his small format paintings so guess it’s a small world. I’ll have to write Sarkis and ask if he’s ever taken a workshop with him. That was my intention when I went to Mr. Sovek’s web page is to find out if, when and where about his workshops. I looked at his paintings and then tried to paint a small format painting, Vail Mud Season but I feel I failed miserably. I wanted to ask him a question about acrylics and illustration board. In the article it stated he painted acrylics on illustration board and then the next question I’d have would be about the weight and did he prepare the surface with gesso or begin painting directly. I would recommend you visit Mr. Sovek’s site to view hundreds of paintings and see the dozens of painting lessons there. He made it so convenient to have posted all of his magazine articles on his site and you can download the articles and painting lessons. Thank you, Mr. Sovek. I would have liked to watch you paint and take a workshop from you.

Today I received an email telling me about Da Vinci's Last Supper going online and high tech with a high resolution image of 16-billion-pixels. Start here with the Kim Komando show and go here http://www.haltadefinizione.com/en/

Technorati has posted blogs that are discussing this.

And read more on Wikipedia about Da Vinci.

Other Blogs where I post:
http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on

http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Grackles ~ Opportunity Calls ~ Frames by Mail ~ About.com ~ Art Blog

$80.00
11" x 15" Watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Grackles are a nuisance bird in some Texas cities. They are an iridescent black with purple and bronze close up but at a distance they appear just to be a black bird but an interesting bird to paint for artists. Usually straight black out of the tube is a no-no for watercolorists as a more exciting black could be made to mix it from other colors. I like the freedom to use arbitrary color..what ever color strikes my fancy at the moment. In this watercolor I’ve left some unpainted places on the birds, sparkles. Some purist watercolor painters approve, some don’t. So paint how it pleases you.

If you want to learn more about painting and try it out for yourself, there is an excellent tutorial and information at About.com. If you want to learn to paint and have any time at all, I would encourage you to begin your journey by reading THIS article.

There are color tips here also.

Color Mixing Tip No 5: Don’t Overmix
If, when you mix two colors together on a palette, you don’t mix and mix until they’re totally, utterly, definitely combined, but stop a little bit beforehand, you get a far more interesting result when you put the mixed color down on paper or canvas. The result is a color that’s intriguing, varies slightly across the area you’ve applied it, not flat and consistent.

Read these tips for creating black..

Choose a painting medium and if watercolor as these grackles are, paint your first painting, and then for your first show, order a simple metal frame, white matt, and plexiglass from the largest collection of Custom and Ready Made picture frames on the Internet, Frames by Mail. They have a simple process set up for measuring your art and adding the dimensions and figuring your cost; however, I allow a smidge more area than the 1/8 they suggest. That is playing it too close in my book. Another suggestion would be to frame a painting is wait for a picture sale at a local hobby store, buy a sale item and remove the print and place your original in its place.

Now go have fun. Paint your own black grackle in glorious colors. And if you want to learn to paint, just do it while reading all you can about painting. Start a sketchbook and paint in it. I’ll talk about choosing a sketchbooks on another day.

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Figure with Flowers ~ Diadem ~ Wotartist ~ Facebook ~ Art Blog

NFS
18" x 24"
Acrylic on watercolor paper
This week I was notified that my art work been accepted from the http://Wotartist.com site. Wotartist was voted one of the top 50 web sites in the Times poll, a roundup of the most interesting sites of the year. At Wotartist you can search for an artist by genre or by the artist's name. For a ex-librarian this is hard to understand but their entries are alphabetical using the first name. So I would look for me by Nancy Standlee instead of Standlee, Nancy. Here is my listing http://www.wotartist.com/directory.asp?Author=Nancy%20Standlee

When you mouse over the painting an image will appear. If you click it takes you to the blog site. If you’re interested in looking at art of any kind, it can probably be found at Wotartist.
My big objection to the Times site was that I could never find a way to print their poll off. I ended up doing a print screen to get them down on paper as I think this would be a very good list to refer to.
If you want to vote for Wotartist you can here. You can rank the Times' picks.

This elegantly designed portal is a beautiful introduction to artist websites from around the world. Listings are organized by region (Americas, U.K., Europe, Australia, Asia/Middle East) and directory pages list types and genres (sculpture, painting and photography; Figurative, Surrealism and Expressionism). They are clues that are to be explored—moused over, really—so you can discover who, and what, lies beyond. Trigger the pop-up windows to see the artist's name and a sample piece. One click takes you to that artist's website, where you can see more images of their work, learn about gallery shows and get other information. Whether you're a serious collector or just plain curious, it's fun to hop from Nick Milliner's animations (listed as "Weird" on the U.K. page) to bright clay pots by Pippin Drysdale (ceramics, in Australia). But if you're looking for a particular artist, just Google him or her, as there's no search-this-site option. If you're an artist who needs help designing a website to showcase your work, Wotartist has a Wotdesign team for hire. Another site that can quickly suck you in: Getty Images' 10 ways, 10 separate, uniquely structured virtual paths through one immense collection.

Who could resist reading about the 25 sites we can’t live without?

Scroll down and you’ll see the 5 worst web sites. Wouldn’t you love to have the time to explore the 50 best, 25 that we can’t live without and yes, even the 5 worst.

From the Wotartist web site:

About wotartist

Wotartist is unique in being an artist directory run voluntarily by artists themselves. It is a non-commercial site, with the sole aim to promote some of the best artists currently exhibiting on the internet. Designed with ease of use foremost as a consideration, we hope that the buying public, publishers, art students and art agents will all find wotartist a useful tool. Please contact directly with individual artists if you are interested in their work and send selective artists e-cards - which can be used for all occasions. New artists are actively sought out and added to this site daily, so please visit frequently to discover new and exciting art work.

Locate an artist

• Use continent region links to browse for artists.
• The drop down list of genres allows for a more specific look at the artists listed.
• A further detailed search can be made by using the search box. Try searching by using the first few letters of a name, or a specific location and e-card to select all artists with e-cards to send.

I found it interesting that FaceBook was not listed in Time's top 50 web sites but it was included as #9 as the 25 we can't live without. Some of us from Canvas by Canvas have joined Facebook and we would welcome you as a friend. To find more information about Facebook, click HERE:

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

SOLD ~Copper Curls ~ Small Portrait ~ NeoCounter ~ Art Blog

SOLD to an art collector in Plainview, TX
5" x 7" Acrylic Portrait on canvas board

I have a fondness for painting girls with red hair. Red hair is more fun to paint than just plain brown. I see that this redhead may have gotten a little too much sun on her cheeks. Wikipedia has this to say about people with red hair and I learned that Scotland is the country with the highest proportion of redheads in the world.
And talking about countries, I've found the neatest, coolest web widget in the Blogosphere. When you scroll down my page you'll see a list of visitor's cities and countries beside their flag. I found it in operation on a site in Australia, Life in the Health Lane while visiting Blog Catalog.
Then I couldn't wait for Megha to click on my site so Australia would show up on my NeoCounter. You can download your free copy at Neoworx.
Today some from Canvas by Canvas painted at the Upstairs Gallery on an upcoming project of mini flies and lures and the rest will have to be a surprise (no sneak peeks yet). This is just the "bait"..sorry. But while there the gallery owner, J.T. Martin, stopped by from his UTA teaching position and I had to snap a photo of this handsome Southern Gentleman.

We have a NeoCounter on our Canvas by Canvas site and I am jealous. I see they have had 2 hits from my home town of De Leon, Texas (population 2200) and I haven't had one De Leon visitor. I think I may have to email some old classmates! Also, my brother lives in Midland and I don't see a Midland visitor yet..hey, Bro.. come visit my blog but there is a Midland visitor on the CBC web site. OK, this could get addictive.

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Gloria ~ Glorious Days with Gloria ~ Duck, NC ~ Nancy Standlee Art Blog

$25
5" x 7" Acrylic on canvas board
This small portrait is smaller than I usually paint and the colors are not as vivid but I love to try my hand at portraits and plan to do others. I named the painting Gloria, but it really reminds me a little of Helen Hunt and it doesn't look like Gloria. Gloria is the name chosen because several of the CBC group (but before it was organized) traveled to the Outer Banks, North Carolina to take a workshop with a long ago Virginia friend, Gloria Coker. She paints like I’d like to with very bright colors and in an impressionist style. We flew into Norfolk, Virginia. She has a beach house in Duck named the “Sketch Pad” and near the ocean but she was such an enthusiastic teacher and taskmaster we spent little time on the beach. Her forte was individual attention and getting us to find “our style” while working at our own level. I had met Gloria years ago (think 70's) while we were artist wantabe’s in Hampton, Va. She was already painting and selling fabulous watercolors and I have an early Gloria painting of her cats. I was very involved with batik and as I remember we probably traded a batik and a painting.

One distracting little activity we were prone to do during our photo ops were to display friends (who were absent) photos on sticks to include them in the activities. Gloria would be giving a demo and a head on a stick would appear behind the easel so the missing person would still be in the photo. Gloria indulged our little whims. This photo was taken at the airport before the heads were on a stick.

Gloria is in the process of developing a blog sometime during the summer. It will be a welcome bookmark and she says she will contribute a painting and recipe to our Artists Food Network.
I should have named the painting, “Glorious Days with Gloria” to remind us of those early mornings sitting on the covered deck drinking our coffee and planning and looking forward to a day of instruction and painting. Gloria, please let us know when your blog's grand opening will be.

Daffodil Painting Series #4 of 4 ~ Art Groups DFW

$40.00 each

Daffodil Series #4 of 4

Weekend Sale 2 Daffodil series $60.00 or 4 Daffodil Series 1-4 for $100.00

5” x 7” watercolor with light beige mat

How do you get visitors to your web site or blog site? There are many opinions to that question. This week I invited everyone in my address book and that gives you pause. You’re afraid that Yahoo will think you’re a spammer or your friends will not appreciate you filling up their inbox. Fortunately I’ve had some positive response and thanks to you who have subscribed. One email came from Sharon Giles from the Art Groups DFW and she asked me to contribute an article on blogging and my art blog. You can read the article here.

The web site is a hub for the DFW area artists and those living in the North Texas area. It is The Place to discover what is happening in the art scene in the metroplex and surrounding area.
It is devoted to news of art events hosted by nonprofit visual art groups as well as news about their member artists. Artists can find out about exhibits, meetings, art instruction, and opportunities. You may find a exhibit you would like to visit over the weekend.

Or take a cruise over to Canvas by Canvas.com and see our mini paintings of high heels and cupcakes. We have reduced the prices to make them affordable for gifts - maybe an early Christmas present. It is always a difficult process to find the correct selling price for a painting. We have reached the conclusion that these were priced more than some competitive paintings. Our goal is to sell so we can keep painting. Your comments on this would be appreciated. Since lowering the price to $40.00 earlier today, one has been sold so that tells us something.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. I wish on these little holidays you take the right exit and you travel without any warning lights appearing on your dashboard.

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

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Mango ~ Mango Salsa ~ Calorie-Count ~ Calorie Talk

$100 will be in the FWCAC during December.
9" x 11" can be cropped to an 8 x 10 to fit a standard frame
unmatted and unframed
Watercolor on 140 CP watercolor paper

(This was posted today on Artist Food Network)

I met my first mango in Barbados in the 80's and I've been in love ever since. Today's recipe will feature the mango in the BEST salsa ever. It is delish on a piece of grilled salmon or if you can take the calories, some tortilla chips.. I have a great recipe for salmon to post later and both foods are lower in calories. A cup of mango has about 100 calories plus 3 gms. of fiber, but you will not be able to prepare only one without some bites so buy 2 or 3 and I will usually add an extra one to the salsa recipe. Eat one..Add two.

Mango, Tomato and Avocado Salsa

1 or 2 mangoes, peeled and diced

1 avocado, peeled and diced

4 medium tomatoes, diced

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (canned is ok)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving or just go ahead and have a bowl of it now.

Why all this calorie talk today? The CBC girls were dining at a local barbecue hangout when we observed so many overweight people and then looked at ourselves and decided this was the summer to take action. Some of us are taking more action than others but since the committed ones threw $50 in a pool, weight control has become a little more interesting. We will know the outcome of our weight wars in September and I think I'm in a losing battle so I joined Calorie-Count this morning and set up my profile. There seems to be good support here and the means to enter a favorite recipe to give the nutritional count. I have added their tool bar and it is so convenient to add foods eaten and then the "Eat Meter" will register the day's food intake.

Other blogs where I post:
http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com
http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com
http://marketplace-daily-art.blogspot.com

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal at:
Nancy Standlee Art Blog

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Calypso Dancer Series #10 of 10 ~ StatCounter ~ Daily Painting

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #10

The Dancer will be the last one in the series and then on to a new project. This is the only horizontal piece in the series and she reminds me a dancer surrounded by long swirling scarves. And congratulations to the art collector in Austin, Tx. who purchased 2 of my favorites from the series. Thank you.
If you’re new to blogging as I am, I love the StatCounter, a free reliable program that shows visitor counts to your site. Basically, it will let you know if there is anyone out there in the Blogosphere that ever looks at your created posts. Oh, yes, and that reminds me, we love comments to our posts. That is available directly below the post, close by the white envelope and sometimes it may say 0 comments or if we've done a favorite, it could say 4 or 25 comments.
How to add StatCounter:
*Register an account
*Create a project
*Insert the code on your website
*Analyse your stats

How to add the HTML code from StatCounter to Blogger:
Dashboard/Template/Page Elements/
Add a Page Element/ HTML/Java Script/
Add HTML from StatCounter/Save

Now email your best friends and your relatives about your blog regarding the black sheep in the family, and watch your little counter climb. Hope it works for you.

Other blogs I post to:
http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/
http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com/
http://marketplace-daily-art.blogspot.com/

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com/

Calypso Dreams Series #9 of 10 ~ Daily Acrylic Painting

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #9

These other worldly figures look as if they were off in their separate dream world of colorful surroundings. One more to go in this series and then I will post all of them in a slide show so you can see them all together. I hope you have enjoyed these impressionist figurative small paintings.

Other blogs where I post:
http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com
http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com
http://marketplace-daily-art.blogspot.com

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal on the sidebar under How to Purchase a Painting: http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Sold ~ Calypso Carnival Series #2 of 10 by Nancy Standlee

SOLD to an art collector in Austin, TX

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper

This Calypso Carnival was painted over the weekend and is presented as the second in the Calypso series. To see how our workspace was set up go to the Canvas by Canvas site.
I posted some photos and decribed our new project that will be presented on Tuesday on our collaborative web site, Canvas by Canvas.

Calypso Family Series #1 of 10 by Nancy Standlee

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series was begun this play and paint weekend at a Canvas by Canvas members' home. Scenario: Member's husband goes to Europe, 6 painter friends arrive with cars loaded down with art supplies and food ready to work on Friday. It was late Saturday evening when my CBC work was completed and I began to think about some personal paintings. This series is the result of an intense focused weekend of painting. It is impressionist and painted more from emotions than photos. So as not to suffer from girl friend withdrawal, some members will paint together on Monday at the Upstairs Gallery. Watch our sites and blogs for an exciting announcement of new work to follow after our weekend of painting.

Christian Cross Acrylic Painting by Nancy Standlee

$90.00
10” x 8” 1 ½” profile Gallery Wrapped Canvas
Acrylic on Canvas

This Christian Cross Painting has been a WIP (work in progress) from a class I took from a Canvas by Canvas member, Margie Whittington. Our instructions were to bring a design to class, ready to paint. I found a photo taken at my daughter’s of a wooden cross she had on the wall. I have a photo file of different styles of crosses but since this one is hers, it makes it more special to me. Acrylics tend to darken as they dry, and it seems this painting had become a little gloomy since it was first painted so I decided on this day of celebration I’d brighten up the painting.
The collaborative art group I belong to has painted and sold several larger cross paintings made up of six 6” x 6” squares. The cross is one of the most ancient human symbols and this general shape is used by Christianity. Sometimes it is a representation of the world into 4 elements. For more information on the cross shape, go to Wiki.

Main Show Room

Size: 18"x24 gallery wrapped canvas
Depth 1 1/2"
Acrylic mixed media on Canvas

I have succumbed to the siren sound of the blogosphere. I’m a Texas artist who will discuss and digress about art and her art life with friends and fellow members of www.Canvasbycanvas.com. We have been on an incredible art journey this past year and my regret is not starting Nancy’s Art Blog at our inception. The painting, Main Street Showroom, has been entered into the Creative Catalyst Summer Art Show. The entry deadline is August 30, 2007 and Ann Baldwin is the juror. The acrylic, mixed media on canvas painting is 18" x 24" on gallery wrapped canvas. The theme is Telling Stories with Art and this is my story about Main Show Room.
Cowboys - Fort Worth – Cowtown - Stockyards - Longhorns ..
All of these words evoke memories of early Cowtown and the old stockyards district is today

a center of daily entertainment and Western-style nightlife.
The Stockyards were developed in the 1880’s and grew to be the largest in the world. Now Exchange Avenue is lined with restored nineteenth-century buildings. Cowboys can be found driving a herd of longhorns through the historic streets each day and we can get a glimpse into our past and heritage. Close by is Billy Bob’s Texas with real bull riding in an indoor arena. It was built in 1910 as an open air cattle barn and now can hold 6000 people for a concert. This north side area of Fort Worth tells a little of the Cowtown story and still has the Wild West atmosphere.
I can hear a “big Texas whoop” from my Canvas by Canvas group.