Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

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

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

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


5 comments:

Elizabeth Taylor said...

Who would-a thunk grackles could be fun to paint?! But you really pulled it off Miss Nancy. Love reading your blogs because I always learn something new.

Cecelia said...

Love the birds! So colorful. It's interesting how you are able to be so free with color in your paintings. I used to watch the Grackles from my window at school and while I was outside on duty after school. We had quite a few birds that made their homes at school.
Enjoyed reading your information, too. Sometimes, I do feel like using just plain old black, and do that, with some color added in the painting. And, at times, I like to work in just black and white. My grandson has noticed my old black and white movies that I watch,and he asked me, "When did the world change from black and white to color?" (Thought that was a cute observation!)
Cecelia
http://cecelia-throughmyeyes.blogspot.com/

Nancy Standlee said...

Thanks, Betty,http://mitchell-taylor.blogspot.com, and Cecelia http://cecelia-throughmyeyes.blogspot.com/ for the kind comments.
http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Some old bee-yatch said...

Hey Nancy! Thanks for commenting on my blog!!! I LOVED that movie and don't know of anyone that has seen it either. Leave it to Texas ladies to know it :)

Hope you are well and that your painting enlightens you!!

Google University said...

Dear Nancy,

I'm really like your ART works,

Not every day i see talented Artist like you.

All the Best

Sincerely,

David.
http://www.arttoframes.com