New Beginnings ~ Genesis

"Apple"
10" square for a Canvas by Canvas painting (lower right)
CBC, some of our collaborative group of Texas painters, painted Monday at TUG and began a new year. new beginnings and appropriately our Genesis entry. We were very fortunate in the PCPC show last year with our entry and won first place in one of the themes from the 23rd Psalm with "A Table Before Me". This year the theme is based on Genesis, the beginning. I will post more about our entry when the painting is finished and registered.
Another event that we are participating in is for the Arlington Museum of Art Auction and Gala, 2008: Shine: Black and White.
CBC donated a giclee, "Circle of Friends, and other CBC members donated individual pieces that can be viewed here.
Look for CBC artists:
Barbara Hackney Hill Country Cactus and Jack and Jennie
Maryann Stephens Carnival
Karen Foster Say it With Roses
Cindy Yandell Polka Dot Girl
Elizabeth M. Taylor Done for the Day SOLD
Connie Michael Red Pears
Nancy Standlee Calypso Market

I have a book recommendation: I've started a new book, Natalie Goldberg's "Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World" and she exposes her writer/painter supremely original heart and it is indeed a colorful one and full of imagination. I have her "Writing Down the Bones" and I was so excited when I discovered that book. Savory bites of joy to see her paint ordinary and turn into fun, amazing images - wish I had the courage to drive around one of her cars. A great read to jump start your beginnings in creative expression for 2008 and I'm only on page 30. Some of her paintings can be found on ArtNet and Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.
I hope your 2008 January has been filled with dreams of a genesis, a birth, an alpha, an emergence from the past.

Indigo Bunting ~ Grackle Update

Indigo Bunting
9x12 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas/profile 3/4", not framed

I posted a grackle 6"x6" mini for Canvas by Canvas for the Neil Sperry Show and it has been purchased by an artist art collector. Thank you Dee. Yesterday I painted at the Upstairs Gallery with some CBC members on our new collaborative work and then on this personal work from a grackle photo.
When finally getting to my recliner and opening the Fort Worth Star Telegram, I see the grackle has made the front page and it wasn't receiving very good press in an article written by Anna M. Tinsley. My fellow CBC member, Connie, consulted her book "A Guide to Field Identification - Birds of North American" and tells me it looks like an Indigo Bunting and since I am an intuitive painter and not in the least interested in painting a photographic rendering I will call this grackle an Indigo Bunting. For the bird watchers who may read this and find the discrepancies just let me warn you that I'm not painting a specific bird but these are my bird symbols.
Some points made in the front page article:
1. Two falconers, with hawks, Kujo and Blackjack, will hunt roosting grackles.
2. Hawks are rewarded with mouse meat before a grackle meal.
3. Grackles are known as "downtown's feathered menace."
4. Grackle damage and nuisance is unacceptable to the public.
5. A new attitude of "No Grackle Left Behind."
6. Grackles are loud, messy and unafraid of people (I know some people like that)
7. Some people defend the bird because the grackle eats mice and insects, such as crickets and roaches. But others say their mess outweighs any positive points.
8. I will follow this story to see if the falconers will have any luck and I'll keep painting grackles or an Indigo Bunting and let others do the grackle hazing.

Later in the evening, I watched a "tivoed" "Steel Magnolias" (1989) and find that Drum (Tom Skerritt) was in conflict with removing the birds from his trees before the wedding. In the process, he manages to cause Ouiser's dog to suffer emotional distress and lose hair, because of his methods. The tag line for this movie "The funniest movie ever to make you cry." It's a good story of female bonding and how unbreakable that bond is between true friends and about dreams being built and burnt and about bird hazing.
One of my favorite lines uttered by Olympia Dukakis as Clairee "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize." So according to Clairee maybe we do have some shared character traits of the grackle.

Koi ~ SWA Entry ~ Giclees ~ FAR

Koi
$675.00
Full sheet 22 x 30 acrylic watercolor on 140 lb. paper
This is one of my entries into the SWA juried show. You can enter 3 pieces and if the judge likes one, you will be in the show. There are times when the judge doesn't like anything sent. We are going digital so your 3 images are in 300 dpi on a cd and I hope there isn't another like me that will have to rush them over tomorrow the last day of entry. On my previous blog post I told about painting koi and will let you know in February if I get in the show.
Today I picked up 4 giclees I've had made from Gamut Control and I'm very pleased with the quality and I will write more about that later. They tag your fine art reproductions and send the images to FAR Fine Art Registry and you have a portfolio on line. The artist adds painting descriptions, profiles and biography. While there type in Nancy or Standlee and you will see my page and what I'm talking about. On the Gamut site my catalog page is the very bottom image.
I hope you have a restful weekend. I think I have a rodent in my attic because of sounds overhead and overheard the last few days and some have been alarmingly loud - weather is predicted to warm a little so I'll feel more like looking into this problem. He sounds big!!

"Trash Talking" Giclee, Gamut, FAR, and a Dot Com

"Trash Talking" is now available in a giclee 20" x 20"

There are several new announcements with this post.
I have a new website that you are invited to view at Nancy Standlee Art .
Not all of my paintings have been listed yet and a few pages still need some work but the home page and the giclee page are intact.
I've contracted with Gamut Control for my fine art reproductions and you may view my catalog page here. Gamut is also producing some giclees for the collaborative group that I belong to, Canvas by Canvas,
The Art World News magazine will have an ad in the January issue with our photos and a write up. It hasn't hit the newsstands yet but I'll post about that later. Art World news is the best read trade publication in the art and framing industry today. It is a professional journal that shows industry trends and copies can be found at your local gallery or frame shop or by subscription and has a subscription base of 20,000, mailed 12 times a year, and it has been in operation since 1996.
I am in the process of having my work registered (part of the Gamut contract) and preparing my portfolio with the Fine Art Registry. The Fine Art Registry is packed with useful information for artists.

Fine Art Registry™ provides a unique, patented, high technology tagging and registration system for artists, collectors, galleries and museums, to help ensure authenticity and provide accurate provenance for works of art and all valuable collectibles. Fine Art Registry members have their own, online art gallery and artist portfolio.

Yesterday I painted with some CBC friends at the Upstairs Gallery and continued working on a koi entry for the juried show with SWA.
The prospectus can be found online but the deadline is drawing close, January 26. I am using some of the Nicholas Simmons techniques that he discussed on Wet Canvas using liquid acylic watercolors. I am signed up for his workshop with Artist Showcase in June and I'm really excited about this workshop. If you can't find a workshop in your area, Wet Canvas, has a wonderful learning site for demos and if you look under FISH you will see the Nick demo that has inspired my entry.
Watch for the post with the painting later on in the week.

Grackle Love ~ Acrylic Bird Painting ~ TUG

SOLD $40 purchase on the Canvas by Canvas web site
Acrylic on canvas 6" x 6" mini
I like to paint grackles because of their iridescent plumage. See another post of a grackle painting http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com/search?q=grackle
This painting is my third assignment for the Neil Sperry Home and Garden Show the last of February and I may have to paint this one in a larger format for my painting blog.
Members of CBC who were at the Upstairs Gallery studio today were Maryann Stephens, Cindy Yandell, Cindy Campbell, Barbara Hackney and Karen Foster and I will add their paintings below.
Cindy Y, our resident oil painter, worked on a bear today and now we all want to explore oils.
I forgot to mention on the Graham blog post that while on that trip we were made aware of a fabulous oil painter who lives in Graham and if you're an oil painter you will want to check out her web site Kaye Franklin.
Because I don't follow oil painters I was not familiar with her work but it is lovely. It seems I have concentrated on who's who in watercolor and acrylics.

Graham TX ~ Pansy Painting ~ Kimbell Museum ~ Neil Sperry

6" x 6" purchased through Canvas by Canvas
Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas - Floral Mini



The pansies were blooming in the Kimbell atrium and the inspiration for my pansy painting.

CBC loves road trips and resolves to take at least one a month in 2008. On December 27, we visited the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth for inspiration from the show Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, a landmark exhibition of the earliest works of art illustrating the Old and New Testaments that will be on view from November 18, 2007, to March 30, 2008. More to come on this art work that CBC is planning.
Friday, January 4, 2008 found Maryann, Cindy Y, Cindy C, and me, (Nancy) on the way to Graham, TX. about 90 miles west of Fort Worth. Graham, "the North Star of Texas" with America's largest downtown square, was founded in 1872. Our Graham story is that we've found a lot of friendly folks and made some new friends.
The first stop was to eat at the Magnolia Tea Room. A photo of my delicious food is included in the slide show below. In Mark's Gallery, Maryann bought Cindy C, (the mother of the most children in our group) a sign that says " Who are all these kids and why are they calling me mom."All day, strangers would ask, where are you from and what brings you to Graham and we were happy to tell them we were Arlington artists out on a field trip and gave them cards of our paintings and then we took their photo, then they'd recommend places for us to "be sure and see." What a welcome and we visited so much we never made it completely around the square.
We purchased some easels from Kathy Martin at the Vogue Boutique to use in the Neil Sperry show.
Next was the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center which opened in October 2002 and promotes history and art of Graham and of Young County. The art-deco style structure was built in 1936. They host the Art Splash Festival , a national juried show, and have visiting artists booked for exhibition for 2008.
We had many recommendations to go to J Dolittle and Co and it was like an instant friend when we met Vickie. She called her brother and 3 of her friends and we took photos and discussed our "dreams and visions". Vickie and her brother have converted an old service station into an eclectic store with urban accents and southern style. Her plans are to expand into the 2 bays and have "art on the asphalt" area. To describe Vickie I'd suggest you look in the thesaurus for vivacious and all the words would apply. We met her friend, Nancy, next door at Chantilly Antiques and Beth, a descendant of the founding Morrison family, and Connie, with her own special cell phone ring tone. We will meet up with these fun ladies again, I'm sure. Vickie's store has art and jewelry and a few wicked looking items in a bucket by the door and Cindy Y had to purchase one of the back scratchers made from a beaver claw for her son, Alex. Naturally I went for the flashy rings.
Graham is the birth place of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association formed in 1877 to combat cattle rustling and guess they've done a pretty good job as we met some great people. I wish you could have joined us on this road trip as Cindy has a new vehicle with a TV and if you ride in the back you can watch art dvd's as you travel!
The great WHOA sign was near the Wildcatter Resort Ranch. We drove around the ridge but as it was getting dark, we headed back to Arlington but it is a must visit on our next trip.
Check out the slide show below this post to see some of the photos taken.

Graham TX slide show

Happy New Year Sunflower ~ Acrylic Painting

"Happy New Year Sunflower"
6" x 6"
$40 purchased through the Canvas by Canvas web site

My coffee and I got the the computer this morning and found a message from Connie about check out my blog. She didn't have to work today and was up early getting back into her blog and has she ever thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of us. She is saying she's going to post each day. Now how is that for a hard act to follow. She was very complimentary of my blog but there is one sentence I need her to explain.." Even if you don't have time to read all she has to offer, you'll enjoy her paintings, ripe with juicy color". Does this sound like to you she is saying I'm a little verbose? I see that Margie has already posted some of our minis on the CBC blog that we painted today at the Upstairs Gallery. We rent the studio space once a week for CBC members to paint assignments or something personal. Today Margie, Connie, Cindy Y, Maryann and I painted some of our assignments for the Neil Sperry Garden Show February 29-March 2.


Connie, Maryann, and Cindy Y
Margie joined us for lunch and painting afterward. Since we all have good intentions the first day of the New Year we opted for Souper Salad restaurant and our intentions were good but the gingerbread and ice cream were very appealing. I didn't see a black-eyed pea on the menu so I'm cooking mine now. In Texas we think we have to eat some black-eyed peas on New Year's Day to give us good luck throughout the year. I soaked them overnight and I have some ham to eat with them and just so I eat them before 12:00 midnight, I'm covered. If you'd like to read about this holiday, the oldest of all holidays go here to read more about it. It seems the early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.
Some of CBC members met at Maryann's Monday morning, Dec. 31, (before a business trip in the afternoon) and we watched a new Hugh Greer dvd on acrylic painting. I decided I'd try my sunflower using his palette of Quinacridone Magenta, Indanthrene (Anthraquinone) Blue, Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, Diarylide yellow, and sometimes Pyrole Red. I thought I did pretty good but when I got home and looked over my notes again, I didn't use Indanthrene Blue..in fact, I didn't even own any so now I'll have to go art shopping. I tried to stay within the palette because it would sure help in carting supplies around but I had to keep dipping in my little pill box containers of other colors I can't live without like light blue violet. I'll post a photo of these pill boxes later as we got the idea from an Elin Pendleton video. I did use some of his tips, or I adapted some like staining the canvas and putting gel on it, which I do sometimes anyway. I guess to really be truthful, I didn't do much of anything that Hugh suggested. I didn't have his yellow either. It's a little like cooking. You look at the recipe and end up doing it your way. Today I used Cadmium Orange to stain the canvas (he suggested the Quin Magenta and Yellow mixture). I love painting sunflowers and have done this one in a watercolor before with some cone flowers. This time my cone flower was not cooperating so I just painted it out. This feature is a wonderful advantage with acrylics.
May you have good luck this year whether you ate your black-eyed peas or not today. Since we painted today to start out the new year I hope there will be many more painting days to follow in '08.

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