"AUTUMN SONG," 10163

"AUTUMN SONG"

side

detail

This piece is a true mixed media painting.  It has suede leather, aluminum foil, patterned felt, wc paper, and burlap on a textured panel.  I worked on this painting on and off all last week.  There were several points where I applied some part and then had to wait overnight for the gel medium to dry.

Originally, I was playing around using real aspen twigs in the piece.  I collected several twigs from the yard and tried to incorporate them into the design.  Aspen branches do not grow flat! I could have overcome that problem, but my biggest concern was what would happen to them over time - would they deteriorate?  I coated some with gel medium and they looked great, but I still was worried about the longevity. If anyone out there has any experience with using real tree branches in artwork, I would like to know about it.

For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

HOLIDAY COUPON

SAVE 10% ON ANY ORIGINAL PAINTING Browse through my website of original works. Take 10% off the listed price. Discount applies to small daily paintings as well as larger works. Does not apply to commissions.

Expiration: 12-31-2010

Carol Nelson Fine Arthttp://www.carolnelsonfineart.com Please email me for the new price.

"GRAND CANYON 3," daily painter geologic abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"GRAND CANYON 3"

This painting is one that is worthy of a showcase spot. The companion piece to this one was purchased by the City of Lone Tree, Colorado, and hangs in the civic center. It is 48 x 24 inches, so size alone makes it an imposing piece.  The inspiration for this geologic abstract comes from the Sky Walk over the Grand Canyon.  The view is looking down into the canon.

For purchase information, click here to go to my website.

Poster Features My Painting

The University of Colorado put on this production of Our Town recently.  Somehow they found this image of a watercolor I did TEN years ago.  It shows the Denver skyline at sunset.  Anyone who lives here knows it's Denver by the shape of that building in the center.  They asked permission to use the painting on their posters, and of course I said yes. 
I am frequently asked permission to use an image of my work in advertising and promotional materials.  I think it's a good idea for artists to approve these requests because getting your work OUT THERE is the name of the game.  If they offer a use fee, all the better.

"CELEBRATION OF BLUE", mixed media abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"CELEBRATION OF BLUE"

This mixed media abstract contains metals pewter and aluminum on a textured panel.  For purchase information, click here to go to my website.

"TRELLIS" 10162, daily painter textured abstract floral © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"TRELLIS" 10162

This painting is a testament to the fact that an artist with a messy studio is more apt to come up with creative approaches to a painting.  The basic floral painting here was kind of ho-hum.  I made it to demonstrate for my class how a random field of texture and color could be made into something recognizable and exciting.  Well, mine was recognizable, but far from exciting.
So it laid around on my worktable for two weeks.  Meanwhile, I'm working on other things.  Today I noticed that some strips of painted watercolor paper lying the chaos on my table were in a similar color palette to the painting.
I moved things around until I got to this composition.  I just like the way it looks - nice color harmony and interesting composition.  It's a floral painting that makes you STOP and look for a while.

For purchase information, click here to go to my website.


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20% off my book - 100 PORTRAITS

 

My publisher,Blurb, is having a 20% off sale on books ordered through 11-26-2010.  If you thought this book would make an interesting gift - maybe you're one of the 100, or maybe you would just like to see 100 faces painted in Fauvist style - now's the time to order.

Click here to go to the preview page - you can preview the entire book.  If you wish to order a book, enter the promo code "PROMO" at checkout in the US, or "PROMO3"  in Canada, for the 20% discount.

Of course, I have one of the books sitting on my coffee table.  People cannot resist picking it up and browsing through the 100 faces.  These are portraits of REAL PEOPLE from photos I received from folks all over the world.   If your portrait is in the book, don't forget to put a fancy bookmark on the page containing your portrait.   Humans are naturally drawn to images of other humans, whether they know them personally or not.   Order your 100 PORTRAITS  today.

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"FLOWER TRIBUNE" 10161, daily painter textured floral collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"FLOWER TRIBUNE"

"FLOWER TRIBUNE" - detail

 

This painting is readable.  There are several Flower Tribune stories that were written just for this painting if you look closely:

                      Poppy Wins Election
                   In the closest election in a decade,
                   Ima Poppy won a narrow victory over
                   her opponent, Harry Hydrangea.  She
                   sighted the importance of being red
                   instead of blue as giving her the win.

               BrownEyed-Susan Wins in CA
                In other election news, Jerry Brown-Eyed
                Susan won the governorship of California.
                Brown-Eyed Susan credited his earthy
                campaign and noted his strong showing in
                Los Angeles and San Francisco where he had
                the great support of a large Fruit and Nut
                population.

            Texas Election Results Still
                 Being Counted
         Election officials in Texas are still counting
              in what appears to be a monumental task since all
              the candidates were named BlueBonnet.  With a 
              very slight lead in the voting, Very BlueBonnet
              has already claimed victory.  This is being hotly
              disputed by candidates Slightly, Pale, Deep,
              Double, Pinkish, and Royal.  Navy has dropped out 
              the running sighting voter fraud.
                      
            Poppies Win State Championship
               The Poppy team rolled over the other flower
               teams to clinch their second consecutive state
               championship.  Coach Red attributed his team's
               success to hard work and Miracle Grow.

         Chrysanthemums Are First in Division
                The Chrysanthemums hardly had to work at all
                to secure a victory over their fierce rivals,
                the Impatiens.  At their recent meeting, there
                was much speculation at Mum Stadium about the
                weather and the effect it would have on the
                visiting Impatiens team.
             
                At game time, the temperature hovered at the
                32 degree mark and the Impatiens team started
                dropping like rocks.  Mum coach, Chris Mum said,
                "All we had to do was show up.  The Impatiens
                became droopy and could not perform."

I have to admit, I had fun writing the flower stories.  I'm sure any REAL journalists reading these "stories" will moan at my journalistic writing skills.

Using newsprint as a collage material is interesting in that the text kind of blurs together and looks like a neutral patterned background.  I ended up adding an amber colored glaze over the background to promote color harmony.

For purchase information on this 24x24 painting, please click here to go to my website.

"COLORS OF MUSIC -BLUE," 10160, daily painter abstract collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"COLOR OF MUSIC - BLUE"

This is the second in my series, Colors of Music.  Obviously this is the blue one.  Being an abstract collage, it has lots of different stuff in it including sheet music, metal foil, rice paper, and hand painted aluminum foil.
The turquoise area in the center is the hand painted aluminum foil.  I pressed the foil around some small glass tiles for the square impressions and pressed in the coil shapes using a brush handle and a soft surface under the foil.
This 5x7 inch painting is mounted on a larger background piece and the whole thing is covered with epoxy resin.   That epoxy really makes the metallic parts shine.

This is the first one in the series - the red one.  Both of these were demonstration pieces for my Creating with Acrylics class.

For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.



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Flower Tribune - work in progress © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I love to try new things.  This painting was a demo for my Textured Florals workshop a week or so ago.  I demonstrated how to add texture by sculpting the petals with modeling compound before you paint.  So today I brought the painting to my Monday Creating with Acrylics class because they were learning the same technique.

The sculpting medium was dry, so I got to show the Monday group the two layer process for painting the flowers - there's a tutorial for this on my blog back in May, 2007.

It seems like a lot of artists I know who dabble in experimental and mixed media stuff are using printed materials in their work.  I've seen some really cool stuff on Nancy Standlee's blog and Elizabeth St.Hilaire Nelson's blog, so I thought I'd like to try doing the background for this floral painting in newsprint.  You have to be somewhat careful that the random pieces of newsprint you choose are not discussing a murder, erectile dysfunction, or any of a million other inappropriate subjects.

As you can see, I'm only about half done.  I have some of my own news stories I'm going to add at the end which are totally appropriate for a poppy painting.

DAILY PAINTER REVIEW

I am thrilled to be the latest subject on Raymond Logan's DAILY PAINTER REVIEW. Raymond's DPR blog is a monthly spotlight on painters who toil away in their studios daily.

Raymond, an accomplished artist in his own right, has a keen eye when it comes to analyzing work of his fellow artists.  When he notified me about doing a review of my work, I wondered what he was going to write about - my portraits, florals, abstracts, animals?  He covered it all - click on the above link to read his insights and observations of my work.

Check out Raymond's blog of "Paintings and Occasional Musings."

Recent sales

                   

The above pieces were sold last weekend at the Park Hill Fall Show in Denver.  I was really excited about the top two selling because they were painted using a technique I've been teaching my acrylics class about.

The bottom two pieces were painted in oil.  The fall landscape was the view from our condo last month in Breckenridge, CO.  The miniature pinscher was one of the dogs walking by at an art show this summer.

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This recent sale of an epoxy piece was a wedding present for a couple whose wedding theme was aspen leaves.  How cool is that?  The buyer found my blog by googling "aspen leaves," so Google knows I'm out there.

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This recent sale was purchased by two different people.  I was in Minnesota when the first sale occurred and didn't have access to my computer to mark it sold.  I am painting a second version to go to the other buyer who also purchased the one below:

These last two poppy pieces were created using a texture technique I taught in a workshop last Saturday.  Adding texture to floral compositions makes them unique from the gazillion flower paintings out there.  (I just noticed that Spell Checker did not flag the word "gazillion")  I'm going to show my acrylics class how to do that next week.

To see more of my work, please click here to go to my website.

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"RED PASSAGE," textured abstract geologic landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"RED PASSAGE"

This highly textured geologic abstract is sold, but I have many others.   Please click here to see my website.

You may remember this work from a previous post.  I had a very busy weekend and, frankly, I'm too pooped to do something new.  I took work in Friday for a show over the weekend in Denver.  Saturday I spent the whole day teaching a workshop in Parker - FUN!  Sunday I picked up my work from the Denver show, less the 4 pieces that sold. (Yea!) Sunday night I had to type up the worksheet for my Monday morning class.  Tomorrow they are learning about using epoxy resin on their collages.

It seems that since I retired from a regular job, I'm busier than ever.  I've heard that from people before, but always thought they were exaggerating.

Well, it's true, for me at least.  When you're retired, it's hard to say no because you have the time, right?  I'm not even getting time to do the things I always thought I would do when I had the time.

Don't get me wrong.  Being asked to give workshops, teach classes, jury shows, paint commission work, give advice, prepare for exhibits, keep up with the galleries is all extremely gratifying.  It validates me as an artist.  Sometimes, however, I just want to hole up in my studio for a while and paint just for me. 

OK, enough of my pity party.  Time to get back to business.

"FIVE OF A KIND," 10158, textured pear still life © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"FIVE OF A KIND"

This was a lesson I had everyone try in my acrylics class.  I asked if they had any unsuccessful watercolors at home.  Amazingly, they all did! LOL They were not going to try again to work on the failed painting, but rather USE the underlying colors as an under painting for something new.

They had to turn their original painting upside down and add texture with acrylic modeling paste.  When that was dry, they were to paint transparently and opaquely OVER the underlying image.

Next they were to use "corners" to locate an appealing abstract composition, OR use a paper pattern of something like leaves, pears, cups, fish, etc and add these images to the painting.

We called the original failed paintings "dogs."  Some of the dogs were transformed into successful paintings.  Others, went from being one kind of dog to another.  Great fun.

This is my "dog" - there is a landscape painting underneath that was quite dreadful.  I like the way this one turned out.  For purchase information on this 9x12 painting, please click here to go to my website.