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

Montana Moments

"Montana Solitude" 6x6" oil on Gessobord
SOLD

"Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness." —Rumi

I painted this plein air piece on the first morning we arrived in Montana, from atop of the hill where my sister and brother-in-law's main house is perched. Gazing out across the property I noticed the isolated house off in the distance. It lay nestled in the lap of golden valley, surrounded by looming mountains, donned with a touch of lingering snow on the farthest peak. The house looked a bit vulnerable, as if it were about to be devoured and disappear into the foreboding shadowy background.

As the morning ended I realized, I was the one who had been swallowed up, up into the delightful solitude of the moment. 

Painting is always my medium of choice to disappear into a day! 

Thanks for viewing,
nancy

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

Watercolor Sketches from Colorado

5x7" Aspen in Light
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Here are four watercolors from a recent stay in Crystola, Colorado on our return from Montana. The lime-tinted aspens are magnificent...shaking and shimmering in the light and cool mountain breezes...sounding like reminiscent tones of an indian paint stick. Enchanting and mystical!  

5x7" Tool Shed
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This watercolor features a tiny tool shed emerging from shadows, perched in the morning light and surrounded by majestic pines. It beckons to be painted. I am sure it's buried in snow most of the winter, but for now it surfaces to bask in the the sun like a tired turtle resting on a warm rock. 

I think it was smiling?  

7x5" Crystola I
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This was one of the views from the house where we were staying. It overlooks the rolling highway that leads to Manitou and Colorado Springs. What a joy to simply stand with the feel of wind and sun on my face. 

For watercolors, I like to do a light pencil sketch of the scene before I begin applying paint. I used a limited palette which required a lot of mixing to obtain all the different greens. To convey a feeling of depth and distance, I used soft and cool colors, saving the warmest hues for the foreground/center of interest. 

7x5" Crystola II
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All of our evenings at the Crystola house culminated outdoors before a roaring fire, sipping wine, and listening to music under the blanket of Milky Way. Here is how the area appears during the light of day. Unfortunately, one evening we had to conduct a funeral for an unfortunate hummer who had flown into the house the night before. Poor little thing never found its way back out the door to the freedom of sky, but rather collapsed from exhaustion into a sconce. During the cremation ceremony, we all stood with hands over hearts singing "You Got a Friend in Me" until at last the tiny shrouded body flew up in embers to light up the night sky. So sad!


So that's all of the watercolors I wanted to share. I'll start post a few oil painting I also completed on our trip, so stay tuned as we Head on Down the Highway of life. 

Thanks for viewing.
—nancy

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

Watercolor Sketches from Montana

5x7" "Flying the Stillwater"
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7x5" "Wood Ranch, Nye I"
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7x5" "Wood Ranch, Nye II
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7x5" "Wood Ranch, Nye III"
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Heading back on down the highway once again...we were blessed to have spent some time in Montana this month on my sister and brother-in-law's glorious property. These watercolor sketches are some of the views from their lovely home which nestles on a hill along the Stillwater River in Nye, Montana.

I hadn't painted with watercolor in years, but loved the easy setup and no-fuss cleanup. I also love the looseness and transparency this medium provides.

I have a few more sketches from our next stop in Colorado which I'll post tomorrow.

Thanks for following my journey.
—nancy

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

Billie in the Bluebonnets

"Billie", Oil on gessobord, 9x12"
Not for Sale

"Sometimes,  when I see my granddaughters make small discoveries of their own, I wish I were  a child."  —Dr. Seuss

This portrait was painted for a dear friend of her beautiful granddaughter, Billie, posed in one of the many fields of bluebonnets here in East Texas every spring.

I haven't painted much over the past year or so. I tend to beat myself up for not picking up my brushes, but have come to accept the fact that there really is a time and a season for everything. Nothing stays the same, things come and go at certain unforeseen periods of our lives and we are powerless to try and resist.

I feel my soul has been wondering in a dry desert...which is not a bad thing. I recognized the need for desert time and gave myself permission to honor that space. I believe this has been a period of gestation and rebirth. I am hopeful this is the budding of a new spring with renewed energy, creativity and discovery. The best is yet to be!

Thank you for viewing.
-nancy

To see more of my art click here, or one one of these additional links: Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Saatchi Gallery • Fine Art America