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

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

I Do Believe

                                   "Juliet", 40x30", oil on gallery wrap canvas

Here's the reference photo and the start of the painting. I didn't want her arm to be cutoff 

like the photo, so the hand and arm were created from my imagination which is not easy. 

The hand had to be scrapped off and repainted three times.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." — Albert Einstein

Meet our beautiful little 6-year-old granddaughter, Juliet. This enchanted little spirit exists in a magical realm all her own.  

A true fairy princess, as most days she can be found spun amongst multiple layers of pink taffeta ruffles and netting dotted with sparkles and glitter. Her blonde tresses interwoven with jeweled crowns of leaves, flowers and butterflies, while sequined slippers hug her feet like Cinderella's gracing the ballroom floor. I watch spellbound as she sings and dances in her miniature fairy kingdom built among rocks and bushes in an outdoor garden along side of the backyard pool. She spins in a perpetual wisp of delight picking flowers for trolls and fashioning gifts of shells and moss for a local elf.  

Oh to be young again and see through the eyes of a child where life is an ongoing adventure in a never-ending secret land of enchantment and discovery. What was it that made us stop seeing? 

My painting was from a simple snap shot of her playing outside with the sun bouncing rays off the blondness of her sprite self. I hope that in some way it will always be a reminder to her of the uniqueness and wonder seen through her eyes and harbored in her soul. May she never forget or stop believing.

I do believe, I do believe, I do believe... 

Thanks for viewing my latest work.

nancy

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

The Beach Boy

The Beach Boy, 10x8" Oil on Gessobord

SOLD 

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." — Mother Teresa

Today's painting is a recently commissioned piece. The photo reference I worked from was 20+ years old and so faded there was very little color still visible in the well worn image. However I have found over time, that if I pay close attention and focus in on each and every individual value shift, adding color isn't really a problem as long as I apply the same values found in the reference. In this reference there were also sand dunes in the background, so using a little creative licensing, I decided to add the cooler blue-green ocean behind this little beach goer for added color and contrast to his sun kissed flesh tones, and to also mimic his luminous sky-blue orbs. 

When I paint a portrait, I really have to completely forget that I am working on a portrait and not even try to think about capturing an exact likeness, or I will freeze up faster than a drop of water landing on the apex of the North Pole. I try to work all over the panel focusing on and breaking it all down into shapes formed by shadows, mid-tones and highlights. Once I am able to isolate a specific shape and value, and recreate that same value, each spot becomes a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Somehow when I adhere to this limited focus approach, magically a little boy begins to emerge out of the paint. I might not always get an exact likeness, but somehow the underlying spirit and energy seems to rise out of the chaos.

I am not a great painter, only a very insignificant artist struggling to survive in a world surrounded by so many other more talented and formally educated masters. My desire is to disappear into the ocean of my work and experience over and over the tides of joy creating at the foot of the Master. That is enough. 

Thanks for dropping in today!
nancy

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

Laura Elizabeth

"Laura Elizabeth", 24x24", oil on canvas

"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you." 

— Khalil Gibran

This painting hardly does justice to my beautiful daughter, Laura. I only wish we'd had the luxury of time to set up a live pose of her draped among loose folds of long white flowing linen, standing before a window bathed in cool Northern light. I could have spent days upon days trying to capture that wild Celtic hair, jewel-like blue green eyes and gentle loving spirit.

Time passes so quickly, a busy mom with two very active teenagers, she works as a full-time high school counselor. Day-after-day she faces one critical or life-threatening situation after the next, listening and responding with heart, mind and soul despite her own debilitating battles and suffering from Lyme's disease. I feel her pain, share in her sorrows, and find gladness in her joy. She is an authentic beacon of light and truth shining in the darkness.

I quickly snapped this photo reference of her in a rare still moment, as she sat on my couch checking emails, most likely responding to a problem with one of the students. I stand gawking in wide-eyed wonder at the incredible human being she has somehow morphed into right before my very eyes. How is it that all of this goodness was allowed to come through me? I am so honored to be her mom. 

Another of my precious children, please meet Laura. 
nancy 

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

Snips, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

Snips, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails 8x8" oil on museum quality Gessobord

"Older people sit down and ask, 'What is it?' but the boy asks, 'What can I do with it? — Steve Jobs

Boys will be boys! The look on this little guys face, speaks volumes. For this portrait, the photo I was working from included a lot more dried dirt streaked across his face from an obvious recent adventure in the mud. I left most of his well-achieved war paint off, but had to keep enough so the viewer would appreciate the am-I-in-trouble-now expression in his eyes. Obviously his mom saw this as a priceless moment when she snapped the photo. According to English poet Robert Southey (1774–1843) 

 What are little boys made of   

Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails 

And such are little boys made of.

I am reminded of my own young children years ago, while on a hike through the woods, and having to dutifully instruct them by example, the fine art of taking the full measure of a high-high mud pond. What great mucky fun and a wonderful memory we still talk about to this day. Who says girls don't have a little snip and snail in their souls? "Sugar, spice and everything nice" is just plain boring.

This one is a commissioned painting so not for sale, but thank you for viewing.

nancy 

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

Simple Pleasures

"Simple Pleasures", 8x8", oil on museum quality Gessobord

​"That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest."  

                          — Henry David Thoreau

This painting was a commissioned piece, so not for sale. However, I wanted to share the memory of a simple childhood moment that brought such great pleasure and refreshment on a hot, steamy summer afternoon growing up in St. Louis.

I think I derived as much pleasure painting this as I did as a child partaking of a cherry popsicle...that is, as long as it didn't stick to my tongue. When it's all said and done, it really is the simple things in life that provide the greatest joy.​


Thanks to all who stopped by my booth last Sunday at the Bentwater Fine Arts Fair. I had a great time and sold four paintings! I was delighted to meet a couple of followers of this blog, who drove out just to meet me. Wow, that was an honor! 

The winner of the drawing for a set of my Songbird Note Cards was Belinda Faulkner. Congratulations, Belinda!


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

SOLD -Samantha's Straw Hat

"The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions."   

                              —Marcus Tullius Cicero

I thought I'd share a commissioned piece I've been working on from a photograph. Meet Samantha, she's the granddaughter of my friend Carol Ann. I haven't worked on a lot of portraits, but really enjoyed this one. I am finding there really is not a lot of difference between painting a still life, landscape or portrait as long as you forget about trying to create a likeness and instead focus in to try and duplicate all the values, shapes and colors changes where you see them. Somewhere in the process, as if by magic, the spirit of the subject emerges through all the dabs of paint. Isn't she a cutie!

Thanks for viewing my painting of Samantha. 
nancy
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