Carol Nelson Workshop ~ Metals and Mixed Media ~ Texas Daily Painter Nancy Standlee

"A Hole in One"
7" x 3 1/2" Mixed Media on MDF board

I loaded up with Google Maps and my GPS (Sugar Foot) and made it to Denver for the Carol Nelson Workshop on Friday and Saturday. (See the two previous posts on this blog.) She is a very kind and generous instructor and she had to keep reminding me about restraint and simple themes when she was presented with something like the above.

Carol: "Don't incorporate all the techniques you've learned in one piece". (said with a very kind voice.)
Nancy: "OK..Carol." then I'd proceed to do just that in this small piece. I brought my hammer and I was determined to use it and did by putting 3 copper nails at the top and if you use a hammer and nails then you first get to use Carol's drill to drill baby holes to get the nails started. I find it impossible to see a drill on a table without wanting to "drill" something.
We were supposed to dip the nails in the Yes glue before nailing and I forgot this step. I left my nails partially extended so I could add a little more bling and curly-Q's with some copper wire. And I did get a lot of techniques in this one piece with some Tyvek at the top with a HOLE in it (too much heat), some burlap for texture, and Gold Leaf accents. Does anyone have a spare tassel I can hang from the center?

Carol referred to these small studies as bozzettos, an Italian term for a small scale model in preparation for a larger work. See Robert Genn article from The Painter's Keys.
Oh, I love this word "Bozzetto". These are just small studies to get us warmed up and Robert Burridge would refer to them as his "little gems" and they help teach him how to paint and get warmed up for the day of painting. Myrna Wacknov in her Creativity Journey blog has several posts on the bozzetto.

Tomorrow I'll post our assignment piece. Carol thought we might be a little scattered and gave us some specific guidelines to follow. I can do that but I can't help saying.... from a Bobette and a Bozzettoist.

Please visit my web site and comment on my blog:

BLOG.............Nancy Standlee Art Blog

WEB SITE ........Nancy Standlee

WEB SITE ........Canvas By Canvas

ARLINGTON TEXAS ~ ARTIST NANCY STANDLEE ~ DAILY PAINTER ~
CONTEMPORARY ~ WATERCOLOR ~ ACRYLIC ~ COLLAGE ~ GOUACHE
ABSTRACT ~ EXPRESSIONIST ~ ART FOR SALE ~ FIGURATIVE ~ MIXED MEDIA


Contact NancyStandlee@sbcglobal.net

Roosters ~ Sister Chicks ~ Iron Horse Inn ~ Granbury, TX

Rooster #1 (there's more on the way)
9" x 11" Watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Six "sister chicks" of Canvas by Canvas have been on a weekend painting retreat at the Iron Horse Inn in Granbury. At one of the last paint outs at the Lake House I took lots of good "fowl" pictures and decided this was the time to experiment. It was a cold, rainy time but Cindy, Karen, Maryann, Barbara, Connie and I did not care what the weather was about once we got unloaded and set up in Theresa's and Paul's Artistic retreat studio. Theresa is Irish and it was fun to hear the owners talk about their travels and Theresa is also a fellow blogger. We enjoyed wonderful breakfasts and met a young couple, Dr. Jason Moore and his wife, Amanda, who are doctors. See their photo in the slide show below and chickens, and more chickens. We ate at Babe's Chicken on Friday evening and there were chickens in the rafters and we were supposed to be celebrating the two members' (who didn't come) birthdays. But that has never bothered us with a birthday celebration so we had our very own proxy birthday girl, Maryann to do the chicken dance and blow out the candle. We had great food at Babe's and a whole bunch of fun. Betty and Margie sorry you missed your birthday celebrations.

Art Journal Page 73
Not one of my better days with clear beverages and a tooth crown, and a "procedure", a trip to Strawn to eat at Mary's Cafe where she serves chicken fried steaks that hang off large white platters with lots of white gravy, the brick smoke stack at Thurber. I got a note from Fealing Lin saying that she's going to be having a workshop in Dallas soon. I painted with her in a Tuscany workshop with Ted Nuttall. You will enjoy looking at Fealing's and Ted's watercolors on their sites. I needed a new travel brush.

Art Journal Page 74
A blog joke about early bloggers, a joke about big arms and email checking, (I relate to both of them), Myrna mentioned the Precise Pen in a post and I also like that pen for a pen sketch before adding some watercolor and it gives some diluted lines and interesting color. I have the "smaller laptop" bug, and Granbury packing taking some journaling supplies and next post I'll show some slides from the Tony Saladino critique.
Myrna also wrote a nice tribute to artist Al Zerries.

Mouse over for the slide show captions.

Mamma Mia! ~ Arte Y Pico Award ~ IHOP ~ Journal

"Mamma Mia!"
7 1/2" x 5 1/2" Acrylic on paper

I had to name this Cloudcroft workshop painting, Mamma Mia! after attending the opening day movie with several Canvas by Canvas members.
Betty, Karen, Cindy
Maryann, Nancy, Cindy C
Yes, we were in the movie when Karen saw a friend to take our photo. I felt decadent after meeting for an early morning breakfast at IHOP and getting into a movie before noon. We were brought back to reality after a trip to Sam's in Texas heat to purchase food for our opening reception tonight at the Upstairs Gallery from 5-8. See previous post. GREAT movie and day.
At the IHOP and I haven't been there in years but I'm going back - good food and good service in Arlington.

Myrna Wacknov has awarded my blog the Arte y Pico award. Arte y Pico is a blog from Uruguay, whose blogger has come up with this award. The rules are to pass the award on to five other artists' blogs that are awesome. The award was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents. Thank you, Myrna, for giving me the award and you inspire me.

Here are the rules in more detail:

First, the rules:
Pick FIVE blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award which is here.

My 5 picks:

1. Nicholas Simmons Blog - A great painter, friend and blogger.

2. Suzanne McDermott - She built her own studio and interesting reading.

3. Sharilyn Miller - A very talented jewelry designer and author.

4. Doudy Sketche - Who shares a challenge of tree painting in watercolor.

5. Canvas by Canvas Art Blog - Just a little nepotism on this one. I belong to this collaborative group of artists.

I have been trying to draw/sketch/paint in my journal each day (maybe just highlight one incident) and I will post these entries when I have a 9x12 page full in my Canson All-media book. I found some old journals with this method and I loved reading them so maybe I'll do it for a month and quit again, but I am trying.

Here I was packing for the Robert Burridge workshop in Cloudcroft and will always have to include what I've been eating or cooking!

Willie Nelson Watercolor Portrait

Willie Portrait Watercolor on 200 lb. paper
22" x 22"
I had lots of critique help from my Canvas by Canvas friends, Maryann, Cindy Y, Betty, and Connie, today at the Upstairs Gallery. We painted on personal projects and really didn't get on a roll until after our wonderful lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. a new restaurant in Arlington. We all ate a good healthy lunch with fresh salad if you could keep from finishing it off with chocolate brownies and ice cream and we all failed.
I painted Willie on a 50/50% water and matte medium coated watercolor paper. I see several things that need to be tweaked but I will need to live with it for awhile.
I received the release from the photographer to paint it in January 2007 but I'm just now getting around to painting it and I think I've been encouraged by of the experimental methods discussed and demonstrated in the Myrna Wacknov workshop. Let me know if you see places that need to be changed.
Oh, yes, why not listen to Always on My Mind. Songs and singers don't get any better than this.

Art Splash on the Square ~ Graham, Texas ~ Reception and Awards

See the post on May 10 to see our Canvas by Canvas acrylic painting entries for the National Juried exhibit in Graham. I was in the Myrna Wacknov workshop in Cedar Hill until about 3:00 Friday, did a quick load up, and headed to Graham to meet Canvas by Canvas artists, Cindy Yandell, Karen Foster, and Barbara Hackney for the awards and reception at 6:00 and a catered dinner at 7:00 p.m. We met some wonderful artists and saw some great work and renewed some friendships from our first Graham visit. We heard there were nearly 400 entries, 93 were in the show and approximately 10 of those were sculpture so CBC is feeling proud to be in the show. If you'd like to see all the entries they are posted on the Art Splash site.
We were invited to spend the night in Cindy's relatives bunkhouse in Caddo about 60 miles away. What a treat to be out in the country and it was dark and very quiet and I watched where I stepped as this was the scene of the rattlesnake roundup that I'd blogged about earlier. We had our own private bunk and bathroom - the place was huge. I had good intentions of getting my photo made in Jim's new tractor but forgot to do so but I had the gorilla pod still in the car from the workshop and Saturday morning I did get a group shot with it for the slide show seen below. We returned to Graham on Saturday to enjoy more of the festivities and to visit with our Graham friends, eat in the Magnolia Tea Room again, and see how our friend, Vickie, was dressed. She has a shop in town, J Dolittle and Co. and some $$ were spent at her booth. We're looking forward to another good visit when we come to pick up our paintings.. or we hope maybe just one painting and maybe two will sell?
In the slide show, watch for the photo of an art drawing manikin and it is strange as the hands and feet are on the wrong sides. Mouse over for captions.

Myrna Wacknov Workshop ~ Cedar Hill TX

Watercolor on gesso surface watercolor paper (crooked photo, straight lines) Nancy's 2nd painting
Profile View of Nancy in the HAT * See note below

I decided to take a workshop with Myrna Wacknov after seeing her article, "Face Forward" in the October 2007 issue of Watercolor Magic. I didn't know when or where but I began a writing campaign and this is the week! There are 7 Texas students (some from Lubbock and Houston) taking a 5 day workshop at a new facility in Cedar Hill and Visual Expressions has a gallery and classrooms about 25 miles from Arlington. There is plenty of one on one instruction from 9:30 to 4:30 and more time for art talk when we walk about 50 steps to a restaurant to enjoy a leisurely lunch. On Myrna's blog she issues challenges to her readers about experimenting and learning more about drawing and painting. These past few days have found us doing the same by working on textured grounds of matte medium and gessoed surfaces and watching Myrna paint while discussing some of her concepts. Our workshop challenge has been to paint portraits: a frontal view, a side view, and one of a child with a strong emphasis on drawing. I've never wanted to paint a profile before, always thought they were a little tacky unless the person had a pretty cute nose but her requirement was extreme profile, no hint of the other eye, and a smooth face so I chose to paint my old, smooth face looking sideways with a good view of the snozzle. I painted watercolor on a gesso coated watercolor paper and from this experience I probably will be caught staring at people's profiles for awhile to see the relationships of noses, chins, lips and eyes.
Myrna brought some Tygerrag paper all the way from California for us to use for our child's painting that we may begin on Thursday. She's shown us her method of enlarging and getting the drawing on the paper and demonstrated Dr. Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolors, shared books, articles, and photos. It has been a great Myrna challenge and we are all enjoying this unique opportunity. Betty Taylor, a Canvas by Canvas member, is taking the class also.

Myrna giving a demo:


Myrna's Demo Painting:



Nancy's first portrait (self) using 50/50 Matte Medium and Water coated paper - this is enough to keep the grandkids at bay.... It's a little scary even to me but the advantage of using these textured papers is that the color lifts so easily and you can work and rework or recover with more gesso and try painting your neighbor. There is just something about looking at portraits that is so interesting to me. I will post a slide slow later of some of the work done in the class by the other students.
*I brought my "cowgirl hat" to class yesterday for Betty to take some side views for me to paint and I've had a request to bring it back to class on Thursday for more photos with others wearing the hat so we may have a new series of Myrna students wearing the "Cowgirl Hat".

Acrylic Abstract

"Glacial Terrain"
24" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas, 1 3/8" depth gallery wrap, black edges

This is the third of four abstract paintings I've completed for the Upstairs Gallery Show and delivered them Wednesday. You are invited to their annual show and sale of art by the students of The Upstairs Gallery, and the show will be up until May 27, 2008. Several friends mentioned the look of ice and translucency the painting had so that is how the title derived. One comment at the opening reception when viewing one of the abstracts, "Oh, you've changed your style?"....Nope just added another as I'm still wanting to try a lot of painting styles I find. Another said "Whatever your style, I can pick your paintings out" and I don't see how yet but I found the statement interesting.
Other abstracts can be found on my web site which is always under construction.
Listening to conversations (think cell phone in the grocery store), lyrics and friends' suggestions all can contribute to your arsenal of song titles. I jotted one down last week from the grocery store when I heard a woman telling a man, "I'm not paying $5.00 for something like that." I wanted to turn around and see what she thought was overpriced but instead just took out my journal and pen and make a quick note. Since I'm now a GPS owner, I'm waiting for my painting titled "Recalculating". There will be one.
Happy Mother's Day to all and enjoy this special time set aside to honor mothers, living and dead. It's a time to acknowledge your mothers contribution in your life and I suggested to my children, they spend the day with their spouses, girl friends, boy friends or significant other and not be put on a guilt trip to visit, but maybe just call - certainly not going out to eat as the National Restaurant Association says this is the most popular day of the year to eat out. That means to me - stay home. Don't come over today but call me as we have several family graduation events for the last of May when we can enjoy each other's company. I know you love me. It's o.k. We'll celebrate then. Google the history of Mother's Day and it's an eye opener. It began as "Mothering Sunday", then a Mother's Day for Peace and now it's a highly commercialized holiday with flowers, cards and gifts. Maybe by next year I can have my kitchen back in the cooking mode and I can invite my children to dinner.
At present, I have numerous (think maybe hundreds) of watercolor paint tubes out on the table preparing my palette for the Myrna Wacknov workshop tomorrow at the Visual Expressions Gallery and School. Myrna has addressed the problem of too many palettes with this post and it's for me:
"I have too many palettes and most of them have been loaded with paint! In an effort to use up some of the paint and not be wasteful, I started painting sheets of watercolor with random wet into wet washes. I would take these watercolor starts to model sessions and then I would draw the model on the paper with a Japanese brush pen that takes ink cartridges and finish the painting with pastels. It was amazing how these random colors worked so well every time! I love the look of the watercolor peeking through the pastel and part of the ink drawing showing here and there. It's a fun process. Give it a try."
As I am thinking watercolor after making the abstract jump, I've discovered a wonderful watercolor video of about 15 minutes from Jim Chapman that you can watch. If you'd like to paint along go find your watercolor paints in colors: cadmium yellow, raw sienna, raw umber, burnt umber, cadmium red light, red-purple, purple, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, peacock blue, viridian, yellow, black, and your Aquabee sketch pad and brush (now your kitchen table is looking like mine). He sounds Texan but he's a Georgia boy (and he can paint and talk at the same time) and he has a fresh, loose sketch approach to a still life set up of a cowboy hat, bottles and a quilt. He leaves specks of white which I like and some art instructors say nay, nay and you do it your way. Also read his art columns about taking workshops and how to expose yourself to better media coverage.
The email from last evening brought excellent information and a lot of it about online marketing can be found in the recent post from the Art Group DFW blog. The ArtGroupsDFW News Blog is devoted to news of art events in the North Texas Area and is updated frequently and you can subscribe.
Enjoy your day and thanks to all the Mom's who have directed our paths.

Abstract Acrylic ~ Pasodoble ~ Upstairs Gallery

"Pasodoble"
24" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas, 1 3/8" depth gallery wrap, black edges

This is the second of four abstract paintings I've completed for the Upstairs Gallery Show and delivered them Wednesday. You are invited to their annual opening reception show and sale of art by the students of The Upstairs Gallery, May 10 from 5-8 pm. The show will be up until May 27, 2008. My friend and Canvas by Canvas member, Connie, emailed after seeing this painting and suggested the title as she was watching "Dancing with the Stars" and this painting reminded her of the word, Pasodoble. I don't watch the show but like the word.
I got an email from Creative Catalyst this morning and went to their site to see if the Nicholas Simmons art dvd was available yet. No, but some good news they are placing some of their art instruction dvd's in retail stores.
On their site you will find a wide selection of carefully edited and content rich art instructional video DVD workshops conducted by the nation's finest artist-instructors.
While on the site, I saw a Judy Morris checklist for success that I thought artists would like to review.
Today I will begin packing art suppliesfor the Myrna Wacknov workshop at the Visual Expressions Gallery in Cedar Hill. I'm so glad I can commute and not be trying out all the suitcases in my garage. She got 2008 off to a great start and a great honor - read about it here and see her creative portrait.
I became a fan after reading the October 2007, Watercolor Magic article, "Face Forward" and she included a lesson on Photoshop about Capturing Expression Through Photoshop. You can read about these steps here. I started writing her fan letters and contacted a local gallery that might sponsor a workshop. Myrna started a blog and ran a contest for one of her drawings for getting blog subscribers. I have 2 drawings that I cherish and she has progressed with more subscriptions and she shares freely with her drawing and painting knowledge. I've never gone to art school (but have taken my share of workshops) so I appreciate any technical help with photo manipulation in drawing preparation. Now I see today she's posted something from Sue Archer about drawing being the heart of art. Oh, Myrna, what am I going to do with you. I see you have upgraded to Photoshop Elements 6 and I only have 5 and that probably means PE now includes some cool new tool I can't live without, but I've got the brushes you suggested. One salient point from her blogs I have to repeat from the Feb. 19 post.
"The other thing I noticed in myself was how quickly I want to give up and tell myself this isn't for me because I'm not any good at it. We don't give ourselves very much time to succeed, do we?"
The artists I know are all pretty guilty of that one..just throw in the towel if their work doesn't look like a piece of art that an experienced artist produces that may have produced 500 pieces before - mea culpa - just some ground work in case I produce more turkeys next week. (Don't ever change colors on these posts if you use a black background because you have no idea what the original color was..If you change to white then you can't see it in your edit post.) Makes me want to throw in the towel!!

Joe Fettingis Watercolor Workshop ~ Day 3 ~ SWA Signature ~ Jonas Gerard Southlake

Jonas Gerard at the Southlake Art in the Square

All I've wanted to do is finish my horse from the Joe Fettingis workshop and give my Cowgirl painting some finishing touches but on Thursday, Day 3 of the workshop, the SWA juried art show reception was held at the Central Library at 6:00. I had the honor of receiving my signature status which is given when your work has been accepted into 5 juried shows and you can rightfully add SWA after your signature on your paintings. Watch for those signatures signed with NWS and AWS... or TWSA those are the biggies.
Friday was spent unpacking and stumbling around not knowing which "to-do" list to tackle first and decided what's the use and started gathering up my Myrna Wacknov folder for a May workshop. More on that a little later.
Saturday was pickup day for the PCPC show where I had entered the The Fifth Day.
I picked up a CBC member, Maryann, and we headed for the Southlake Town Square to see the Art in the Square show and we're both so glad we did. We saw wonderful large canvases with lots of bold color and met some interesting artists and talked about art and display and the benefits of good weather. I will list some of the artists we visited with and give their web sites a visit.
Jonas Gerard, our first stop, large colorful abstracts, great bio and please watch his video. I want to try painting like this - so free.
Jeremy Hansen, from Nebraska and wow did we love his abstracts
Anne Heinrichs, from Austin, a Mixed Media Collage artist and I want to take one of her workshops tomorrow!!! I've already emailed her and asked when and where.
Nora Larimer, watercolor and tile artist, beautiful fish and koi paintings
Meredith Kuntzsch, a pastel artist
Jerald Peterson, paintings of San Miguel, lived there before moving to OK.
Niki Gulley, Dallas will be at Cottonwood Art Festival next weekend
Michael McKee, pastel and you have to look at his fabulous colors
Dennis Rhoades, pastel artist. Maryann had seen his work at another show and is working on getting a pastel workshop together with me saying, no, no...I don't have room for more supplies and I'm not taking up pastels..we'll see. Dennis was telling Maryann about selling a pastel set of paints he was getting together and how easy it would be..oh, well.
I hope to get to finish my workshop paintings this week and in the slide show below you can view some other artists and their work at the workshop. Joe, we want you to return and give us a four day workshop - the sooner the better. Mouse over for captions.
My friend, Maryann and I attended The 23rd Texas and Neighbors Regional Art Exhibition today in Irving. There were about 400 entries with 77 paintings chosen for the show. All show paintings may be viewed in color at www.irvingart.org.

Trash Talking ~ Tagged ~ Teesie's Attic

Trash Talking NFS
20" x 20" Acrylic on canvas
The idea of women together and "trash-talking" is a natural, especially in my special group of friends, Canvas by Canvas. Several of them asked for copies of this painting and at our Christmas party/dinner I'd finally gotten around to having a few 11 x 14 prints made for them and then decided to post the original. I used rubber stamps for the words and highlighted King as "talk is king" when we are in groups.
Myrna Wacknov in her blog post "I've Been Tagged" shares how she was tagged and then she tagged me. I found Myrna by her article Face Forward in the Watercolor Magic, October 07 issue. I loved what she was doing and wrote her a fan letter and I'm the owner of 2 of her drawings. She issues painting and drawing challenges and is a very encouraging and experimental force.
5 Things People Don't Know About Me:
1. I've had several "careers", housewife and mom, divorced wife and mom, Home Economics teacher, Special Ed Teacher, elementary school librarian, batik fabric designer. I took batik workshops at Vassar 2 summers with Morag Benepe and painted silk at Arrowmont. I've demonstrated Krups appliances and Cuisinarts at department stores, delivered vans full of weekly home sale brochures (only thing needed was a large vehicle and a good back) in Virginia to support my batik habit and belonged to a craft cooperative in Yorktown, Va.
2. I desire to be the epitome of organization and I'm working on it but I'm hampered by space limitations, my desire to keep everything I ever touch and I've never seen an art supply I didn't think I had to have. I do have all of my art photos organized for the New Year.
3. This year I was the dark horse in a weight loss campaign with my painting group and won some money for more art supplies and workshops. It is hard to believe that some mean, teasing brothers of my high school friends used to refer to me as "bird legs". I plan to jump back on the program as most of you do after the first of the year.
4. I've been interested in decorating surfaces for many years. As a child, I was whining that I wanted hair on my bald headed doll so my Daddy took the scissors to our collie dog, and with a few deft snips got enough hair to glue on my doll's scalp. I don't remember it being a mess or how it looked. I remember the action and "Old Billie Dog" standing patiently while we borrowed a few strands.
5. I've done my share of adding non-decomposing items to American's landfills. I've always loved sewing, and during the seventies men were wearing polyester leisure suits with bright floral poly shirts. Because of finances and the height factor, my husband was 6'8", I made his 100% polyester leisure suits. I think about those being unearthed in 200 years, still crease free and without any stains. The sewing needles would skip about every 3rd stitch and the pants legs were slopped to the back so they would nearly touch the ground and hard as heck to hem. Truly a fashion statement when the guys had sideburns. I'm glad jeans are back in style.
I'm going to TAG:
1. Nicholas Simmons has a new blog. http://nicholassimmons.blogspot.com
He won the 1st prize in the National Watercolor Society's 87th annual exhibition. He will also be in Dallas for a workshop this year and yes, I have signed up.
2. Joyce Washor has a new blog. http://joycewashorsdailypaintings.blogspot.com
Joyce has a great article in Watercolor, Winter 2008, Still Lifes on a Small Scale, about creating tiny paintings with big impact. I was inspired to try a set up with some onions and strawberries last night - my 5" painting is not so delicate and will probably hit it with gauche or acrylic. I've also ordered her book, "Big Art, Small Canvas".
3. Laura at http://laurelines.typepad.com
Very interesting blog about her travels and her art sketch journals with beautiful drawings.
4. Katherine Tyrrell at http://makingamark.blogspot.com
Katherine is a sharer of information on art. She has a wonderful informative blog that you want to sit down and read every word.
5. Mitchell (Betty) Taylor at http://mitchell-taylor.blogspot.com
I have to show a little nepotism here and keep some of my links within the CBC family. Betty is our efficient web mistress and between that, travels and painting, she is a busy lady. You will read about her Christmas trip soon.
6. Ok, I have to have one more...Edward B. Gordon http://edwardbgordon.blogspot.com He is a daily painter from Berlin.

Teesie's Attic
Located in the Arlington Highlands Mall in Arlington, is having a grand opening of their new store, December 20 and 22, and will have on display some of the paintings of Canvas by Canvas. This is a trendy, upscale store that carries modern brands not available in Arlington before. More to come about this event.

Bungalow Row ~ Watercolor Painting

$125.00
15 x 22 Workshop Painting Watercolor on 140# Arches
This was done in a workshop last year with a large brush with no image to reference. I was disappointed that I hadn't produced a "passable painting" during the time and this was the best effort and I've given up with the instructor's suggestions. I decided to post it after painting in watercolor again. I'm like a fickle lover who loves the one they are with. When I've been taking a watercolor class I'm all about watercolor and so it goes for acrylic or a sketching/journaling class.
If you happen to be in a watercolor mode this week and would like some inspiration, I've discovered Jim Chapman's site, Watercolor Sketch.
He has a video under Art Instruction and I now want to set up my "cowboy" hat and a bottle of wine and try painting it. He has some good writing articles on his Art Columns. Maybe I'll add a wine glass to try my ellipses after Myrna's drawing challenge this week. I just copied my ellipses from Keys to Drawing by Dodson and didn't have or take the time to do a set up. (See Amazon link on the side).
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I got to spend some time with family and brushed up my rusty cooking skills with dressing, hot rolls, and pecan pies. The Texas weather has been varied with 80's one day and then our first cold front came in with sleet and snow flurries and it will probably hit 70 again before the weekend. I'm put painting on hold while I try to organize some files of painting ideas and paintings done. I just took a photo of the files littering my kitchen table and floor but I don't want to share that sad site until I get it straight. The painting hold won't be long now that watercolor is my new love for the week.

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

Drawing Challenge ~ Journal Entry ~ Art Blog

6 x 8 Aquabee Sketchbook using black and brown ElegantWriter pens

O.K. I give. I had to stop what I was doing yesterday (packing my art supplies for the Arne Westerman workshop) and try out Myrna's Friday challenge. Now I see she has a "shape" painting posted and I want to do that. I don't have any Tygerag and don't even know what it is. Is it like Yupo? She states she has to let it dry flat so the paint doesn't run all over...sounds a little like Yupo. I want to try more drawings like this using the water pen to dissolve the ink. I did have to come in with some White-out (it was handy) along the mouth area when I developed a distinct whisker look. I kept wanting to paint instead of draw so I need to work on that.

Ochre Tint Floral ~ Plum Vase ~ Myrna ~ Da Vinci ~ Sovek

9 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas Board
I found this painting that I had started some time ago and thought I'd change a few marks in the foreground and now after several hours it doesn't look anything like the original.

I received my reward from Myrna for sending her 5 blog subscribers – a 5 x 7 drawing beautifully matted to an 11 x 14 size. Thanks, Myrna. I love my drawing.

While looking through some art magazines, I found an October, 2005, Artist Sketchbook with an article, The Key to the City about an artist I really liked – Charles Sovek. I went to his web site, and sadly discovered he had passed away in June. I ordered three of his used books from Amazon and have written his family about the purchase of others on his site. I got a response from Peggy Sovek saying the web site would be running again November 8, 2007. There are lots of his paintings on his site to enjoy.

Myrna posted about a new artist she found, Sarkis Antikajian, and while reading about him and his work, I found that Charles Sovek is a contemporary artist that had inspired him with his small format paintings so guess it’s a small world. I’ll have to write Sarkis and ask if he’s ever taken a workshop with him. That was my intention when I went to Mr. Sovek’s web page is to find out if, when and where about his workshops. I looked at his paintings and then tried to paint a small format painting, Vail Mud Season but I feel I failed miserably. I wanted to ask him a question about acrylics and illustration board. In the article it stated he painted acrylics on illustration board and then the next question I’d have would be about the weight and did he prepare the surface with gesso or begin painting directly. I would recommend you visit Mr. Sovek’s site to view hundreds of paintings and see the dozens of painting lessons there. He made it so convenient to have posted all of his magazine articles on his site and you can download the articles and painting lessons. Thank you, Mr. Sovek. I would have liked to watch you paint and take a workshop from you.

Today I received an email telling me about Da Vinci's Last Supper going online and high tech with a high resolution image of 16-billion-pixels. Start here with the Kim Komando show and go here http://www.haltadefinizione.com/en/

Technorati has posted blogs that are discussing this.

And read more on Wikipedia about Da Vinci.

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Lady with Roses ~ New Toy ~ Art Blog ~ Acrylic

5" x 7" Acrylic on canvas panel
This was started on our CBC trip to Port Bolivar in September and it has been revamped several times. I put the finishing touches on it on Monday while painting at the Upstairs Gallery. I thought I needed to put a clothed figure on the blog between some nudes and I have added features to this face.
I ask a lot of questions in workshops and just from friends in general. Several times in workshops I've been approached with "Get Nancy to ask. She will" - if someone is a little shy. Yesterday, I wanted to know how Myrna got the images she used for her 1st place winner and she replied with photos of her new toy, the Gorilla Pod. I got on the telephone and found them at Arlington Camera and Best Buy. So thanks, Myrna for sharing the technique but the small Gorilla Pod at Best Buy wouldn't hold up my Panasonic digital (I love this camera for it's anti-shake/image stabilization feature and small size to fit in my purse) as it has the tripod attachment at one end instead of in the middle. I purchased a Platinum Plus by Sunpak, the FlexPod Pro, and it's made for a digital SLR which mine is not but my camera is not listing at the moment. (See the Amazon link on the right for a detailed explanation.) I left it on the couch looking like a big spacey bug ready to pounce on me the next time I made my way to the kitchen. Now I can't wait to get cute (no need for scary Halloween photos) this morning and take some photos and later paint a self portrait series like Myrna or maybe just one small one. And prepare for a very important event tonight. Stay tuned.
Now, Myrna, was that a full size sheet of watercolor paper? What size is the portrait you did today?

Waiting for a victim..

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Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Figures ~ Acrylic Painting ~ I WON ~

Lady on Orange Stool, Acrylic on Canvas panel 6" x 8" $48.00


Man on Violet Stool, Acrylic on Canvas Panel, 8" x 8" $64.00

These two paintings were painted at the Robert Burridge Workshop in Mendocino, California. See previous posts during October 1 - 5, 2007. They are repeated here with the price and size information included. We drew and painted the undraped figure for 4 days and I took a lot of artistic license with the models.
Hurray! Hooray! Hurrah! I've won a Myrna Wacknov drawing because 5 of the people I've recommended have signed up for her blog. She wants to build a blog base and I took up the gauntlet. It will be fun to see what happens in this little drawing/painting community with encouragements all around. Last weeks challenge was a continuous line drawing (no crossovers, etc.) that will post Friday. That was hard and I know I don't want to be a wire sculptress. I may try to incorporate the drawing into a painting. To subscribe to her Creativity Journal blog, on the right hand side after the "About me" profile is a subscribe blank to type in your email address and she will not share your address. If you sign up, email her(myrnawack@prodigy.net) and tell her Nancy sent you. I'm working on my 2nd Myrna drawing!
The Sketchbook bugaboo.
Thanks to the influence of Myrna and my recent workshops, I'm trying again to carry - no make that draw in - my sketchbooks. I carry them everywhere now. I've put a small Moleskin (3 1/2 x 5 1/2) in my purse, filled one of my Mexican bags to leave in the car, with an Aquabee 6 x 9 with all the other supplies, small palette, water, brushes. (Most of these items can be purchased through Dick Blick and you can click on the icon on the right side of my blog to look for these sketchbooks.) This summer I even purchased a special folding chair and table to carry with me to stop and paint a scene somewhere. I never slowed down long enough to take the chair out much less sketch a scene and most of the time I was scurrying to find some air conditioning. I have a small Borders journal type that I keep by my kitchen chair to cut out pictures and glue in and make a fast little drawing about an ad or an interesting photo...like faces of Barry Corbin or Willie Nelson or girls with flowers in their hair. I have several 9 x 12 Canson all media sketchbooks I take on trips and glue in mementos, draw and paint in. When on travel, before blogging, I'd go back to the "dwelling" and work in my journal...now it's take your laptop and blog. So with all that said, I have a new resolve to try and sketch in my journal more and we'll all meet at Myrna's for sharing and encouragement.
She recommends a book to help us, Experimental Drawing, and you can read about it by clicking on my Amazon link on the right.
Also, a big CONGRATULATIONS to Myrna for her wins with the San Diego Watercolor Society and the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society Annual.
To read about it: http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/2007/10/1st-place-award.html

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Steve Rogers Workshop ~ Day 3, Thursday ~ Nancy Standlee Art Blog

SEE THE SLIDE SHOW AT THE END OF THIS POST:
We had fun painting today in the SWA workshop with Steve Rogers and he was so good to go around the room and check each painter’s progress. He caught heck when our side of the room heard his comment across the room about a person’s work being “superb”… because we hadn’t heard that term of praise on our side of the room. The day ended with a good critique and I took photos of some of the students’ work who wanted to participate.
Disclaimer: The photos are taken through an overhead mirror (not the clearest) causing a reversed image and the images are skewed AND the paintings are in different stages of completion or WIP, works in progress. Most have a white matt around them but I think you’ll get a good idea of what the workshop was about and the students’ produced some good work. I would have never tackled this boat unless Steve had said, “We’re doing boats and reflections.” One of my paintings photo was taken at Port Bolivar, Texas and the other one was in the Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, California. On the Noyo Harbor boat, the coats were not that colorful, nor the trees and the painting is not finished.
If anyone has a photo of Trini’s painting please email it to me as I was admiring it so much I failed to get a photo of it. Sorry, Trini. SWA members check out the Artist Food Network Blog below and send us a painting and a recipe in a email to post on the web site. Also SWA if any of you join the Myrna Wacknov blog let me know as I might be eligible for one of her drawings.
Margo, has been a top notch workshop chairman who tends to our needs. She gets our lunches delivered from Pak-A-Pocket and the lunch has a pita pocket sandwich, drink, chips, fruit or cookie, for $5.00 delivered. We just grab a sack and go clear off an area and eat. So very convenient when time is short and you can see your painting waiting for you. Margo presented Steve a SWA tee shirt and I hope he wears it in Delaware next week. Maybe someone up there will blog their paintings from the workshop. Steve, come back to Texas any time.
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• http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/
• http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com/
• http://myspace.com/nancystandlee
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• Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Steve Rogers Workshop ~ Wednesday, Day 2 ~ Fort Worth, Texas ~ Myrna Wacknov

SEE SLIDE SHOW IN SEPARATE POST BELOW.
It definitely feels strange to be out on the Interstate by 8:15 a.m. fighting the traffic and today was not typical Texas weather at all. It was more like Seattle – cool, misty and a little foggy but any day is a good day when you’re on your way to a workshop. This is Day 2 of the Steve Rogers Workshop. Today Steve gave us his spin on color and complements and the demo was on painting reflections in water. He suggested we might want to lightly draw in our reflections and practice on a piece of scrap paper before actually painting on our work. If you'd like to see a list of materials and colors we are using, click HERE.
He told us about “The One-Hour Watercolorist” by Patrick Seslar. Patrick states “Plan your work, work your plan, and KISS (keep it simple)". (Click on my Amazon link to read more about the book.) Steve’s wife, Janet is included in the book and a painting of Steve’s similar to his Monday night demo is on page 90, St. Martin Beach and I had forgotten I had the book, but I did find stickies marking the page to return sometime. Janet has a portrait demo, Cassandra. Yes, I will take my book to get it autographed Thursday.
My painting: ½ sheet 300 lb. watercolor paper, 15x22, shows my wild sky and water. Now after looking at it on the computer I need to bring the horizon line down on the left and make it darker. I don’t think Steve has any competition from this artist.
I went to Joe T. Garcia’s after the workshop – my very favorite place to eat in the entire world with cheese enchiladas with all the trimmings and eaten on the beautiful patio garden. While sitting there I had great views to the left and right and the slides are included and looked over the day's painting notes.
Now to find another boat to paint for Thursday.
I’ve had a few minutes since I returned from Lubbock to check out a wonderful blog, Creativity Journey from Myrna Wacknov. I discovered her work in the October 2007 issue of the Watercolor Magic magazine. The article, Face Forward, shows how she uses color and expression for her poignant portraits. A bonus is the step-by-step guide that shows how to use Photoshop Elements with the portraits. Click HERE for the guide. She issues a drawing challenge each Friday and I've already ordered the drawing book she recommends and it's on the way. She issues a painting challenge at the beginning of each month. We have become “web/email” friends (someone should come up with a name of the online friends you have but have never met face to face) - what about I-Buds - and she posted an apple pie recipe in the Canvas by Canvas groups’ Artist Food Network. Great news for her and her fans is she was selected to be featured in the March 2008 issue on “Fabulous Artists over 60”. There were over 500 entries. Congrats, Myrna, way to go and I will be watching for the magazine.

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

Autumn Portrait ~ Art Workshops ~ Elvis Week ~ In the Ghetto ~ Nancy Standlee Art Blog

Autumn 2
Autumn 1
Not for sale
11" x 15" Watercolor portrait on 300 lb paper
Autumn 1 was painted in a Ted Nuttall workshop in 2004 in Dallas. It was one of my first portraits and I am just now ready to pass the painting on to the subject as she is leaving for college in a few weeks. A painting holds so many memories that it's hard to let go of some of them but it's time. Later, I painted Autumn 2 for me to keep as a remembrance. Ted had told us not to paint a loved one as it would be more difficult because of the emotions involved so I didn't listen. Sometimes I do listen. Ted is a wonderful person and delightful instructor. Since that time I've taken other Ted Nuttall workshops and one of the best was in Italy where we stayed in a Tuscan villa with side trips to neighboring towns but that needs to be told in an additional post.
Another reason for thinking portraits is my October 07 copy of Watercolor Magic that came this week and it contained a portrait article: Face Forward, p. 48 about Myrna Wacknov and her portraits. I love her technique and corresponded with her immediately to tell her so. Watercolor Magic has a file to download about using Photoshop Elements to enhance the color of photos and it is excellent. Now I want to take a workshop with her but for now I'll try out the Photoshop Elements Technique. Thanks, Watercolor Magic for that pdf file.

Since this is Elvis week and it's drawing to a close, I need to mention him. He performed in the early 50's around Stephenville but my thoughts were about making some summer school credits at Tarleton State and I missed the opportunity to see him early in his career. I've been to Graceland, saw him in concert in Virginia, and in 2005 the Texas State Fair had an exhibit with him carved in butter. You be the judge.

And in Texas we have fans that grew up with Elvis and here is a photo of one I couldn't resist taking as he was viewing the Elvis exhibit of his personal memorabilia on that Fair Day.

There have been blog tributes all week.
I enjoyed this video clip of Lisa Marie and Elvis singing In the Ghetto..

Have a great weekend, paint a portrait and remember Elvis!

Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/nancystandlee

TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often