Nicholas Simmons Workshop ~ Friday, June 13, 2008 ~ Small Painting

Nancy's Small Painting, Day 5, Quarter Sheet

Day 5 could have been a real downer if there had not been talk about Nicholas Simmons making a return trip to TX. for another workshop. We began by seeing a demo of the Da Vinci liquid acrylics with washes beginning at the top for the sky with some overlap of colors. Nick says put it down and leave it alone. Easier said than done and I may have to have my hands restrained to follow this rule. We painted several trying to perfect our technique. We added a little splatter, a few people and some birds. They were supposed to be sketchy people but he found some arms on my figures. Later in the afternoon, Nick gave a demo with his favorite well worn brush and painted with gesso and later some trees with branches that wrap around with a razor blade. We should try that at home with some supervision looks like to me!
Nick had a drawing for the painting on Friday and lucky Teta had the winning number.

I would like to share a photo resizing site especially for those times when, for example, you're instructed to send in a picture no wider than 100 px. Well, who knows what that is? Here is the site for you at Photosize and the best part, it's free.
My friend, Betty Taylor, from Canvas by Canvas has shared two great tools with me. One from Microsoft for XP called Power Tools when added to your computer you can right click and resize photos immediately. Scroll down to Image Resizer.
The other (and I haven't used it yet but it sounds promising) lets you upload a photo and create large poster size images at Block Posters. Something you could use taking a Nick workshop.

I will post a few of the beach scenes in the slide show below. In some of the images you will see that is masking tape around the edges. I know it looks a little weird in the photos but Nick likes to use it to get a little more buckling action of the paper and all this time we've been told to stretch that paper flat!! Nick doesn't follow all the watercolor rules as you may have figured out with talk of loving blooms and crawl backs.
Hurry back to Texas, Nick and until then we'll catch you online. Thanks again to Artists' Showplace for hosting this workshop.
Mouse over for captions.

Nicholas Simmons Workshop ~ Thursday, June 12, 2008 ~ Poured Paintings

Nick and Bebe - Poured paintings

Here we are in day four of the Nicholas Simmons Workshop at Artists' Showplace in Dallas, TX. and this is a surprise day as Nick was a little secretive about our paintings for Thursday and Friday, wanting it to be a surprise.

Today I worked on my first poured painting on a canyon type design with successive liquid acrylic colors poured in layers using a full sheet of watercolor paper, which is large to me. The power of the Da Vinci fluid acrylics is apparent with the individual washes remaining transparent and not absorbing the previous layer. This is a little more difficult than the finished painting might appear and there were a lost of gasps and “help me’s” heard around the room during the many layering and drying process.

Here is Nick's finished piece.

The one below is my attempt and I haven't placed a "soaring bird" in it as I decided I'd better find a reference instead of "winging" it. One thing I will try and improve next time is that last dark wash as mine was too opaque but this was a new process to me and we were all working hard not to get an unwanted run across the page (canyon) while manipulating the paper and to leave a few edges showing of each wash we did.

Nancy's painting:

I would encourage my readers to visit and join Wet Canvas if you are not a member. Wet Canvas is a forum for artists to gather and discuss their work. Nicholas Simmons has posted some works in progress that I think you’d enjoy looking at the paintings and reading about the techniques he uses. I’ve printed them off for my "Nick Notebook" and enjoy reading about the process. Artists also post photographs that you may use in a painting.

Wet Canvas is a community of artists that began in 1998 and it has a gold mine of information with 119,000 active users. It is the largest bulletin board on the internet focused on the visual artist. Nick is a contributing member of Wet Canvas and most artist's would enjoy reading the articles he has presented on Wet Canvas.
Faded Glory
Watercolor Batik: Koi
Watercolor Life-Sized: Tarantella

Below is a slide show of some of the photos taken during the workshop. Mouse over for captions.

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

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Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Nicholas Simmons ~ Wednesday, June 11, 2008 ~ KoI Finished

Koi


Nick's Koi Painting

I made sure I got to class early today so I wouldn’t miss a beat for the morning workshop discussion and slide show that Nick had prepared for a Photoshop demonstration with his digital projector and laptop. It wasn’t about learning Photoshop but about choosing and combining photographs, designing and composition in paintings. It also helps him in choosing the size of the painting as he believes every painting has its perfect size. Nick takes lots of photographs and mentioned possibly taking 1000 shots on a recent New York trip, one of his favorite places for photography. One thing that was encouraging to the class was his declaration that he was not a computer or Photoshop whiz or guru but he has discovered a lot of his techniques by trial and error. Another reason he likes the projector is the ability to compare different compositions without printing out a lot of photo possibilities.

A feeding frenzy after lunch and it had nothing to do with the koi. A box had arrived with copies of Nick’s new DVD produced by Creative Catalyst and cash and checks were flashed and the box emptied fast. We gathered around the overhead mirror for Nick to demo the next steps in painting one of his famous Koi fish and to explain what we were to do next. The class was full and there was a waiting list and resulted with students being in adjoining room. One of the innovative ladies in the second room brought a baby monitor to set up by the demo mirror so they would be alerted for any updates. A high tech fix for a simple problem and I thought it a tip worth mentioning along with some jokes and questions about blackmail. I took a picture of some of Nick’s brushes all lined up ready for the war. He can wield a mean toothbrush along with a 4” house painter’s brush for some of his techniques. I had to ask for teacher’s help with my toothbrush technique as I was getting a fine splatter in all the wrong places and yes, there is a definite way he splatters. He uses the technique to shadow and model the koi and helps integrate into the background.

Nick finished his Koi, moistened it front and back and placed it under a weighted backing board to sit overnight waiting for the lucky new owner to pick up Thursday. I completed my Koi today and it is so interesting to walk around the class and see all these different fish in various painting stages. It really helps in learning the techniques when others are working on the same project.

Nick would not tell us what we’d be painting for Thursday but just said it will be a new painting with a different technique.

Nancy's Koi

Nicholas Simmons Workshop ~ Tuesday, June 10, 2008 ~ Koi Painting

Nicholas Simmons and Da Vinci liquid acrylics

Nick's Koi ~ A Beginning ~ Stop by later for the finished painting

We learned so much today and had so much fun trying out Nicholas Simmons’ “batik” technique of painting a Koi fish. He prefers working large, but to save time he painted a demo with a ½ sheet (15” x 22”) hot press paper. He drew a contour drawing of one Koi with plants with wide leaves in the background, did some splatter with mask and then the magic started with Nick painting with the Da Vinci fluid acrylics and boldly wielding a spray bottle, and mixing the colors on the paper and not on the palette. He welcomed crawl backs and blooms and made slight color changes. We had a great time walking around and viewing the other students’ work and seeing their colors as we all wanted to paint a Koi like Nick.

If you’d like to see the whole process with about 2 hours of instruction his DVD, Innovative Water Media, from Creative Catalyst is now available. I found my copy in the mailbox as I was leaving the house to go to an art opening on Friday and oh, how I wanted to stay home and watch it but felt fortunate I got to see it all the way through before the workshop began Monday. He gives a good discussion of his materials including his brushes and they run the gamut from a toothbrush to a 4” house painter’s brush. One innovative thing about this DVD is that Nick composed and performed his own original music.

I didn’t finish my painting today as I need to work on my Koi and I will post it later. Artist Showplace has an overhead mirror and a separate table for each of us upstairs in a quite area of the gallery with a microwave and refrigerator nearby and a large sink for cleanup. It’s just a great experience and the participants are so fortunate to be able to take a week off and get a chance to study with this 2007 National Watercolor Society top prize winner.

Other blogs where I post:

· http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

· http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

· http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

· Web site: http://www.nancystandlee.com

· Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often