Nancy Standlee Fine Art

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Arne Westerman Workshop ~ Day 5 ~ SWS

$125 Workshop Painting
Karen and CY 15 x 22 at Point Bolivar

Graduation Day

7 x 11 Color Sketch

7 x 11 Color Sketch Port Bolivar Girls

The notes were very brief on day 5 of the Arne Westerman Workshop by the Southwestern Watercolor Society and the day ended much too soon. Our graduation ended with Arne giving us our Artistic License and our group was definitely better Friday and on Monday.

In the morning, some developed more thumbnails and color sketches for a larger painting and some worked on paintings already started. I chose to develop 2 new ideas that are shown here. Arne suggested I use the same color of bathing suit on the Port Bolivar Girls and I may change or not. On my large painting of Karen and CY, I showed him the photo and said "I don't do teeth" and presented him a tracing of Karen with shortened face and no teeth. That was not going to be o.k. with him. Arne said "We do teeth"! So this is Nancy's painting with Arne teeth plus other touches and accents along the way.

The group ate lunch together at the Panda Express and continued with photos (some discretely of the customers) and art talk. We returned to class to paint and see a few more slides and get our license, make our goodbyes. This was a very good congenial class.

Some last Arne pointers:

1. Everything can't be interesting. Kill Something to save your painting.

2. Don't leave holes in your painting. (I tend to leave little spaces of white sparkles in the painting and I like them.)

3. Don't make a painting all headlines.

4. Remember to do thumbnails and color sketches before a painting.

Arne is very talented, witty and loves people and if you can take his watercolor workshop, run and sign up now. He's in his early 80's and has gained lots of "people wisdom" and painting knowledge along the way. He possesses great teaching and communication skills. He could "kill" the whistle he has hanging around his neck - his call for attention from too talkative students but then it was also a call, come look at this student's work and watch this.

If you're interested in people painting, watch people, listen to their conversations, take photos, and sketch them when you can.

He will have a gallery show in Rockport Texas soon and I will try and get more information and post the details.

Thanks, Arne, for a delightful, well-spent week. On the way home, I stopped at La Madelines for spinach salad and tomato basil soup to complete a perfect week. Today, Saturday, my art "stuff" is still not put away and I've really taken it easy with a good afternoon nap in my easy chair. Then it's back to reality with a week's mail and plans for a Thanksgiving dinner. But to all of my friends in the class, I loved painting with you and look forward to our next workshop together. Arne, you're welcome in Texas anytime and we'll be your Texas "groupies" working on our next degree.

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http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/nancystandlee
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Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Arne Westerman Workshop ~ Day 3 and 4 ~ SWS

Thursday’s report of the Arne Westerman SWS workshop – some thoughts and slide show. See the slide show below and mouse over for the names.
From Arne on Wednesday:
1. A “clean palette” is a sign of an empty mind. (You can view his palette in yesterday’s slide show.)
2. A few color mixtures we tried: English Red or Indian Red makes a good fleshy tone. Add a touch of Cerulean for variation and to mute the red. Cerulean Blue and Cad. Red light makes a great gray. Permanent Rose and Cad. Yellow light or New Gamboge makes a good flesh tone. He loves lilac. Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue makes a cool gray. Cad. Red light and Thalo Blue makes a good black. He does not use a tube black but mixes other colors for black. Manganese Blue and Permanent Rose makes a nice mixture or near each other to mix some. Indian Red and Thalo Blue makes a dark. Cad. Red light and any blue will give a brown.
His color choices are made during the color sketch. Leave enough room on the border edges to make some color trials.
3. Always use the largest brush.
4. He showed us how to increase the size of the color sketch by drawing diagonal lines on the sketch and one-half sheet of watercolor paper. One of the slides showed the process. This resulted in pencil drawings on the color sketch and these were small paintings in themselves and I would use tracing paper instead or use a copy machine to blow up the image or digitize the photo.
5. In the afternoon, the class drew and painted from a live model with beautiful red hair. Some of the slides show some paintings and studies done from this model.
6. Wednesday evening, Arne gave the SWS program by showing and discussing his work with a slide presentation with a few jokes thrown in.
Some thoughts from Thursday:
1. We should be better on Friday than we were on Monday. (Let’s hope so.)
2. A painting is a work in progress. We saw more slides on what makes a good painting and we did quick thumbnail sketches of the painting structure such as was the painting made of rectangles, pyramid, etc. He stressed again about not having two things equal but let one dominate and be the center of interest.
3. He talked and showed us how to take the model from the room where we are and put her at home by adding interesting vertical and horizontal elements and accents.
4. When adding some touches to final facial features on an under painting, he might moisten the paper before adding the eyes or other features.
5. In the afternoon, the participants painted on their big project and Arne walked around to each one to assist with any problems. This is a rare teacher that gives the students as much private consultation as he does and with a very good attitude. At the end of the day, there was a group critique using the overhead mirror so we learned from each other’s mistakes and successes. He thinks we’re doing great and I hope you like our slide show. Not all the class members have work included.
6. The assignment for Friday: Bring in another photo and be prepared to start on a new thumbnail and color sketch in preparation for a new painting.
7. I’m already thinking about what all I have to do this weekend and asking myself if I can squeeze in any time to paint more figurative watercolors so I won’t forget some of the wonderful points made this week. Let’s see mail, bills, Thanksgiving cooking – I’ll have to make some time.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Arne Westerman Workshop ~ Day 2 ~ SWS

Tuesday at the Arne Westerman Figurative Workshop Slide Show Below

1. Tuesday morning we were treated to slides of various paintings with detailed discussions on what makes a painting work, with emphasis on balance, center of interest, separation of elements, color , shapes, texture, light and movement. It is all about placement and it’s up to the artist to make the best use of the placement of the figure or center of interest, and to look at paintings with a discerning eye about structure and if the painting works or not. One point he made that needs to be repeated “Just because the artist doesn’t like the painting, the collector may want that particular work because of style or subject matter.” After this day, we should all know HOW to make a good painting.

2.We can’t be Norman Rockwell because he died. You paint with your own feelings and emotion and that makes it you. No one can paint like you.

3. Plain is good for backgrounds.

4. He uses masking tape to secure the edges on 140 Hot Press Fabriano paper to give us a demo color sketch study and a painting. He likes Fabriano because it was easy to lift and change a section. For his painting demo, he used a figure ironing a piece of clothing drawn from a model. He liked the model because of she was “zoftig” and no one knew what he was talking about. He asks “Are there no Jews in her?” It seems it’s a good Jewish term for a healthy, plump woman. Some of the participants were more concerned about what the ironing board and iron were?

5. When asked about using fresh paint, his response “You don’t have to worry about anything” and in other words, just paint, get something down. And he kept reminding us, we can do anything we want. The artist is in control and can move and change anything they want.

6. Watch out for mid tones against mid tones as it doesn’t say much.

7. There was much discussion on “killing this figure” and that referred to making one figure less dominant and let one be the center of interest. “Kill one to make one live” was frequently heard during our critique.

It has been good day learning about what makes a good painting. He was very gracious to visit each table while we were working on our color sketch, often sitting down with a brush and showing us what he’d do. He’d asked previously if anyone minded if he paints on any of our work. There was a lot of good natured repartee during this time of color sketches and the following critique. Arne is a treasure, full of information and knows how to fix our mess ups. His book was one of the first painting books I purchased and I can recommend it for its useful information. You can read about it from the Amazon widget on the side of my blog or Arne has the books for sale on his web site. The slide show will be short as we were rushed after the critique to clear the room for a meeting. More slides on Thursday. Wednesday morning we’ll learn how to transfer our thumbnails or color sketch and in the afternoon we’ll have a model to draw and paint from. Wednesday evening Arne will give the program for SWS showing the slides of his work.

Mouse over to see slide captions.

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(All of the captions where I used Name..Thumbnail...most should have been Name..Color Sketch will change later)

Arne Westerman Workshop ~ Day 2 ~ SWS ~ Slideshow

Monday, November 12, 2007

Arne Westerman Workshop ~ Day 1 ~ SWS

Arne

His famous "L's"
Our five day Southwestern Watercolor Society workshop with instructor Arne Westerman began today. I will post a few highlights minus some of the funny jokes. He began painting after a successful career in advertising at about age 50.
1. He asked us to do things "his way" this week and that included careful planning of our design before painting.
2. We brought our own reference material and took that photo and did a 4 x 5 value and composition thumbnail. Each student's work is critiqued in a group situation so all benefited from the instruction.
3. He used the "L" shapes, cut up mats, to crop and edit these thumbnails and photos still looking for the best design.
4. He was not happy that so many of us brought small 4 x 6 photos to work from. He loved it when someone had an 8 x 10 to work from. He had large photos to share for any that didn't bring a project to paint on.
5. There is no such thing as equality in a painting. Something has to be dominant and the center of interest.
6. Forget accuracy and go for the artistic statement.
7. Try to be original in thinking and working and do not copy the photograph but make it your own. Move things around. Don't reproduce what you see but use what you need.
8. He promises to show us "how not to worry about our backgrounds".
9. Tuesday we will work on our 7 x 11 color study from our thumbnail.
10. First thing in the morning we'll see his slides and more discussion about what makes a good painting.
We are painting in Irving in a large room at the Jaycee Park, Center for the Arts, one of the BEST places to take a workshop. We have a table to ourselves, kitchen facilities, with large sliding glass doors to the outside where there is a park and a small pond with ducks. The weather was sunny and warm. It was a great day. At many workshops, participants have stayed up late the night before getting ready, nervous about the instructor, and start out wondering if will they get a "good" spot or know anyone, travel long distances and in sometimes horrible, slow moving traffic but despite all of these obstacles you have a great time trying out new techniques and we'll be ready for Arne's instructions on how to complete our color studies for our masterpiece.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

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

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Donna Zagotta Workshop Slideshow

I hope you enjoy some of the photos from the Donna Zagotta Workshop held at the Artists' Showplace. Click HERE to read another post about the workshop. Notice to all the painters.. I get dibs on painting Gail's wild shoes. Now I wish I'd taken a photo of everyone in the workshop.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Grackles ~ Opportunity Calls ~ Frames by Mail ~ About.com ~ Art Blog

$80.00
11" x 15" Watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Grackles are a nuisance bird in some Texas cities. They are an iridescent black with purple and bronze close up but at a distance they appear just to be a black bird but an interesting bird to paint for artists. Usually straight black out of the tube is a no-no for watercolorists as a more exciting black could be made to mix it from other colors. I like the freedom to use arbitrary color..what ever color strikes my fancy at the moment. In this watercolor I’ve left some unpainted places on the birds, sparkles. Some purist watercolor painters approve, some don’t. So paint how it pleases you.

If you want to learn more about painting and try it out for yourself, there is an excellent tutorial and information at About.com. If you want to learn to paint and have any time at all, I would encourage you to begin your journey by reading THIS article.

There are color tips here also.

Color Mixing Tip No 5: Don’t Overmix
If, when you mix two colors together on a palette, you don’t mix and mix until they’re totally, utterly, definitely combined, but stop a little bit beforehand, you get a far more interesting result when you put the mixed color down on paper or canvas. The result is a color that’s intriguing, varies slightly across the area you’ve applied it, not flat and consistent.

Read these tips for creating black..

Choose a painting medium and if watercolor as these grackles are, paint your first painting, and then for your first show, order a simple metal frame, white matt, and plexiglass from the largest collection of Custom and Ready Made picture frames on the Internet, Frames by Mail. They have a simple process set up for measuring your art and adding the dimensions and figuring your cost; however, I allow a smidge more area than the 1/8 they suggest. That is playing it too close in my book. Another suggestion would be to frame a painting is wait for a picture sale at a local hobby store, buy a sale item and remove the print and place your original in its place.

Now go have fun. Paint your own black grackle in glorious colors. And if you want to learn to paint, just do it while reading all you can about painting. Start a sketchbook and paint in it. I’ll talk about choosing a sketchbooks on another day.

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

Sunflower Painting ~ Summer Friends ~ Thru the Bible Radio ~ Art Blog

$80.00
11" x 15" Watercolor
This summer has brought changes in my lifestyle as I've become interested in blogging and in some weight issues. ( See Post in Artist Food Network) and for the past two weeks I've begun a walking program. I have listened to Thru the Bible Radio off and on for years but this is the way I'm listening while I walk. On the home page you will see a free MP3 Download option.

WELCOME! Thru The Bible is a 30-minute Bible study radio program that takes the listener through the entire Bible in just 5 years, going back and forth between the Old and New Testaments. This Bible study program has been aired on radio stations in the U.S. since 1967, and is now being produced in over 100 languages around the world.

Because the mission of Thru the Bible Radio is to take the whole Word to the whole world, we are making these files available to you free of charge for your personal use.

John Vernon McGee was born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1904. Dr. McGee remarked, "When I was born and the doctor gave me the customary whack, my mother said that I let out a yell that could be heard on all four borders of Texas!"

How To Download:
Please note that these zipped MP3 files are large and therefore suitable for download only by using a high-speed internet connection. Dial-up users are advised not to attempt to download them. To begin the download, simply click on one of the primary download links in the first two columns and choose where on your computer you'd like the zipped file to be saved. Before you can play the MP3s, they must be unzipped or extracted back into individual mp3 files. To do this you will need a zipping software (such as WinZip or the Extraction Wizard in Windows XP) to unzip the file. Once they have been downloaded and unzipped, you can begin studying the Bible along with Dr. McGee!

Hints: Download to your Desktop and on the last Extract choice of the original file you are trying to extract - (Extract to Title of what you have downloaded or you’ll have files all over the desktop.) Right click on the Last extract. Delete the original book type icon and start saving all the Bible Books to a folder. I save the current Book only and delete it when I’ve finished listening to save room on my Samsung Digital Audio Player. It’s easier for me to just start playing where I’ve left off the day before. I tie the Sportline Step Counter around my waist and when I return from about a 30 minute walk, I post the activity on the Calorie Counter Plus site.
With a MP3 player download you can start anywhere you like in the J. Vernon McGee broadcast and listen when it’s convenient. I am listening to these chapters as I walk in this Texas August heat and each day I look forward to my chapters and my walk as I find walking needs a little something extra. Walking is a priority as I’ve mentioned before as some of my collaborative painting group from Canvas by Canvas are in a weight loss war and the weigh in date is drawing near, September 4. There is a cash bonus involved plus the benefit of some better fitting jeans.

If you like a little religious humor, you might find this worth looking at; however, there are several comments posted pro and con about the Baptism Cannonball.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ranch Style Beans ~ Black Bean Salsa ~ Blog Artist Food Network ~ Nancy Standlee

10" x 11" Watercolor on Fabriano 140 lb. paper, Pen and Ink
In a previous post on my art blog and on the Artist Food Network I talked about the De Leon Peach and Melon Festival that is held the first full weekend each August.
To read the rest of the post please click on the Artist Food Network and you will find the recipe.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Daffodil Painting Series #4 of 4 ~ Art Groups DFW

$40.00 each

Daffodil Series #4 of 4

Weekend Sale 2 Daffodil series $60.00 or 4 Daffodil Series 1-4 for $100.00

5” x 7” watercolor with light beige mat

How do you get visitors to your web site or blog site? There are many opinions to that question. This week I invited everyone in my address book and that gives you pause. You’re afraid that Yahoo will think you’re a spammer or your friends will not appreciate you filling up their inbox. Fortunately I’ve had some positive response and thanks to you who have subscribed. One email came from Sharon Giles from the Art Groups DFW and she asked me to contribute an article on blogging and my art blog. You can read the article here.

The web site is a hub for the DFW area artists and those living in the North Texas area. It is The Place to discover what is happening in the art scene in the metroplex and surrounding area.
It is devoted to news of art events hosted by nonprofit visual art groups as well as news about their member artists. Artists can find out about exhibits, meetings, art instruction, and opportunities. You may find a exhibit you would like to visit over the weekend.

Or take a cruise over to Canvas by Canvas.com and see our mini paintings of high heels and cupcakes. We have reduced the prices to make them affordable for gifts - maybe an early Christmas present. It is always a difficult process to find the correct selling price for a painting. We have reached the conclusion that these were priced more than some competitive paintings. Our goal is to sell so we can keep painting. Your comments on this would be appreciated. Since lowering the price to $40.00 earlier today, one has been sold so that tells us something.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. I wish on these little holidays you take the right exit and you travel without any warning lights appearing on your dashboard.

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