Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

Cheerful and Colorful Paintings in Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage
nancystandlee@sbcglobal.net

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Pathways to Abstration, Carol Nelson Workshop at the Dena Wenmohs Ranch, February, 2014 by Nancy Standlee Texas Contemporary Fine Artist


Pop Star 14005   SOLD
Mixed Media 8x8 in.  
See other work at Daily Paintworks 

Fur and Friends 14004 NFS
Mixed Media 8x8 inches
(After a Carol Nelson piece featured on Carol's blog HERE.)

Carol Nelson and away we go for a 4 day mixed media workshop at Dena's ranch. 

I returned Friday from a mixed media workshop at Dena Wenmohs Ranch. "Pathways to Abstraction" by Carol Nelson was a 4 day workshop attended by 15 students. It was my third workshop with Carol. The first one I flew to Denver in March 2010 and it was Carol's second workshop, and I took one in Granbury in May 2011 and you can do a search on my blog for Carol Nelson and see these posts.  
"Fur and Friends" above was an interpretation of a piece that Carol brought as a demo piece and then I decided to run with the idea and paint my own faces for "Pop Star" and I have a second one to post in this series. I used liquid acrylics, collage paper, music, splatter, foils, ribbons, rusted paper, stencils, molding paste, old papers and many layers with my own red haired women that I love to incorporate into my work.
After the Granbury class when we used flat panels, I fancied myself as a carpenter, bought me a jig saw and tried to make my own cradles. Don't do this as that's the wrong kind of saw and it took a lot of molding paste to fill up the cracks where corners and edges did not meet. A cradle is the edging pieces that surround a flat panel and can be 5/8", 1 1/2", 2" or more. I used these cradled panels from Jerry's Artarama, American Easel Wood HERE in 1 5/8". Love these as all they need is a little white gesso.  Here is a side view of the painting and the "cradle" is the piece that surrounds the painting. You can use a flat panel but then you have to deal with how to frame. With a piece that has it's own cradle all that's needed is a varnish and put on the hanging devices and it's ready to hang.
Side View

Carol and Dena (Dena getting some Carol help)
The Bunkhouse Barn where all the work takes place.

Carol and Nancy in Dena's home. 

 Connie's Car.

 My front porch and was afraid I was going to have to take my car and caravan.(On the left in the chair is as far as I got with my spring potting soil for the tomato plants and basil that finally died a slow death in their little peat pots). Most people tend to think my house has been deserted when they view the front porch. I could clean up my act if there were not so many cool workshops I want to check out.

But with some creative packing we got it all in and used most of it in the workshop.

In my notebook I leave the first few pages vacant to list all the new art supplies that I hear about that I want to remember/ or buy and Jo Peterson gave us a great tip with a silicone pot holder, $3.00 that she bought at H E B grocery store. But don't look in the Lampasas HEB as Connie and I got the last two. It has a waffle design and it will make great paper prints. So now for the next week or so I will be looking in nasty gutters for rusty metal and browsing the grocery aisles for objects to repurpose. 

 Carol will be giving another Texas workshop in March in Dallas HERE at Gallery at Midtown with Teta Smith.
It also lists her supply list which is always fun to read.
Dena's next workshops are with Peggi Kroll Roberts and Liz Hill and I've studied with both and both are excellent. 

Thanks Dena and Carol for a great workshop and to all my bunkhouse painting friends, it was great painting with you again and to my new friends, see you on Facebook. 


Texas Daily Painter, Mixed Media Painting, small acrylic painting, square format, figurative abstract, mixed media art,  Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, gallery wrapped boards, Square Painting, Check Advantage, Carol Nelson workshop, Dena Wenmohs Ranch, Etsy


Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.


Illustrations for the book, Dreams of the Turtle King:

Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Valentine Tulips, Floral Oil Painting, Nancy Franke Workshop, Gainesville, Georgia by Texas Artists Nancy Standlee

 
Valentine Tulips 14003
14x11 Oil on canvas panel
Available on Daily Paintworks HERE.

Nancy Franke Demo 

 Quinlan Arts Center Gainesville GA

I've returned from my first workshop of the year, a Nancy Franke, 2 day oil in Gainesville, GA, February 6 and 7 and it has set a high standard for the rest of the year. There were 15 in the class and most from the Georgia area and very good painters. I had heard about Nancy Franke first on the blog talk radio show by Leslie Saeta. Her interview is HERE.

Getting to the Atlanta Airport from DFW was easy and quick but getting my rental car and heading north to Gainesville, I may have passed Mars? Up and down elevators and train rides but I had "Sugar Foot", my GPS, with me and we found our way to the motel and Quinlan Arts Center without any major detours. Let's just leave it at my motel choices are modest when I travel and the main deal is WiFi as I'd rather save future dollars for another workshop. This one was problematic as they put me on second floor and no elevator and I had a little difficulty lugging bags up the steps, I'm 78 and counting, and on the last night a policeman knocked on the door asking if I'd seen the girl from room 217? What?  Oh, and the continental breakfast was a plastic wrapped honey bun and no microwave but I quickly found a McDonald's for breakfast. I HAD a great 22" wheeled backpack by Ful, purchased at Costco, perfect for travel with art supplies that fit in the overhead. On the trip home, AA said since the plane was full they would take any overhead bags and fly them free. Don't fall for this because they ripped off my handle and it is not covered for compensation. These little baby bags don't stand a chance down in the hole of the plane with these big old fierce granddaddy bags falling all over them. 
What did work on this trip was my Hedi Moran palette that I discovered in her workshop in 2013 that is great for travel. She gets a Michaels 16x20 picture frame with glass with just a tiny little metal frame and I took out the photos and turned the paper over and it had a nice neutral background and I wrapped it with some Cheap Joe's packing material and it came thru in the disabled backpack much better than the handle. 

Nancy Franke is an Atlanta artist and successfully sells her work through galleries and the Huff Harrington in Atlanta. She is energetic, paints with a limited palette in high key and I'm ready to take another workshop with her. She states "I want a watercolor look painted in oils". The only thing I'd change would be a three day instead of the two. It was a long, hard trip for two days or maybe it's the age talking. We painted from still life setups that we chose. Her admonition to us for each day: paint 20 minutes on a study from life, draw 5 minutes from life, and 5 minutes look at paintings that inspire.

The Artists of Texas has a new website up and running thanks to Laurie Pace. HERE is my page and I also have some info under the workshop page.

Texas Daily Painter, Oil painting, small oil floral, red tulip oil painting, Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks,  Pinterest, Gainesville GA, oil workshop, Canvas by Canvas, Nancy Franke workshop, Check Advantage, Collage ArtByte,
 

Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.




Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/

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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Jessica and the Girls, Torn Paper Portrait Collage Commission and My Studio by Texas Contemporary Artist Nancy Standlee


Jessica and the Girls
18x24 Torn Paper Collage Portrait Commission
This commission has been my January project working from a photo supplied by the client of some of her family members. I added personal touches of names, birthdays, and favorite songs. Here is how I began with a permanent ink marker on white canvas.
 I have an affordable artbyte tutorial about the collage process on Daily Paintworks or you can click the icon at the side of the blog. I gave a demo/talk using this collage for the Irving Art Association monthly meeting January 28. 

I have enjoyed seeing posts on Facebook of artists working spaces and studios. I've spent some time getting my studio in order for the year. It may not look organized to you but to me it is a big improvement. I have shelves around the room with paints but the watercolors are in my entry hall waiting for a spot somewhere. The journals are in the living room. This is a small bedroom but it does have a southern exposure and if I want to use an easel I'll probably head to the kitchen. I did work on the collage on an easel in the kitchen so I guess the bedroom studio will be where I'll sit and work on oil and acrylic paintings. I like to journal in the kitchen so I guess you'd say I sleep and eat in my studio as most rooms are art related. I have one very disorganized bedroom I refer to as the "study" full of books and that is a future project getting all of them on shelves. Work in the study only lasts until I pick up an art book, find how interesting it is, and spend the clean up time, looking at it being amazed all over again. 





Behind that closet door is more blank canvases and boards and some in the hall bathroom. I wonder what was I thinking when I placed orders? (That Jerry or Joe may go out of business...no not with me around.) Paintings on the walls are by Robert Burridge, some of mine, some from friends, Ted Nuttall print, and Dan Burt.

The book I illustrated in watercolor is now available on Amazon, Dreams of the Turtle King, by Denise Bossarte. 

My congratulations to all the artists who participated in the Leslie Saeta 30/30 challenge in January. You have my respect. I wanted to join you but never felt like I had the "go-ahead" and now as I look back over my January it was the right decision.

Texas Daily Painter, Torn Paper Collage Painting, portrait collage,   Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, gallery wrapped canvas,  Check Advantage,  Etsy


Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.


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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Dreams of the Turtle King Is Now Available as Paperback and Kindle by Denise Bossarte and Nancy Standlee


 
Early Risers 13082
Watercolor Available HERE at DPW
An illustration from the book, Dreams of the Turtle King

Does this beach walker look totally inappropriate to you temperature wise? I hope it's warmer where you are than it is in Texas where I am. Outside it is 21 degrees about 10:00 AM with predicted light snow on top of ice and sleet. Our Fort Worth/Dallas area is in a holding pattern but good news my power is on and I can write about "our" book being ready on Amazon. Several months ago Denise, from Houston, (we've never met) emailed me about illustrating some Florida beach poetry she had written. As artists, we see a lot of scams and art opportunities on the internet and I was a little dubious at first but after several emails I decided this lady was on the up and up and we've conducted all our business over the internet. 
It has been a pleasure working with Denise and truly we were both a little new to the process about pricing and royalty payments and we have muddled our way through it and are still friends. We hope to meet in February and have a book signing. At present she is ordering me books to give to my family for Christmas and she will autograph them and then mail them to me. How cool is that? A side story about you know the one about the check is in the mail? Well, Wednesday evening I knew the weather forecast was bad so I decided I'd put her check in my mail box wrapped in a piece of waxed paper to protect it. (An old lady thing to do I guess). Now it is still in there but the door to the mailbox is frozen shut, the mailman has disappeared and unless he has an ice pick with him the check won't go out until the spring thaw. My neighbor  called me yesterday and his mail box lid would open because as he said "he'd whacked it with the brass bottom end of his cane". So I used his mailbox for yesterday's mail but I'm afraid to even venture out today so Denise the check is truly in the mail and it may be for awhile. Stay warm friends.
I invite you to check out our book on Amazon and maybe order a paperback or get a Kindle edition for someone for a Christmas surprise. Forget about the cold, cold weather and enjoy some beach poetry while you sit by a nice warm fire.    Dreams of the Turtle King on Amazon

(If you order the book and like it would you please leave a review on Amazon. Our book doesn't have any reviews..sigh... I may have to leave one.)

From Denise on the Dreams of the Turtle King blog:

Dear friends,

We have made it!

Nancy and I are very pleased to announce that our  book "Dreams of the Turtle King" is now available on Amazon.com.

It is available as a paperback for ~$12 a book.
It is also available as a kindle book for $1.99.

These are both full color editions.
 
If you are an Amazon.com Prime member, you may borrow the Kindle version for free, as well.

Right now the Amazon.com machinery has not connected these items together so that you can find both on one page. If you search for the title, you will find both versions and can then select which one you want to purchase.

Thank you so much for your support and happy reading!!


Note:
If you have an older kindle that is in black and white rather than color, you can download either the following programs from Amazon for FREE to read the book on your PC or smartphone.

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Friday, November 15, 2013

Art of the Carolinas, Raleigh, Oil Painting Workshop and an Interview with Leslie Saeta, Blog Talk Radio and Dreams of the Turtle King by Texas Contemporary Artist Nancy Standlee

Carolina Landscape 13115
Oil on canvas mounted to board
approximately 11x15

I've just returned from an Art of the Carolinas workshop in Raleigh, NC sponsored by Jerry's Artarama. Because Friday's painting is not finished, I'm skipping to show you Saturday's painting and the workshop was led by Dick Ensing. Workshops were held at the Hilton Hotel and Jerry's Artarama and this one was held at the Store. Between the Hilton Grand Ball Room and Jerry's being filled with art supplies, I had to make suitcase room for a few more purchases. In this workshop Dick provided the image we painted from and that is always appreciated. Watch for later posts and I will discuss the workshops with Sean Dye and Mike Rooney. Classes were 3 hours long from 9-12, 1-4, or 5-8 and a few were all day and you could take as many or as few as you wanted. Close by was a wonderful Thai restaurant that Bob and Kate Burridge had posted about on Facebook and it was so good I think I ate there every day, Shaba Shabu.


But speaking of workshops, I was interviewed by Leslie Saeta  and co-host, Margaret Sheldon, Thursday, November 14, on her weekly talk show, Blog Talk Radio, Artists Helping Artists and I discuss how I get the most out of a workshop. I love taking workshops and took about 14 in 2012 and 7 in 2013. I've stopped counting the total number since 2002. 
 Leslie's Apple Pie...oh, how delicious. She cooked this for us the last night of the September Virginia Beach workshop and the ones who had to leave early you really missed a treat. We had been painting at a fruit stand that day and she purchased honey crisp apples. She also prepared our meals and did her talk show from the beach house. She does marketing seminars and holds classes online and teaches at her Ventura beach house and from her Carriage House studio in Pasadena on palette knife paintings. She gets her energy from apple pie? If so we all need one for backup.
 Leslie instructing our class at the beach.

I have made 24 watercolor illustrations for the book of poetry, Dreams of the Turtle King, written by Denise Bossarte, and available in December on Amazon. Denise informs me the book is moving forward on schedule and I've sent her my bio and a profile image. Here is one of the images you will find in the book. I would read the poem and come up with a visual image for the illustration, send it to Denise for approval or suggestions. 
Boy Digging 13094

I have been sketching and painting food at the Blue Mesa Grill in Arlington for the past several weeks prior to the workshop for possible use in their new menu. (Everything is made from scratch).  I have enjoyed sweet potato chips, red chile salmon, jalapeno relish, sweet corn cake and blue margaritas. The website is awesome with nutritional information and recipes. I went there first to hang out after both eyes had been dilated to sketch and paint my food in my journal until I could see well enough to get home. This has been a very enjoyable job and I think the new menu format will be very unique.
 A cup of painted desert soup, black bean and corn chowder and sweet potato chips.

Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:
Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/NancyStandlee/
                           http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-standlee.html
Order personalized checks, side tear checks, checkbook covers and address labels with a choice of 20 of my paintings on them.




Dreams of the Turtle King blog http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/


Denise Bossarte
Found Worlds Photography
Dreams of the Turtle King: Poems Inspired by South Florida Beaches by Denise Ippensen Bossarte


Dreams:
Texas Daily Painter, Watercolor, Pen and Ink sketches,  Beach paintings, small paper painting, poetry book, poems, beach poems, flower watercolor, rose watercolor, Janet Rogers, workshop, Dallas, TX,  Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest,  Dreams of the Turtle King,   Denise Bossarte, photography, Amazon, Florida, Found Worlds,CheckAdvantage, Art of the Carolinas, Raleigh, NC

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