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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Nancy's Web site

Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

"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.