I'm Toot'n My Horn

I am honored to have my painting, Shuttered Repose accepted into the Visual Arts Alliance (VAA) 33rd Annual Juried Membership Exhibition. The show is open to the public until November 20, and is located at 1600 Smith St., Houston, TX in the 1600 Smith Street Gallery.





Other wonderful news, my painting, Reflecting at Days End was awarded 1st Place and "Best in Category" in the Conroe Art League's Fall Show.

These announcements have been all over Facebook, but wanted to share with my loyal followers. 

Thank you all for your encouragement and support for 
my work. 
nancy



To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art

CAL Fall Art Show - 1st & 2nd Place Ribbons

I was truly honored that two of my paintings received awards in the Conroe Art League's Fall Show on Saturday. "Silent Repose" received 1st Place Professional Oil Painting Division, and "A Touch of Spring" received 2nd Place.

The show was judged by Houston artist Arielle Masson, her biography states, "Although born in Mexico in 1961, I grew up in Brussels, Belgium, and then went on to the University in Paris to complete a Master of Literature and postgraduate studies in Linguistics at La Sorbonne. After moving to Houston in 1986, I studied Fine Arts/Painting at the University of Houston, I have extensively exhibited in Museums and Galleries throughout Texas." 

Arielle currently teaches at The Glassell School of Art and The University of St. Thomas. 
 
To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art America

SOLD -Bridges of Bexar County

 

"Bridges of Bexar County" 10x8" oil on gessobord

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"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."— Jim Rohn

The River Walk is a public park consisting of a network of walkways, along the banks of the San Antonio River, that wind and loop one story beneath approximately five miles of downtown San Antonio. The viaduct passes under numerous limestone footbridges which connect the parallel sidewalks lined with cypress trees, restaurants, shops, hotels, bars and restaurants. Today's painting features one of the bridges in a small section of the thronged passageway of tourists.   

If you stop and think about it bridges are pretty remarkable, the subject matter of photographers, musicians, artists and movies. You can build bridges, travel under, or cross over a bridge when you come to it. You can wear a bridge, whole or partial; or simply be a bridge. Sea captains issue orders from bridges, and glasses sit squarely on top of them. But in London, do beware, bridges reportedly are "falling down." You can burn bridges, play bridge, bridge gaps—or if your daring—jump off a bridge. Danielle Steel said, "Sometimes, if you aren't sure about something, you have to just jump off the bridge and grow wings on your way down." 

Perhaps this has taken a bridge too far, yet bridges perform such thankless tasks of uniting opposing sides; they stand at perpetual attention, forever frozen in time like stoic soldiers holding up their end of some unwritten oath of allegiance to support and connect lives.

Thanks for crossing my path today. Go build bridges.
nancy
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To see more of my art or to contact me: 
Online Gallery  • E-mail  • Graphic Design Studio

Graceful Grazer

"Graceful Grazer" 16x20" Oil on stretched canvas

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"Horses make a landscape look beautiful."

—Alice Walker

Horses are so beautiful...they don't even look real. This landscape had little redeeming value, but this stepper totally charmed me.

I came across this beauty while searching for a place to park at Old Town Spring. This is a 1900s historic railroad town featuring antiques, galleries, gift/specialty shops and restaurants, located not far from where I live. 

I stopped there briefly over St. Patrick's Day weekend while the whistle-stop was crammed full of tourists. I had to park way in the back on a field near the railroad tracks. As I was getting out of my car, I looked up and was stopped dead in my tracks by this graceful creature grazing in a small pasture behind a little cabin/house. I'm lucky I didn't get shot walking around—basically trespassing—to snap some photos. Oh well, what's life if it's not a daring adventure? I had to take a chance, or miss an opportunity that might never trot my way again. 

Thanks for please not turning me over to the authorities. :  )

nancy
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To see more of my art or to contact me: 
Online Gallery  • E-mail  • Graphic Design Studio

San Juan River

"San Juan River" 6x6" oil on canvas panel
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"I shall be a master at this art only after a great deal of practice.”

          — Erich Fromm

I finished up this painting from the bank of Colorado's San Juan River here in Pagosa Springs, just as those threatening clouds in my photo tried to rain on my parade. Luckily I was only about 25 yards from our camper and made it back dry as a bone. The forecast here is for rain everyday for the next week.  UGH! Oh well, that's all part of camping. 

It's been fun and challenging to paint rivers and streams for a change of pace. I hope you all don't get river sick. It's a wonderful opportunity for me to practice painting these inspiring mountain landscapes. I certainly never get to do that in Texas. The rivers all over New Mexico and Colorado are very low due to the drought from last year, however there is always a silver lining. The river is low but the rocks and sandy bottom comes alive—illuminated in the sunlight—with rich warm earth tones to complement the blue sky so perfectly.

Thank you following my trek around Pagosa Springs and for viewing my painting today.  

nancy

To view all of my available paintings in my gallery click here http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/nancy-parsons-122  

* Sold pieces are marked with a red dot.

My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

My website:http://www.njparsons.fineartstudioonline.com
E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My book: Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design studio: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Rivers and No Rivers

"River Walk Diners" 12x9" Oil on canvas panel

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 "Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."

  — Winnie the Pooh, teddy bear  

 

Here is another painting of the River Walk in San Antonio. This one took me three days to complete with so much detail. I've had quite a few folks interested in the previous River Walk painting I posted, so thought I'd do another. 

The river here in Chama is very low at our campsite. We are hoping to find a better site to fish and paint in the local vicinity today. We were told last night that there have been bears—as in not teddy bears— coming through the site. EEKS!...and I always have to get up in the middle of the night and walk to the facilities. You can bet I'll be watching my back. 

Thanks for floating by today.

 

nancy

 

To view all of my available paintings in my gallery click here http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/nancy-parsons-122  

* Sold pieces are marked with a red dot.

My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My book: Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design business: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Down By The Bay

Down By The Bay 10x8" Oil on gessobord

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"All rivers, even the most dazzling, those that catch the sun in their course, all rivers go down to the ocean and drown. And life awaits man as the sea awaits the river."

~Simone Schwarz-Bart

In case you've been wondering where I have disappeared to for the past couple of weeks, we've been camping on Lake Conroe, and then spent six days on Galveston Island. I painted most every day, but was unable to post without any Wi-Fi service. Drats! Oh well, at least I have some new work ready to post this week.

This painting was a killer! I painted it plein air in 100 degree weather while battling countless armies of the hungriest bay-area mosquitoes I've ever encountered. As the sacrificial lamb, I am still covered with bites, but what the heck...somebody had to do it. ; )

Here's a photo of my granddaughter Hayley feeding the gulls with scraps of bread. This was out on the deck of the house where we were staying. It was a perfect spot located on the canals and overlooking the coastal bay. The surrounding sights were an estuary of delights. The warm sea grasses dotted the water's banks and surface in bright green patches dotted with an array of scavengers including: heron, egrets, gulls and pelicans swooping down for a catch.   

Thank you for floating by to view my painting.   
nancy
 

To view all of my available paintings in my gallery click here http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/nancy-parsons-122  * Sold pieces are marked with a red dot.
My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My book: Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design business: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Show Your True Colors

10x8" oil on canvas

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Do you think these Texas trees are dressing up for a masquerade ball? Check out those December colors! So where has all this color been hiding? For some reason, in spite of the worst drought on record in Texas with only half our normal rainfall, East Texas witnessed the most gorgeous fall color I have ever seen in this part of the country. The only problem was it didn't decide to manifest itself until right before Christmas! Now there is just something not right about hanging Christmas lights on trees that are still full of leaves and fall colors. I am not complaining mind you, but it has been a very unusual year. Who knows maybe we'll be blessed with snow this year?

Thanks for following along and viewing my work!

nancy

Get organized, place an order for my NEW 134-page, Not-So-Still Life-2012 Daily Planner (as seen on my blog), featuring 13 paintings from 2011. Available for purchase online, just click to view all the pages and add to your shopping cart.

When, When Little Wren?

"When, When Little Wren?" 6x6" oil on Ampersand board

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When, oh when, little Carolina Wren?...Will warmer weather come again? 

BRR! It was 26 degrees on my thermometer here in Conroe, Texas this morning. I get up at 4:30 a.m. several mornings a week (or is that still the middle of the night?) to swim laps at a local outdoor pool, covered only by an unheated tent. When I returned to my car after this morning's swim, it was so cold, I had to scrape ice off my windshield with a credit card in order to drive home....now that's cold!!! I know I can't complain compared to others in many parts of the world but it's all relevant.

NOTE: No matter what I do, I always end up having to post blurry photographs of my work. So, I am experimenting with scanning my paintings on my flatbed scanner directly to my computer. The quality sure looks a lot better and much more accurate. It's a tricky process since my paintings are always wet, but I took four paper clips and placed one under each corner of the painting, just barely catching the tips of the corners, so nothing would touch the glass except the paper clips. After scanning, I touched up the tiny bits of paper clip that were visible in the final image in Photoshop. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for dropping by!

nancy