"Salutations to Sibs" SOLD

36x24" oil on gallery wrap canvas

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But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. 

—Khalil Gibran

I have been a lost ship over most of the past year, adrift from paints and canvas, but happy to be firmly back in port of studio with brushes as oars, anchored firmly in hand. 

Family took precedence last April as my 93-year-old mom came to live with us. Her stay turned out to be a short final voyage as she sailed off into the ether of sunset at the end of September. We were honored to care for her those last months of her life, as this is how families love each other. 

Toni Morrison said, “Your need a whole community to raise a child” but to care for a dying parent, I say, takes an entire family. This is what ultimately led me to this painting “Salutations to Sibs.”

I wasn't consciously aware of what was actually drawing me to paint this alluring sunrise from Martha’s Vineyard. It was only after I finished the piece, that I was struck by how much the harbor scene reminded me of my family each one dropping their anchor to tend to mom in many different ways. 

Boats moored at bay seemed the perfect metaphor for family. Our fleet is composed of a large variety of crafts, some strong and secure, some calm, soulful and gentle, others steadfast and reliable. Siblings may sail through life on different bodies of water scattered around distant shores, yet will always tether together when the day is over, or seas turn into rough stormy waters.

It seems appropriate to post this piece on Valentine’s Day to honor the eight loving vessels in my marina including Bob, Debby, Kitsy, Barb, Mary, Julie, Lolly and Dash. 

I love you all!  

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

FIRST PLACE WINNING ENTRY!

"Reflecting at Days End", 18x24", Oil on gallery wrap canvas

             "Even a blind chicken finds a little grain of sand every once in awhile."  — Dave Parsons 

I am thrilled to have won First Place in the Monthly Contest at Daily Paintworks, along with a $500 cash prize!!! 

The original is sold, however, a wide range of print and giclee reproductions are available in my online store. Click here to view all of the options.

Thanks for letting me toot my horn. :  ) 
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

Mooring in Light

"Mooring in Light" 30x40" Oil on gallery wrap canvas

"Hope is the anchor of our souls. I know of no one who is not in need of hope - young or old, strong or weak, rich or poor. 

— James E. Faust

I have to admit, I am hopelessly attracted to desolate boats moored in reflective waters. Taken hostage and dragged aboard by the promise of quiet stillness and solitude, I rarely put up a fight. 

To me, empty boats are a metaphor for our own small earthly vessels. Tossed about through changing tides—weathering the relentless storms life throws our way—we survive afloat tethered securely to trust and anchored in the light of hope. 

Finding such a little craft resting in the light of a breaking dawn or a setting sun always compels me to start pulling out paints and brushes. This is the latest from my boat series. It's the largest so far, 30x40" on stretched gallery wrap canvas. 

I am entering this piece in a show so it's not up for sale quite yet, but will be after March 5th. If anyone is interested please email me. All of my boat paintings are also available for reproduction as prints or on stretched canvas. 

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

At Ease

"At Ease", 18x24" oil on gallery wrap canvas

"At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun."

— Nicolaus Copernicus

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I've been working on this painting for the past couple of weeks. The photo I used was another from the amazing photographs at Vineyard Colors.

I was drawn to paint it for several reasons. First, I am always attracted to strong patterns of light and dark; the colors and somber mood entranced me; while the quiet solitude of resting boats, anchored in trust and faith that the sun will return, resonated with my tired soul moored along still waters at the end of day. 

William Penn said, "True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. For me a day without long periods of silence is a day I was not fully present. "Be still and know that I am God." 

At ease mates,
nancy


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

Reflecting at Day's End

     "Reflecting at Day's End" 18"x24", oil on gallery stretched canvas

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"I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude."  — Henry David Thoreau

Gosh, it has been three months since my last post. That's the longest gap in over five years. I feel like I've been serving time in solitary confinement. If you thought I died you are dead solid wrong. I am alive and kick'n, but had to spend the entire summer wearing my other hat, graphic design to make ends meet. Reality check!

Although I had very little time to pick up a brush this summer, I did receive a couple of awesome honors. In July, the Lone Star Art Guild Convention selected my painting, "Shuttered Repose" for 2nd Place in Professional Oil Painting Division out of 17 other art league's winning pieces. In the spring, this same piece took First Place in my local art league, and has since been juried into the Visual Arts Alliance Exhibition in Houston. This piece was one of 66 pieces of art selected out of 456 entries and will be on display until November in downtown Houston in the 1600 Smith Street Building Gallery. 

Over the summer I did do one new painting for a book cover  I was designing. Here is that piece. The author, Sandra Johnson, had taken a photo of a model holding a bouquet of flowers for her cover, but decided the photo was cropped too tightly. Hence I was commissioned to work on a painting that would incorporate more of the figure. This novel is being published by Texas Review Press.

Today's painting (show at the top of the page) is a larger piece that I am submitting to another show next weekend. I wanted to give you a sneak preview. This little dingy really snagged my oar. It was painted from a photo found online by Vineyard Colors. If you are unfamiliar with these photographers, check out their incredible daily on-location images direct from Martha's Vineyard. These folks are kind enough to allow artists to paint from their work. Here is the photo I was working from.

Okay, so that's about all the news I have for now. I have purchased lots of new art supplies and intend to be back afloat as long as my money holds out. 

Thanks for letting me come ashore. 

 nancy 

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

Pondering on a Pond

"Pondering a Pond", 12x24" oil on canvas

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There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
— Henri Matisse

I literally pause and let out an aah every time I pass by this watery oasis, which sits juxtaposed at the intersection of a major highway and a clover leaf exit off of a farm road, sandwiched between a business and railroad tracks. I've been driving past it for years, trying in vain to figure a way to gain access into this private sanctuary to paint it.

Swearing profusely that she never saw the "No Trespassing" sign until she was leaving, my friend Angela blatantly hopped a fence onto the property to photograph it after I casually mentioned my dilemma. A friend indeed, and to my total delight, the next thing I know she is sending me inside and close up photos of my masked refuge. This shot was earlier in the spring as the morning fog still blanketed the dried lingering remains of last years reeds and the barely visible new growth of water grasses softly emerging from its murky depths. 

How I wish I could live in a little cabin on the banks of this tiny haven and paint her ever-changing mirrored portrait over and over, day after day. I love the way the reeds, slumping over like exhausted guards, delineate the pond into channels of watery reflections of surrounding forest, sky and clouds. What a hidden gem coexisting side by side in the mundane of our busy lives...aah! 

Thanks for viewing my secret botanical garden. 
nancy 

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

Canals of Coexistence

"Canals of Coexistence", 10x8", oil on Gessobord

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"You probably have to have redundant levee systems with canals in between them, like the Dutch have, to make sure that incoming water is channeled off to areas where you deal with it rather than have it drown you."

 — Billy Tauzin

This piece was painted from a lovely photograph graciously sent to me by my friends, Yolanda and Bill, taken on their trip to Amsterdam. 

I never imagined the picturesque land covered by seas of tulips and windmills was in fact like another Venice? Evidently, the Netherlands lies below sea level, so Amsterdam survives with the aid of more than 150 canals and 1250 bridges. These channels of water have been central to city life there for the last four centuries.

I would love to visit this city someday and paint these picturesque canals in plein air. I'd walk the dappled paths of canals along winding streets lulled by graceful arching pathways of bending branches, and breathe in the salty sea air. 

I would guess this was snapped early morning as motionless boats and canal barges rooted to bulkhead, doze in the quiet first break of light. Sleepy-eyed-locals inside the rows of houses along the avenue are most likely sipping hot chocolate or dark coffee from Delft porcelain, while mulling over morning news before heading out into the tangled maze of tributaries weaving through the city. 

I can see this Dutch system of survival as a metaphor for maneuvering through life. The world comes at us in tidal waves of noise, with constant demands, obligations and distraction that tug us in all directions at once. There is an overwhelming sense of being swept away and swallowed by the raging waters. Mind and soul come to the rescue creating canals that divide the chaos into clear bite-size pathways of organization enabling us to float with ease across the choppy surface toward the light of new day. Oh, life is a daring adventure!

Thanks for channeling 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

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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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

Circle Lake

"Circle Lake", 10x8" oil on canvas panel

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"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." — Henry David Thoreau

This painting was taken from a photo I shot while on a retreat at Circle Lake in Magnolia, TX a number of years ago. The fall color, especially in the cypress trees at the water's edge, were stunning. The girl out on the lake canoeing was oblivious to my presence and the fact that she was posing for me. She is caught up in a moment of quiet stillness, and like the quote above, unaware of her tiny past or future; only the angle of the oar breaking the water held her serene awareness.

The oar of my brush glides along the textured canvas surface, pulling and dragging the many hues of color from shore to shore. There is nothing else in the world that exists except the small white raft, stained with crimson blood, that lies before me on calm open waters. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, dark violent storms arise threatening to sink my fragile craft. I dig in deeper to battle rough waves of value and color that pound in my head. The fear of capsizing at any moment laps at the sides of my vessel like Great Whites waiting to devour all.

I am always a little surprised when the day's journey comes to an end and I return...back to the dark room where I've been sitting for hours...to weigh in the day's catch. 

It's a rough job, but someone has to do it. : )

Thanks for floating by. 
nancy

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

Heron Lake

"Lake Heron Horizons 9x12" oil on canvas panel

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 "To be awake is to be alive."

  — Henry David Thoreau  

 

We spent all afternoon yesterday at Heron Lake in the State Park...sure could have passed for Walden's Pond. Dave fly fished and I painted the landscape. Heron Lake is a silent lake—no motorboats allowed—sailboats, kayak and canoes are the only ticket to boating on this pristine paradise. All afternoon there were dark threatening storm clouds marching in constant processions across the sky overhead. I managed to finish just as the thunder percussion section began pounding drum rolls and the lightening slashed in brilliant symbols across the mountains. It was a beautiful day spent alone in the silence of majestic wonder and awe. 

We're heading back to the lake today. There are some high rock canyons that line another stretch of the lake, so you'll be seeing more paintings of Heron Lake very soon.

I really had fun painting this one and like the way the larger 9x12" piece turned out.

Thanks for pausing to reflect here 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

River Reeds

"River Reeds" 6x6" oil on gessobord

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"Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.


— Orison Swett Marde 

This river speaks to me, so I painted it again only larger this time. For some reason, lately I have been drawn to bends in roads and rivers. I love the idea of not knowing what lies ahead. At times, our path may narrow and trickle down leading us into quiet, serene expanses of time. Spaces where life comes to a crawl, we gaze speechless at a microcosm of life on the river's sandy bottom. Like peering through a microscope at a parallel world alive with tadpoles, minnows, tiny insects floating along carefree where water ripples and dances over rocks that divide into pools, reflecting all that is.

Sometimes our path widens around the next curve and sweeps us away on rolling rapids of swollen currents which toss us about. At times we have to grab for the tall reeds or low lying branches. Life becomes a blur of faces and events rushing by—a circus of acts performed in three rings—like an endless ride on a merry-go-round, we cry to get off. 

I am  enjoying the trickle down path we are on right now and know the best is yet to be right around the next bend. 

Thank you for letting me muse 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

SOLD -Feed the Birds Cheetos?

"Feed the Birds Cheetos?" 8x8" Oil on gessobord

SOLD

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls." 

— Khalil Gibran

I snapped this amazing photo of my granddaughter last week while at the beach as she was enticing seagulls with her Cheetos Puffs. I hope she didn't turn them all into junk-food junkies. 

I wasn't sure I'd be able to capture—or, for that matter, even paint—all those birds in such a feathery-frenzy-of-flurry motion. But I am happy with the way it came out. Rather than trying to paint all the birds in full detail, I opted to paint only the largest bird with the most detail and then just loosely indicated the rest of the flock. This helped maintain the impressionist quality I love so much, allow the birds to recede in the composition and not compete too much with the foreground figure. 

* Sorry this painting sold to my daughter before I was able to post.

Thank you for dropping in 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

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

Guard Stand

"Sunburned Lifeguards" 6x6" Oil on canvas panel

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You've been walking in circles, searching. Don't drink by the water's edge. Throw yourself in. Become the water. Only then will your thirst end.   — Jeanette Berson

Dive right in. Take a refreshing plunge under the careful watch of vigilant sunburned lifeguards, on duty from their towering stands.

Author/poet John O'Donohue said "water takes on the shape of whatever contains it: jug, stream, well, river, lake, ocean, tears, rain, mist or moisture." I painted this from my studio looking out over our womb-shaped pool which beckons below. With 90 percent of the human body comprised of water, swimming... in a way... is sort of like going back into the womb, and to our first experience of existence. No wonder why we all want beach houses and lake front property.  

Thanks for testing the waters here.  

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

My graphic design business: www.graphicdesigngroup.net