Billie in the Bluebonnets

"Billie", Oil on gessobord, 9x12"
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"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

A Portrait of La La's Garden

"A Portrait of La La's Garden"
16x12"
oil on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas

"Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. —Rumi

This latest painting is of a very special garden where I visited last summer. I was commissioned by my friend, Angela, to paint a spot in her mother, La La's, garden hugged in on all sides by adobe walls nestled into high desert hills overlooking the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's here where homes magically and seamlessly blend into the rough dry, rocky backdrop like chameleons. 

Finding a scene to paint inside this hidden garden was hardly a problem as I meandering through lush gardens filled ever so delicately with a vast assortment of tall slender grasses, plants, and flowers, tucked in among shimmering aspens, pools and fountains of trickling water and rocks. Every element of the design was woven together into a patchwork of hue and texture that sparkled with light playing into shadow. 

I spent a good deal of time taking photos at different locations and times of day for reference, but finally narrowed my selection to this enchanted, mid-morning scene. The air was dry and cool with the promise of a bright sunny day as billowy white clouds churned up on the horizon. What finally won me over to this image was the beautiful path covered in soft dappled light that lured my eye through cool deep viridian shadows and then splashed onto the brilliant lime green walkway leading to the birdbath perched in full light of day. 

It was obvious La La's garden had been nurtured and developed over many years of hard work and tender loving care. I understood immediately why Angela loved this meticulously manicured paradise. This, the garden she photographed so frequently, had now become her garden. As Alice Walker said so perfectly, "In search of my mother's garden, I found my own."

Happy Mother's Day!

—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

Bathing Beauties

"Bathing Beauties", 8x8", Oil on Gessobord

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"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." —Kurt Vonnegut

Because inquiring minds want to know...I recently caught these blatant sun lovers basking alongside the busy counter top in my local coffee haunt, Panera Bread Company. These kept-women flashing highly pedicured extremities and golden tans, shamelessly lollygaged the day away gossiping from an above-ground spa. They were so transparent! For hours on end they did nothing but sit by idly making snide remarks about patrons heavy laden with assorted bagels and hot frothy lattes. 

A self-admitted paparazzi, I couldn't resist exploiting their follies on the front page of my weekly tabloid. Thank you for reading this shocking true confession.  ;  )

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

Heads Up

"Heads Up", 8x10" Oil on Gessobord

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"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." — Oscar Wilde

The sleepy head models who posed for this painting were a mom's day gift. I love sunflowers and took a ton of photos of the quintuplets sitting near my kitchen window, while sunbathing in the morning light. These little ladies are definitely not morning people, for the life of me, I couldn't get them to lift their golden heads wreathed in Rapunzel tresses, and open their big brown eyes to face the camera. Finally the one in the back popped her head up and said good morning.


I really enjoyed painting this piece which is looser and more abstract than some of my most recent work. Stretching and reaching for light myself, I tried to stay focused on my goal of not reproducing each and ever petal, but rather to capture all the spots and shapes of colors I was seeing. It was fun giving my inner child permission to come out and color outside the lines. Jim Carey had it right when he said, "If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret." 

Thank you for dropping by to play.
nancy 

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

Skinny Dipping

"Skinny Dipping", 7x5" oil on canvas board

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" I used to go skinny-dipping; nowadays its chunky-dunking."
— http://www.turquoisemoon.co.uk/blog/sayings-that-i-like/

Busted! Boy these two are in big trouble...caught red handed. See 'em blush. They stole the key and went for a midnight dip. Oh, but wait, they're only wading. I am guessing they didn't want to mess up their frilly dos. 

Thanks for sneak'n a peek.
nancy
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To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art America

Path of Light

Path of Light, 12x12", oil on stretched canvas

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“I watched the early morning light pass over and through the windows of colored glass, leaving streaks of red and green and yellow on the stone floor. When I was little, I used to try and capture the colored light. I thought I could hold it in my hand and carry it home. Now I know it is like happiness-- it is there or it is not, you cannot hold it or keep it.”

 — Karen Cushman 

 I walk by this little cabin first thing each morning just as the sun cuts along the river's path on my way to the campground showers. 

I couldn't resist painting this happy little slice in my current mountain world. The dull little structure sits adorned like a queen bedecked in jewels of Black-Eyed-Susans, clusters of miniature purple daisies and columbine. Standing guard on high alert is a small stand of shimmering aspen waving with fervor as I stroll by. 

I kept thinking any minute Hansel and Gretel might come running out the door with the wicked witch in high pursuit.  

My day started off royally and was a dandy!

Thanks for listening to my tales and for viewing my painting. 

nancy
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"Seeing Summer" 6x6" Oil on Canvas Panel 

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Summer is knocking at my door with color! I've been noticing the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are back from their winter migration in Mexico and South America. They're lapping up sugar water at my feeder like it's nectar from the gods. 

Hummingbirds along with the sight of zinnias, found at my local nursery, puts me on high alert that summer's right around the corner. When I see zinnias I always think back to my childhood and memories of my grandmother's yard. She had a huge garden filled with these sun loving performers. Hot summer days at her house always included running through her sprinkler, filling up the bird bath, sucking on ice cubes made from Kool Aid, and picking zinnia's for an awaiting vase. 

Did you know that zinnias are a part of the daisy family? Zinnias can be found in a wide assortment of colors and all with meaning. For instance the magenta zinnia denotes "lasting affection", orange "constancy", white means "goodness", yellow "daily remembrance", and according to my sources, a mixture of zinnias—like the ones I have planted on my patio and in this painting—implies "thinking of the absence of a friend."

Thanks for memories and for viewing my painting. 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. 

nancy

My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My books:  NEW 2012 Daily Planner and Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design business: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Three-lips

"Three-lips, 6x6" oil on canvas panel

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"When my arms wrap you round I press

My heart upon the loveliness 

That has long faded from the world."

—Yeats

While picking up ingredients for the Easter dinner I was preparing for our family of 20, I decided to purchase some flowers for a centerpiece. I was on a tight budget, but discovered some very ripe pink tulips, crammed into the overflowing slashed-price bucket, stuck against the back wall at Kroger for $2.99 a dozen. They were hidden from view by the more marketable, young buds with firm tight lips who were much richer and vibrant in color then these paling rejects.

Although my mid-life beauties were a bit faded and sagged a little with mouths agape, I decided they were perfect! After all, Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art." Now, I am sure she would agree this truth applies to flowers as well.

Unfortunately this bunch was catty and rude, whispering secrets to each other behind my back. These three-lips lasted just long enough for me to finish the dishes and paint them before they took their final bow and were tossed into the trash can. 
Thanks for "tip toe(ing) through my tulips" today!
nancy

My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My books:  NEW 2012 Daily Planner and Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design business: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Cana Carnival

"Cana Carnival" 5x7" oil on canvas panel

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Spring in the air! My bright fuchsia-colored azaleas are in full bloom and robins have returned on the waves of warm afternoon temps in the high seventies in this part of Texas. Meanwhile, I've been on high-visual alert for signs of resurrected friends donning billowy bonnets for my garden spring follies.

I actually painted this flamboyant redheaded Cana Lily, sometime ago. She was doing a high-kick can-can like she was expecting Toulouse-Lautrec himself to show up to paint her portrait. I have to admit, she is pretty cute even in the abstract.

 

Thanks for buzzing around my world of color. ; )

nancy

My blog: www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com

E-mail: njparsons@suddenlink.net

My books  NEW 2012 Daily Planner and Head on Down the Highway A Blog Book

My graphic design: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Flower Power

"Flower Power" 6x8" Oil on canvas panel

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I snapped the photo for this painting in my garden several years ago but never painted it. That's probably cause I didn't feel comfortable painting flowers back then. However, now that I have been painting most everyday for over a year, I am getting braver. I can't remember if these are Black Eyed Susans or Rudbekias, so I am calling this one Flower Power. Must be the influence of a book I just finished reading about the sixties. "Those were the days my friends..."

Thanks for viewing my work!

nancy 

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