To Sit and Stare

"To Sit and Stare", 24x18" oil on gallery wrap canvas, framed

      What is life if, full of care 

      We have no time to stand and stare? 

No time to stand beneath the boughs 
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

       — W. H Davies, Welsh poet and writer from his poem,"Leisure"

I love these lines. No matter if you stand and stare, or sit in a chair and stare, whatever your method, just take time to stare. After all, what is life if we miss the magic? 

I love to stare from my favorite blue chair in spring under pin oaks and crape myrtles on dappled carpet of cool Pthalo and slashes of brightest warm lime. Overhead in a gap of perched sky, edges tatted by lace of leaves, hangs a lingering ghost of moon waiting to be pealed away like a transparent sticker. 

Wren fledglings dart back an forth from low lying branches of budding gardenias, diving again and again, dipping fluttering wings into the shallow water bowl in utter delight. 

Bees sucking nectar, appear mystically suspended midair, as they joust from tips of spindly arms supporting the pink stars of delicate Guara, also known as Whirling Butterfly. 

And there's my dog, laying flat bellied on the warm cement in the largest mat of sunlight he can find. His paws outstretched like a yogi master, deep in meditation with eyes transfixed and half closed to reveal brilliant sparkles of purest glowing white. He knows how to stare. 

  

Today's painting is a larger piece 24x18" and is framed. It will be on exhibit and for sale in the CAL Gallery in Conroe, TX throughout June and July.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.

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

 

Watch on the Wild Side

"Watch on the Wild Side", 4x4" oil on black canvas board

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"The call of the wild is a call to the elemental levels of the soul, the places of intuition, kinship, swiftness, fluency and the consolation of the lonesome that is not lonely."

— John O' Donohue

Swallowed alive by the demands of the holiday season, it felt good to return to the solitary retreat of my loft studio, brushes, the smell of paint, and the hours of quiet that sustain with the fullness of silence. 

I sat for a long time today watching a myriad of wintering birds fluttering from limb to limb outside my window. They darted in and out of dry seed pods at the tips of barren crepe myrtles, creating lacy umber patterns against the cold blue sky. Under the empty bird feeder, a small flock of morning dove peck and forage for scraps rudely knocked to the ground by a rowdy band of squirrels. These uninvited guests barge in and squander while hanging upside down from the fast-food diner in search of the choicest entrees of corn and sunflower seeds. 

Just over the fence, the noisy celebration continues among a lush canopy of loblolly pine, sweetgum, oak, magnolia, dogwood, just to name a few. Shrouding a host of low lying natives, this piece of forest provides protection for a multitude of bird-loving plants, berries, grasses and shrubs like: american beautyberry, black cherry, pigeonberry, turkscap, redbud, yaupon holly, maiden hair fern, trumpet and grapevines, dwarf palmetto, and hundreds of others whose names I am unfamiliar.

Today was just another extraordinary day camouflaged in the ordinary.

Thanks for viewing today's songbird the Wood Thrush. Happy New Year!

nancy

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

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

Long Shadows on Longmire Road

"Long Shadows on Longmire Road" 16x20" Oil on stretched canvas

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 "Dreaming or awake, we perceive only events that have meaning to us." —Jane Roberts

This stretch of Longmire Road, where I walk my dog in the early evenings, never ceases to stop me dead in my tracks. If you think I'm making this up, here's the photo I snapped on my phone. I admit I've taken a little artistic license in the painting and did push the colors a tad, but isn't it an enchanted spot?

This is a place where if you become very quiet and listen carefully you can hear deep within a melody of gratefulness begin to arise.

It's also at this mysterious and serene time of day, that two age-old antagonists—light and darkness—enter the arena for another showdown. Light grabs hold tight, while the determined opponent attacks in quick jabs, stabs, pulls and stretches. When little resistance is left, darkness delivers one final death defying blow that flattens into dark rivers and flat puddles of flickering shadow. Light, admitting defeat, lays lifeless until dawn.                                                                                            "In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved." —John of the Cross

       Thanks for coming along on my walk today.
       nancy  
       
       © 2013 nancy parsons

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

Out On A Limb

"Out On A Limb" 8x10" oil on gessobord

Painting from a photo by photographer and avid hiker, Angela Fletcher.

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"Life's not the breaths you take, but the moments that take breath away."—George Strait

I didn't get to paint or post last week due to the graphic design work load along with an attack of annual oak pollen crud. But, I'm back in the saddle now...or at least have a paint brush in my hand again. 

I love the George Strait quote above. It was the answer to yesterday's Celebrity Cipher puzzle in our local newspaper. By my own admission, I am a Cipher, Jumble, Crossword addict. 

When it comes to choosing a landscape to paint, I literally can have the breath knocked right out of me when encountering beautiful scenery sitting in perfect light. It's then, stopped dead in my tracks, that I hear the signal telling me I have got to paint it. I may be out on a limb here, but maybe it's the other way around? Perhaps when a landscape grabs my eye and pulls so strongly at my heart strings, the scene is really choosing me out everybody else in the world, at that one moment in time, to paint its portrait? Hmm...What a honor and a joy to be an artist!

Thanks for pausing for a breath or two.

nancy 

© 2013 nancy parsons

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

SOLD -All That Glitters

"All That Glitters" Oil on gessobord" Painting from photo by Angela Fletcher

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Somewhere out at the edges, the night

Is turning and the waves of darkness

Begin to brighten the shore of dawn. 

 The heavy dark falls back to earth

And the freed air goes wild with light

The heart fills with fresh, bright breath

And thoughts stir to give birth to color." 

                            

 —John O'Donohue, Matins

All that glitters can be gold. Sometimes it's the sun shooting beams over a mountain peak like a laser, firing in rapid succession.
Spouting and spewing its milk and honey glow over all that lies in its path. Like an eruption of shimmery lava, transforming light races down sides of mesas and hills, oozing its way freely to fill entire valleys, and gobbling up the dark like an enormous shark on a feeding frenzy. This ghostly lion trainer cracks its whip, forcing the wild and untamed back into molded cages of form, shape and color...reclaiming what was stolen by the night.  
  
Thanks for peeking in on my pot of gold today. 
nancy

© 2012 nancyparsons
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To see more of my art or to contact me: 
Gallery  •  Blog  • NEW Website • E-mail  • Graphic Design Studio

Another Day in Paradise

"Another Day in Paradise 6x6" oil on canvas panel

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"Such golden earth-light is the natural sister of shadow and cradle of illumination." 

— John O'Donohue

In his book, Anam Cara A Book of Celtic Wisdom,  John O'Donohue says, "the world has become so familiar to us we no longer see it anymore." Sadly we've grown accustom to racing through the world wearing numbness blinders to what surrounds us. I guess we unconsciously think we know what's there, so we don't think of looking again?

It's interesting to note that the human eye selects what it wants to see. This photo at first glance may appear as an ordinary street scene in Taos, NM. Nothing special here, just a couple of people walking down a street with parked cars. In fact, it's so ordinary this same scene could be found in any city in the world. Luckily the speed limit was only 20 miles per hour or I might have missed it also. Now look again, look at the sky filled with bright clouds in a backdrop of majestic mountains. Colors appear on dappled pavement from cool shadows of looming telephone poles and signs, lofty graceful trees shade the baked adobe shops lining the street with their branches.

Simple awareness shines a spotlight on ordinary objects waiting in light and shadow to bring joy to your day. Perhaps we should ask ourselves at the end of each day, what did I really see today? What was special? 

Thanks for strolling by and seeing my painting.  

nancy
_____________________________________________________
To see more of my art or to contact me:  

Gallery  •  Blog  • NEW Website • E-mail  • Graphic Design Studio

Pond-ering Thoreau

"Pond-ering Thoreau" 8x10" Oil on gessobord

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"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature." - 9. The Ponds, Walden, Henry David Thoreau

Did you think you were looking at this upside down? This abstract landscape was painted from another one of my friend Angela's inspiring photos, capturing looking glass reflections of aqua sky and surrounding forest. Sparkling on the silent stillness of another "Walden's" pond, the aqueous pool was dotted with a flotilla of lily pads, all set a sail in the early morning chill. A bare low-lying branch with willowy outstretched arms, hovers just above half submerged logs breaking the water's surface, and forming bridges for sun loving turtles.

And where was Monet for all this?

Thanks for pausing and reflecting on my work 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: www.graphicdesigngroup.net

Tree and My Shadow

"Tree and My Shadow" 6x8" Oil on canvas panel

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This is a scene I pass by most every evening, as I take my little dog for his daily constitutional. We walk by about the same time each day, just as the sun is setting behind the lush, sprawling grounds of a Memory Care facility.  

I love the play of light and dark, and how the trees create giant shadows which lazily stretch their way across the road. As if to the beat of a silent melody, sleepy shadows seem in pose for evening salute to the drooping sun. However, these same shadows could also be seen as the bars of a prison cell, metaphors for the expanding darkness in the minds of residents sheltered securely inside...brains held captive...blocked from the light of fading memories.

Light shines on us all but like trees, we can block the light to only see darkness lying before us. How do you see this painting, light or dark? 

Thanks for viewing my work!

nancy

FREE SHIPPING WITHIN USA
I am offering FREE shipping within the U.S. on all paintings in my Daily Paint Works and Etsy stores. These small paintings work great in groups of two or more, and add interest and charm to an entry, kitchen, bath, sitting on a bookshelf, or other small areas.

INTERNATIONAL PURCHASES AND SHIPPING:  Shipping charges are based on actual weight, contact me directly to arrange for online payments and shipping cost.

Fall is in the Air

"Fall is in the Air" 6x8" Oil on canvas panel 

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On my second day in New Hampshire, the sun finally muscled its way through high banks of clouds to reveal patches of promising azure. This was my big moment! I packed up all my painting gear and hiked back to White Park to plein air alongside the footpath surrounding the lake. 

By the time I had set up my easel and squeezed the myriad of little puddles onto my palette, the sun had already gotten the ball rolling. Filtering in through deep-shadowy sentinels of limbs and trunks, she masterfully brushed brilliant lime-green in wide sparkling streaks across the cool viridian slopes. The seasonal ticket holders crimson, burnt orange and harvest yellow—all fluttering in the crisp morning breeze—went wild in applause at the stunning performance.

Unaffected by any of the commotion, a flock of hungry Mallards cruised the lake in silent single-file order—weaving their way through dried reeds, cattails and low hanging Willow tresses—perhaps in search of a tasty minnow or a breadcrumb left by a child....Ah, the gift of it all!!!

Thanks for tagging along for the ride!
nancy
 

FREE SHIPPING
I am offering FREE shipping within the U.S. on all paintings in my Daily Paint Works and Etsy stores. These small paintings work great in groups of two or more, and add interest and charm to an entry, kitchen, bath, sitting on a bookshelf, or other small areas.