Purple Onion Painting by Nancy Standlee

NFS
9" x 12" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

This onion painting hangs in my kitchen and in direct sight while I enjoy my morning coffee. It is a wonderful reminder of a trip to Dena Wenmohs ranch and the two workshops I've taken there with Robert Burridge. When I stayed in the Bunkhouse, Dena had colorful onion paintings in the kitchen and I wanted to paint something similar when I returned home. Wonderful memories. February 2010 will find me back at the ranch taking my 7th workshop with Bob and maybe this time I'll get it right.
I decided to post this today as I was thinking onions after making an oil and vinegar salad dressing. To see this delicious recipe and read the story go to the Artist Food Network.

I have been invited to post on these blogs so please check the sites. I'm excited about both of them and their future.

Daily Painters of Texas
This is a unique blend of Texas Artists who will post daily. Canvas by Canvas members who have joined are Barbara Hackney, Cindy Yandell, Karen Foster, Maryann Stephens, and Margie Whittington.

Daily Painters Abstract Gallery
This site has been created to share the works of abstract artists across the world who are committed to their craft and paint daily.

ARLINGTON TEXAS ~ NANCY STANDLEE ~ DAILY PAINTER ~ CONTEMPORARY ~ ACRYLIC ~ STILL LIFE ~ EXPRESSIONIST ~ VEGETABLE PAINTING

Tony Saladino Abstract Acrylic Class

"Choose Your Dream", 20" x 20", Acrylic with some collage on gallery wrapped canvas, 1 1/2" depth (Click on the image to enlarge)

"A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or else what's a heaven for?" Robert Browning
Tony Saladino began our one day abstract acrylic class with these words to remind us that this is a journey and we should not expect to leave in the afternoon with a finished painting, but concentrate on the process and find our personal expression of marks and color. We had an advantage painting in a beautiful studio and grounds in North Richland Hills. Thanks Karen. I've included some photos at the end in a slide show which show the progression of his demo and he used a landscape photo for the initial reference.
Tony uses Purdy house painting brushes from Lowes in sizes 1", 1 1/2", and the 2" being his favorite and he scumbled his color keeping a fairly dry brush. In fact, he didn't wash his brush until about 20 minutes into his demo. A hint: He kept a blank canvas nearby to scumble leftover brush color before picking up new color. He says it's OK to look childlike in expression as it frees us from trying to please others. He urged us to bring all the areas of the painting together at the same time and not finish one area to completion. As his demo progressed he had many layers of color and areas of very thick paint with some of the layers showing through. He feels it lets your personality come through. He continually stressed to us "It's not about the subject but the division of space."


A painting he brought to show us above.
Tony didn't finish his demo as his ideas will change with future viewings. He feels it's finished when he thinks it's stimulating or stimulates a viewer. If you enjoy a good Argentine tango, search the dance floor as you might find Tony or Karen. In fact Karen's studio doubles as a tango dancing space. During the critique, Tony respected each individuals personal marks and inspired each of us to express those that reside deep within.
He was correct that we should not expect to leave the class with a finished painting as I finished the above painting in my studio and had good starts on two others before the day ended. What a great day of painting on June 10. His next critique class will be July 9.

Mouse over the photo for captions.

Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Week Two ~ Collage

11" x 11" watercolor collage on 300 lb. paper.
I enjoyed working on this piece and started out just getting paper down and that included some old postage stamps I'd torn from envelopes. I cut them in two and if you click on the image you might see Cary Grant in the middle left area of the dark black section under the gold (candy wrapper I think). Some of the pieces were from the inside of privacy envelopes. It was fun to experiment. I washed over some gold paint (Liquitex's acrylic Basics value series gold). It works great for some light washes mixed with water or a little medium. At the bottom of the painting I added some "Brommer Sanskrit writing" for interest. Most of the painting was made from watercolor painted pieces of oriental papers and then torn into the desired shapes.

Nancy and Jerry

My copy of one of his favorite books has arrived and I'm in the process of reading it now. You may be lucky and find a copy in a used book store. Many are very expensive online as they are out of print. The book is Emotional Content: How to Create Paintings That Communicate, @ 2003, publisher International Artist. Gerald focuses on identifying, developing and conveying your own message and personal response to a scene or image. It helps the artist make the leap from mastering technique to mastering the message.

P.S.
Friends are saying I couldn't find Cary Grant so I've cropped the high resolution image and here he is. Turn your head sideways and he's between the gold and the purple in the center section. Reminds me of playing "Where's Waldo". "Can you see me now" says Archibald Alec Leach.