Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

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

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Blue Mesa Craw Fish and Sketchbook Skool Klasses by Arlington, Texas Artist Nancy Standlee

 Blue Mesa Menu Item
Craw Fish
Watercolor, 7.5 x 11 on Fabriano 140 lb watercolor paper

Another image to be used on the May Gulf Seafood Festival menu at Blue Mesa Grill. 

Journal page 9, Stillman and Birns, Beta 9x12 

In the blog post HERE I wrote about a recent workshop experience with David Rankin at Kanuga and this is the journal entry about the experience. I've been taking an online 6 week class, Sketchbook Skool hosted by Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene. It is proving to be educational and fun. It's not too late to sign up as the previous classes can be viewed. This is from one of the lessons from Danny Gregory, week one; however, I took some of his suggestions and added my own spin.  

This is in the Stillman & Birn, 9x12 Beta Journal, Page 10,  "The Story of My Life" Watercolor liquid colors, Daffodil yellow background, blue gouache, and ink outlines and white highlights. The story: I sold a painting this week that I couldn't find to mail and searched many hours for it and finally substituted another painting. Here is what I put in my journal:
"Grrr-r. Why is it? I can find Luma Watercolors from 1980 BUT can't find a painting from 2012. I sold it Wednesday and spent 10 hours searching. House is not that big - SO GOAL: Before my 79th birthday in October "Organize Digs"... P.S. Client chose a substitute painting. Will post her name on my refrigerator if painting is ever found. I can still find my refrigerator". dated 4.10.14 
(I received an email from client this morning and she loves the painting below). 

California Dreaming
acrylic and collage, 14x11
Sold to a Virginia art collector

Texas Daily Painter, Watercolor, Pen and Ink sketches,  journal, Stillman & Birn, Beta, acrylic, women, Blue Mesa Grill, menu, illustrations, Blue Mesa Grill illustrations, craw fish, Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, Check Advantage, Etsy, Dreams of the Turtle King, Kanuga watermedia workshops, David Rankin, Kanuga 2014,


Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Blue Mesa Update and Crab Watercolor by Texas Artist Nancy Standlee


Blue Mesa Crab 14014  SOLD
7.5x11"
Fabriano 140 lb cold press

If you follow this blog, you know that I have done some illustration work for the Blue Mesa Restaurant chain menus. In May Blue Mesa will have a special event "Gulf Seafood Festival" and the owner asked for a few more pieces to illustrate some specialty items. I don't know a lot about crabs or craw fish and don't think I've ever eaten one, maybe crab cakes one time in Sedona so some research was needed before putting brush to paper. 
One of the first things I found and practiced was how to draw a crab. http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/1365/1/1/how-to-draw-a-crab.htm

Here is the new menu and it's different and fun and with the spirals new items can be added easily.


 Example of one of the pages and these drinks are some of my favorites to paint.

 Now for some family photos that were taken on Sunday night where 18 members of my family and friends gathered at 5:00 for a special meal and celebration of the new menus out on the patio area. I felt so at home there as this is where I'd retreat to do the drawings and paintings for the menu in the fall.  Another reason this was a special family gathering, my older son was celebrating his 56th birthday and it was the first time we've all been together since his devastating house fire the last of January. We enjoyed holding the new great grand baby, Cash and wearing him out by passing him up one side of the table and down the other.






 My beautiful children, Dana, Eric and Brad


 Dana and Nancy

Recently I illustrated in watercolor a book of beach poetry, Dreams of the Turtle King, that is available on Amazon.  

Torn Paper Collage Technique:
I have written an ArtByte about the process of torn paper collage for the Daily Paintworks site is available with more than 50 images. An ArtByte is a small online tutorial that may be free or it's very affordable. Mine will be very affordable. Here is the web address and browse and download some of the free ones by Carol Marine or another favorite artist such as Julie Ford Oliver that will explain some of the tools she uses in an oil painting technique. There are several very good free ArtBytes that are filled with information. When you get to the Daily Paintworks web page, look under tutorials. Here is my online gallery at Daily Paintworks.


Texas Daily Painter, Watercolor, Pen and Ink sketches,  crab illustration, paintings, small paper painting,   Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest,  Dreams of the Turtle King,   Denise Bossarte, photography, Amazon, Florida, Found Worlds, Blue Mesa, gulf seafood festival,



Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.




Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/
Dreams otTK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreams-of-the-Turtle-King/523637907718244

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Kanuga Watermedia Workshop 2014 with David Rankin and iPad Paper 53 by Texas Artist Nancy Standlee

Kanuga Heron
Watercolor on 140 lb Rough Arches
12x16, unframed
Available on Daily Paintworks

I returned Friday from my first Kanuga Watermedia Workshop in Hendersonville, NC, near Asheville. I chose to study with David Rankin who taught the iPad app, Paper 53 in the morning and watercolor in the afternoon.
David and Nancy

Lodging choices were the Inn or cabins in the woods nearby. For previous students, many stayed with their reunion groups in the cabins. I loved my room on the 3rd floor on the Inn and it was convenient to the cafeteria when reveille sounded three times a day announcing time for another delicious meal. After class the hospitality room was open and after dinner one of the instructors gave a program on their work. There were 12 students in our class and we met in the bottom floor of Gouch Hall and this is the view when we stepped outside. 


This is a view of the Inn below.
David has a website at DavidRankinWatercolors.com, and a website for his workshops at at DavidRankinWatercolorWorkshops.com, and if you are a Facebook fan he has tutorial watercolor album and he posted a bird a day drawn on the iPad in 2013 and to follow him just LIKE his page. Here is one of the pages, https://www.facebook.com/DavidRankinWatercolors?fref=ts and this one, https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Rankin-Watercolors/114303268613100  go to the photos and then albums to see his work.

Here is the iPad sketch that the class worked with before we painted the watercolor.  I really enjoyed working and learning on this app.
I haven't painted in watercolor in quite some time with the exception of journal work, the illustrations for Dreams of the Turtle King and the illustrations for the Blue Mesa Grill Menu but now I have signed up for another Kanuga artist, Richard Stephens workshop that will be held in Dallas, at the Artists Showcase Gallery. 

Still love my collage work and I have written an ArtByte about the process of torn paper collage for the Daily Paintworks site with 50 images. An ArtByte is a small online tutorial that may be free or it's very affordable. Mine will be very affordable. Here is the web address and browse and download some of the free ones by Carol Marine or another favorite artist such as Julie Ford Oliver that will explain some of the tools she uses in an oil painting technique. There are several very good free ArtBytes that are filled with information. When you get to the Daily Paintworks web page, look under tutorials. Here is my online gallery at Daily Paintworks.

Texas Daily Painter, Watercolor, Pen and Ink sketches, great blue heron painting, Kanuga Watermedia workshop, David Rankin, Richard Stephens, small paper painting, poetry book, poems, beach poems, collage, ArtByte, Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest,  Dreams of the Turtle King,  Denise Bossarte, photography, Amazon, Florida, Found Worlds, Blue Mesa Grill, Artist Showcase, Richardson, TX. 


Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.




Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/