Lady Emma ~ Boat Watercolor Painting ~ Port Bolivar, Texas ~ Art Blog

$150.00 unframed
15 x 22 watercolor painting on 300 lb. paper
(It would fit into a matt and standard frame 22x28)
Lady Emma was painted this past week in the Steve Rogers Workshop given by SWA in Fort Worth. The photo was taken during a trip with some CBC members to the Port Bolivar, Galveston area. Older posts will show some slides from other students and some of Steve's work.
I rented an interesting art movie yesterday and watched it last night.
Carla O’Connor mentioned a foreign film, Camille Claudel, about the sculptor, Rodin, and his passionate obsession with art – and with Camille. It is a historically accurate depiction of one of the most important collaborations in the history of modern art. It was a little hard to find but the Hollywood Video on Cooper St. had a copy, for my local readers. It has captions and runs 2 hours and 39 minutes and came out in 1989. I enjoyed the movie but I didn't enjoy reading the captions because you can't multi-task with your eyes glued to the TV. I belong to a collaborative group of 11 local artists, Canvas by Canvas and we are interested in collaborations.
I find this web site is a good place to research movies and plot summaries at the Internet Movie Database. This is where I always get into trouble and it happens at Amazon all the time with the recommendations…If you like this book, movie, then you might like this one… spend more time and money.
I see they recommend Frida and I loved Frida - the movie, her way of dressing, and the paintings. When I was in Puerto Vallarta for a workshop, I bought a beach wrap/sarong/shawl with her huge picture in the center and I do wear it.
Caution: These are not family movies with small children - adult children OK.
This interesting article about the secrets of Mona Lisa was on my Yahoo home page this morning. I know a lot of artists out there who would never want their paintings inspected that closely to really see how many layers it took to reach the final stage. This is not the case with watercolor. In watercolor you usually have to get it right the first time or start over. If you want to read about taking risks with watercolor and pushing the medium to its limits, check out the book, Taking Risks with Watercolour, on my Amazon link. I recommend it if you're ready to move up to the intermediate level. Every page is filled with exciting, colorful examples of Shirley Trevena's work.
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

Steve Rogers Workshop ~ Tuesday, Day 1 ~ Fort Worth, TX

Disclaimer: Some of the photos were taken through an overhead mirror and the image is reversed and the mirror is cloudy in places and some of the paintings had plastic protectors on them.
I’m still not unpacked from the last 2 or 3 workshops. Well, maybe a little. It’s out of the suitcase and on the kitchen table and couch. Saturday was a blur. I did fit in a needed seafood fix at Fish City Grill. Then on Sunday the family “inlaws and outlaws”, friends, and cohorts had a kickball game in Alvarado. One new friend was welcomed – Davran from Krygstan, a foreign exchange student staying with a family member.
I was smart enough not to play and the sun was wonderful to sit on the sidelines and listen to the banter. I got to see my granddaughter Autumn’s recent college sorority’s mud wrestling photos on her laptop – a definite plus for the day.
The best news is that CBC members did not paint Monday but some of us had to meet for an El Chico lunch to discuss giclees and then home to begin to gather up the supplies for the Steve Rogers workshop. I didn’t begin to finish before our SWA meeting at 7:00 where he gave a demo. It was a great preview of things to come for the next 3 days but after coming home I did stay up until about 2:00 a.m. getting the rest of the supplies together and to get my palette to look like his. It is my goal someday, sometime to read a book, watch TV or go to a movie before a workshop. Instead my days and weeks and nights are filled with last minute details and things to pack. This is not how it should be done. The only excuse is that I’ve recently attended workshops from Donna Zagotta, Robert Burridge, Carla O’Connor and now Steve’s. It’s been the gamut from opaque watercolor to acrylic to transparent watercolor. I’ll get it all sorted out eventually.
I was glad that for Day 1 Steve gave us a demo first thing and then had us to do some color exercises and practice some painting techniques before diving into a painting. He wanted us to work on a full sheet, but chicken me opted for only a half sheet and by days end, I had a very wild colored sky and not quite as wild water. This painting may not be able to be pulled out of the fire and I'm not brave enough to share it yet. We are all working on boats and reflections. I don’t have enough down on paper yet to post the painting so I’m putting on a slide show of photos from last night’s demo and some from the Tuesday’s class.

When Steve began to paint his demo at the Monday night SWA meeting, he put on a red bandana so I decided I needed to wear one today to show support at the workshop with my new Llano Estacado T-shirt from the winery in Lubbock. Workshop participants might enjoy reading more about Steve’s life in this article by Stephen Doherty “Inspiration at Higher Levels” in the American Artists Watercolor Magazine.
Our class goal seems to be to put down color and modify it, bring it to life, and have the color show movement and to make an attractive painting. Steve is a master of color and there was many variables on achieving his look such as how you put the paint down, the tilt of the board, the tilt of the brush and we are all trying our best to mimic his work, not to copy him, but just get the feel of how he works and maybe sometime during the 3 days we will become more comfortable using vivid color in a loose way, and a way that we haven’t tried before. Check back here for Day 2 and progress reports.
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