Fall in Colorado

 My husband and I spent a few days up in Breckenridge, CO, for our anniversary.  The aspens were a blaze of yellow and yellow-orange.  The sky was the bluest blue.  You can't find a more beautiful place to visit.

These photos were all taken from the deck of our condo.  The top one was about 9 in the morning, the lower two were at about 4 in the afternoon.  I wish we had had a dusting of snow on those above timberline peaks, but it's still a good shot.

"ASPEN LEAF SERIES 8 & 9," 10140, 10141 daily painter metallic leaf collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

These two are the latest in my leaf series.  Each one is on a mounted board measuring 24x5.5 inches.  The leaves are cut from painted water color paper with the edges slightly curled to increase the depth.  The background on both paintings has a mixture of metallic paints giving each piece a soft glow.

The entire surface is coated with a thick layer of crystal clear epoxy resin which enhances the saturation of color, secures the leaves in place, and protects the painting.

I love doing these leaf collages because I can go wild with the colors.  Blue and purple leaves???  I've never seen blue or purple aspen leaves, but maybe I just haven't seen those particular trees...

For purchase information, please see my website by clicking here.

Tulip Party, 10139, daily painting textured floral © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This is a heavily textured floral painting on water color paper, using flexible modeling paste to sculpt the flowers.  Even though it is heavily textured, it has a water color "feel" to it. I used it as a demo for my Creating With Acrylics class to show them how versatile acrylic paints can be.


The image is 8x8 inches, but when the mat is included, the final dimensions are 12x12.





Please click here to go to my website for purchase information.

"THE HAUNTED", 10138, daily painter original abstract collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I created this 6x6 abstract collage do demonstrate to my class how to do a gel transfer.
There is an image I cut out of a magazine in there, but with successive painting and layering of collage papers, about all that remains of the transferred image is that red rectangle in the upper center.  That rectangle was a window in the original photo.

The whole composition reminded me of a haunted house. I should have photographed the transfer before I started working on it so you could see how this painting evolved.

The whole idea of gel transfers is to use them as a starting point in abstract composition.  They are also useful to transfer an image of a person. I've seen some really cool compositions with old sepia toned photos.  Make sure the photos of people are YOUR OWN, or you may run into copyright issues.
This painting is available for $100, including shipping in the US/Canada.  Click here to go to my website for purchase information.

"FLOWER BUCKET," 10137, daily painter original floral painting © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This loosely painted bucket of flowers was just fun to paint.  The flowers pretty much flow into one another giving a painterly image.

The bucket is loaded
with several colors, reflecting the flowers and the table.

For purchase information on this 6x6 oil on panel, please click here for my website.

SOLD!

Here are just five of the sixteen paintings that sold at my Castle Rock ARTFEST show last weekend. While the show I did a couple weeks ago was mostly floral paintings, in this show I wanted to feature only my abstract work.

I am very pleased that my final outdoor show of the year was so successful. I also have three commission pieces to work on, so I'm going to be very busy - but busy is what every artist wants to be at their labor of love.

It's kind of odd that of the five outdoor shows I did this year, one was my worst show ever and one was my best show ever. It's a crazy business.

World's Cutest Dog - PRECIOUS NELSON

I got Precious a new squeaky toy. She won't let it out of her sight and all I hear is squeak-squeak-squeak.

I won't be painting the next few days. My last outdoor show of the season is this weekend at the Castle Rock (CO) ARTFEST. This is a great juried show with artists from all over the country.

Stop by Booth 71 to say hi. I'm featuring only abstract work in this show.

"GERRY," 10136, daily painter original portrait © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This pleasant looking fellow is the husband of a lady who participated in my 100 PORTRAITS project. She thought it would be nice to have one of her husband done in the same size and style.
What a great idea!
This painting is sold.

I've done two portraits in a row now, and I think I'm getting back in the swing of it. I so enjoyed doing that project. I can name every face in the book without looking at the name.

"BENJAMIN," 10135, daily painter portrait © Carol Nelson Fine Art

If this little cutie looks familiar, it's because I painted him as part of my 100 Portraits project earlier this year. When I posted his portrait on my blog back in April, a couple on the East coast purchased it.
Benjamin's family lives in New Mexico and they had not even turned on their computer yet. So I had to tell the first people that I would paint them another version of Benjamin because, to be fair, his family should have first dibs on the painting.
This painting is sold.