"I'll Be Your Best Friend"

"I'll Be Your Best Friend"

12x12" oil on gallery wrap canvas 

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This latest painting is of a beloved family pet named Ginger, photographed holding a stuffed hedgehog—her best friend!

I had a lot of fun painting this little girl! I fell right into those big soulful eyes with eyelashes so long and orange they looked more like some exotic decor of high fashion.

This was a very challenging piece for me. If it wasn't for the Veridian hedgehog and Ginger's golden eyes, I might not have even accepted the commission, as everything else in the scene from the fur to the carpet was just a sea of white. It didn't help that I was painting from a poorly lit photo with the subject in deep shadow, which further compounded the problem. 

I decided the solution required a wide range of temperature shifts to help define the form and texture, along with a vast array of subtle shifts in values so close together it felt like I was performing brain surgery. LOL Well, maybe it wasn't quite that bloody! 

Thanks for following my work. 

nancy

 

"..the lands of sunrise and sunset you fill with your joy."

"the lands of sunrise and sunset you fill with your joy." (Psalm 65)
11.25x14", watercolor on 140lb. cold press
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I had so much fun painting this watercolor inspired by the photo below by photographers Yann Meersseman and Moria Fitzgerald at Vinyard Colors. Their work inspires me to pick up a brush and grab my paints. I have had this image stashed away in my heart since 2016. 

Watercolor seemed the perfect media for transparent layers of clouds, dazzling light and churning waves of foamy water. 

When I came across a quote from my Morning Prayer, I knew immediately that had to be the title of the piece because just seeing the photo filled my heart with joy. 

Here is the reference photo.

Thank you for viewing.

nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

"Morning Calling on Dock St.

"Morning Calling on Dock St.
18x24" oil on gallery wrap canvas

I painted this image in response to a photograph by Yann Meersseman and wife Moira Fitzgerald at Vineyard Colors. They graciously allow artists to paint from their work, provided you send them a copy of the final art. 

Although I haven't painted in quite awhile due to the demands of my graphic design business, the intriguing play of light and dark attracted my eye and inspired me to pick up a brush. 

There was a lot of detail in the photo, so I tried my best not get tight, but rather give loose impressions of found object. It felt so good to get back to my easel!

This piece is being donated to my church's annual fundraiser. 

Thanks for viewing. 

nancy

An Evening of Awesome, Art, Wine & Jazz

"Pondering on a Pond", 24x12", oil on stretched canvas

"Bend in the Road", 10x8", oil on Gessobord

"Bounty", 10x8", oil on Gessobord

These are a few pieces I will be showing at "An Evening of Awesome Art, Wine and Jazz",  along with other local artists. This is a benefit event for Fill the Gap, a program of the Peace and Justice Network of Montgomery County, serving the homeless. Come see me this Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m. 50% of all sales go to help the homeless. 

Location: Lord of Life Lutheran Church, 3801 South Panther Creek Drive, The Woodlands, TX 77381.  See flyer below for full details. 

The Babysitter

"The Babysitter", 14.5x10.5", Watercolor
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This watercolor painting is of my 18-year-old granddaughter Hayley sharing time with my five-year-old grandson Palmer. My intent was to capture her tenderness and emotion which always shows through to her younger cousins. She literally has a baby in her arms, or a child in her lap at every family gathering. It's not surprising, she is studying to be a NICU nurse. 

I used a recent snap shot for my reference. The lightest values—reflected onto the faces and clothing—came directly from the iPad screen Palmer was playing with in his lap. I had to be careful to get those lightest highlights in immediately and hang on to them. 

Here was my step-by-step process. See photos below:

 1. I started with a light pencil drawing to capture the pose and gestures of the figures, and work out the composition.

 2. Working all over the page, I began blocking in the major shapes with light washes of watercolor.

3. Then, I started adding thin transparent washes of color over the existing layers to build up all of the areas especially in the darkest areas.

4. I continue adding more and more layers until all the values were correct and I was happy with the results.  

Once the paper was completely dry, I erased most of the pencil lines. I really like my underdrawing to be slightly visible. I think it makes the painting more interesting and helps define and gather forms and shapes. 

This is the largest watercolor I have worked on in a long time, and was pleased with the outcome.

Thanks for visiting today. 
nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

1. Initial pencil drawing 

2. Blocking in

3. Begin layering 

4. Final layers added

Sweet Spot Rocker

"Sweet Spot Rocker", 30x20" oil on gallery wrap canvas

I painted this piece from a photo I took last summer in Naples, ME on the front porch of the Lakeview Inn where we were staying for a wedding. This was such a delightful place with the most  beckoning porch. I could have sat out there and rocked for days on end. Now that's relaxing at its finest. 

The reference photo for this painting wasn't the greatest as the chair was perched in heavy shade, so I had to take some creative license to make the chair, my focal point, look alive with color.

I can't figure out what category to place this painting in? There is a landscape backdrop, but the focal point is the chair? Would that be considered a still life? But, what if it was gently rocking from the wind? Would that make it a not-so-still life? I suppose if someone were sitting in the rocker would it also be considered figurative? To make this more confusing, this was a covered porch, so does that make it an interior painting? Any thoughts? Hmm? 

This piece is being donated to my church's Annual Gala for their Live Auction, so it isn't for sale, but wanted to share. 

Thank you for pausing to contemplate on the front porch.
—nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

Quiet Light

"Quiet Light", 5x8", watercolor on cold press paper 

I painted this mini watercolor of the Madonna and Child to use on my Christmas cards, sadly, most of which never made it to the post office. I had great intentions but simply ran out of time. 

I've been having great fun working in watercolor again over past few months. I love the soft translucent effects and the looseness of the media which can say things I can't get with oils. My plan for the new year is to try and work in both watercolor and oil. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and holiday. I am sending you my belated wishes along with wishes for a bright New Year. 

May Mary’s quiet light bring peace and joy to your hearts.
-nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

The Shoppers

"The Shoppers", 5x7" watercolor

I recently had a foot surgery and have been in a cast and unable to put any weight on my foot. Thus I haven't been able to stand and paint at my easel for the past three weeks. However, watercolors are the perfect solution. I can sit at my kitchen table and paint for hours on end. 

I have enjoyed getting back into the swing of painting in this odorless medium which requires minimal cleanup. I started out in watercolors many, many years ago and loved it, but didn't think the colors were screaming loud enough so I switched to oils. I'm sure I'll continue to work in oils once I am back on my feet, but may very well continue playing with watercolor. 

Hmm...perhaps I should also try finger painting? 

Here is my tiny portable setup. I love this compact little Windsor Newton product which makes art a breeze when I am traveling. 

The reference for this photo was posted on DailyPaintworks as a challenge painting.

Thanks for stopping to view my work. 

nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

San Miguel Rooftop Terrace

"San Miguel Rooftop Terrace", 5x7" watercolor
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I painted this piece a year ago while visiting in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This ancient world-heritage site with it's cobblestone roads is filled with beautiful rooftop terraces and surrounded by mountains and lush gardens. What an inspiring place to paint. 

I chose to take watercolors as my media for painting. I was afraid my oils would never get there, or would be difficult to transport on the plane. 

I hadn't painted in watercolor for many, many years but was quite pleased with how quickly it all came back...kind of like riding a bike.

Thanks for viewing,

nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

Bend in the Road

"Bend in the Road", 10x8", oil on gessobord

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Sunlight is painting.—Nathaniel Hawthorne

I snapped the reference photo for this painting in Montana right at the golden hour. The sun, rapidly setting behind the distant mountains was sweeping light like magic to create long shadows across the landscape. The tree along the bend in the road was totally lit up in the glow of the moment. This was one of those instances in your life when you know—beyond a shadow of a doubt—you were exactly where you were suppose to be at that precise moment in time...my soul on fire with joy. 

Thank you for following my work.
—nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

In the Shade of Nye

"In the Shade of Nye"6x6" oil on Gessobord
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment."   —Jane Austen

I was enthralled by the fresh, lush green vegetation hugging tightly to this tiny abandoned log cabin on my sister's property in Montana. The sun, that morning, still low in the east, was painting luminous shadows on the blanket of still-wet grass, dappled in a myriad of sparkling light. The structure sits along the edge of a large park-like cluster of trees running along the banks of the Stillwater River. 

I painted this mostly en plein air one morning, and then finished up in my studio once I returned home. Oh course this was gifted to my sister, so not for sale, but just wanted to share another memorable moment of my vacation. 

Gosh, I'd love to live in this little-one-room castle surrounded by mountains and pastures. I can't think of anything grander...especially if they install a toilet!

Thank you for stopping by today.
nancy 

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

Bounty

"Bounty" 8x10", oil on gessobord

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"The best way to know God is to love many things."

—Vincent Van Gogh

Nothing in a landscape makes me smile more than to see stacks of freshly baled hay dotting the horizon along a country farm road. This painting was of a photo I took in Montana over the summer. I could paint hay stacks over and over again. I wonder if Monet and Van Gogh might have had a similar obsession? 

Seeing bales scattered across a field gives me an inner sense of peace, causing me to reflect on the bounty of our own lives. To me, these gravestone-like-monuments are symbols representing lives of ultimate survival on the battlefield called life. Threatened by extreme weather, violent storms, lack of water, too much water, fighting off weeds and pests, the hay—with with all of its imperfections—is harvested at the perfect moment, and gathered into the bounty of a full life in all of its glory. 

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, what a perfect time to give thanks for the gift of our lives, where one day, our fruits too will be rolled into glowing bales.

Thanks for viewing,

nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

Mother of Sorrows

"Mater Dolorosa" 20x20", oil on stretched canvas

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Is there one who would not weep,
'Whelmed in miseries so deep, 
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain

From partaking in her pain,

In that mother's pain untold?

Stabat Mater - 13th-century medieval Latin hymn 

on the suffering of the Virgin Mary at the Crucifixion.

This painting is an ekphrastic response to a photograph—a friend of mine took—of a statue of Blessed Mary found in the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Mary is holding the lifeless body of her Son, who has been placed in her arms, after being taken down from the cross. 

I have rarely seen Mary depicted crying, and was deeply moved by her tearful eyes as she experienced her deepest sorrow, as foretold by Simeon at Christ's Presentation, "And you yourself a  sword will pierce". This is a grief which can only be known by a mother who has experienced the loss of a child, especially her only child. 

Here are some of stages of development:

#1. Drawing and initial block in
of Mary's face and darkest darks

#2. Begin working on skin tones, Jesus barely
visible in lower corner, background and lightest areas

#3. Further development of Mary's skin
tones, folds of fabric  

#4. Finalized, added the foot of the cross
behind Mary.

As our mother, Mary also shares in the sorrow and pain of today's world. It gives me great hope to know she is here, and suffers right alongside all of us, in the darkness of our world. She is a light of hope, the perfect example of strength, faith, trust and courage to hold onto. 

I have worked on this piece for over a year. Today is the Memorial of our Sorrowful Mother, so it seems fitting to present my/our Mother. 

—nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America

Shapes From Above the Stillwater River

"Along the Stillwater" 12x9" oil on gessobord panel
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“How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said." —Victor Hugo 

Or, maybe this quote should end with, a glance and all was said? Either way, for me, painting this was a love affair. I had so much fun abstracting the landscape down into basic shapes and colors, as if it were a jigsaw puzzle of interlocking pieces waiting to be placed into position. To coin a quote from Georgia O'Keefe, "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for."

I've been experimenting here and there, painting with the temperature of colors versus the actual colors I see. For instance, the cooler foreground was in deep shade from the house when I began to paint and the sun was low in the sky, just peeking over the mountains behind me. So I painted the closest grasses in cool purples in contrast to the warm rays of light casting out across the tallest tips of grasses, and the valley...icing tree tops and fields on its way...in a fiery blanket of light.  

I was painting from my sister's covered patio which formed an umbrella to control the light refections on my canvas, but beware standing on concrete for hours is never fun on the legs or back...no pain no gain applies.

Here's a shot of my awesome plein air set up that all fits inside my red go-anywhere backpack. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I loved painting it. 

—nancy

To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America