Still Life Fruit and Flowers Contemporary Painting "Fruit and Flowers" by Colorado Mixed Media Abstract Artist Carol Nelson

After doing a lot of abstracts, my garden is my inspiration for this floral painting. I love the colors and the impasto texture of this oil painting.

 14"x11" Oil on Canvas/sold

 Commissions welcome!

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100 PORTRAITS IN 100 DAYS - Suzanne, 1/100, © Carol Nelson Fine Art

Hello everyone. A new year, a new beginning. Today, as I launch my portrait project, I start with a subject I know very well. The curve of her smile, the twinkle of her eye - it's my daughter, Suzanne.

I am very excited about this project and hope my viewers will enjoy seeing a new face every day for the next three months or so. I have received many interesting, PAINTABLE photos for the project, but I still need more.

Please review the photo requirements, and send them in! In the next several days, along with the person of the day, I will explain, in detail, the process I go through to create these paintings. If you have already sent me a photo, please email me if you wish to have a link to your blog/website posted along with your image.

I cannot tell you when your painting will be posted because I have my husband randomly pick a photo for me to paint every day (that's the extent of his contribution - LOL).

If you haven't sent me a photo, why not? You have nothing to lose.
The sidebar on the right has a place where you can sign up for an automatic feed of this blog in your daily email. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Carol

SONG OF THE POPPIES, 9118, mixed media floral painting by Carol Nelson © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I had to really work and rework portions of this painting because of the multiple areas competing for attention. The poppies are the center of interest, but the grid pattern on the right was so bold, it drew the eye away from the poppies. I had to tone it down several times. The areas embedded with bits of sheet music have a transparent layer of gold metallic paint on them for emphasis and pizazz.

This 24x36 inch painting comes with a black floater frame. Please see my website for purchase information.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK MY BLOG ON MONDAY, 12-21, FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A BIG PROJECT IN WHICH EVERYONE CAN HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE.

STAY TUNED! MONDAY, 12/21/2009

STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG. I'M GOING TO ANNOUNCE AN UPCOMING PROJECT ON MONDAY, 12/21/2009, IN WHICH ALL OF YOU CAN PARTICIPATE, IF YOU CHOOSE.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN ARTIST TO PARTICIPATE.

IT'S GONNA BE BIG!

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST, 9117, 8x12 oil on MDF panel

This lovely lady is an artist that I do not know. I painted her portrait as part of Karin Jurick's challenge blog called Different Strokes from Different Folks. Each artist sent Karin a photo of themselves. Karin then sent them out to other artists to paint.
I had fun with this portrait. I was going to take several photos of the painting in progress, but I got so involved in the process that I only took one. Her white/blond hair made for a dramatic painting. Click on the blog name for a link to see everyone's efforts at painting total strangers with only one photo reference.

PATCHWORK, 9116, abstract floral collage by Carol Nelson © Carol Nelson Fine Art

Surprise!!!! More poppies. Of course, it's no surprise that I'm painting my favorite flowers again. The fun part of this painting was coming up with different treatments for the various rectangles in the composition. It turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would be.

Some of the rectangles were two or three different colors or surface treatments before I was done. I suppose I could have worked it all out on paper before I started, but that would be too methodical for me - my inner child likes to play with the materials. The larger central gray/brown rectangle has actually two layers of rice paper on it.

The vertical and horizontal lines are straight. The camera slightly distorts the lines so they look slightly bent. Also, the metal leaf between most of the rectangles doesn't show well.

This 36x24 inch painting comes with it's own black floater frame. For purchase information, please see my website.

ICE AGE, 9115, geologic abstract by Carol Nelson © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This geologic abstract touches on a cool palette that I don't use very often, but I really like the combination of the blues and the browns. It is more fun than you can imagine to let the colors flow together and have complete freedom in mixing the colors as I choose. It's why these abstracts are such a kick for me.
I tried something new in coming up with this composition. I brushed on some watered down colors onto the canvas, then covered it with the clear plastic that the canvas came wrapped in (making use of something I would have discarded.)
Lifting up the edges of the plastic, I squirted in more water causing the colors to flow into the wrinkles and crevasses in the plastic. When the plastic was removed later, there was an abstract flow pattern you can see in the finished work.
As with other paintings in this series, the metal foils and areas of soft metallic sheen are not picked up well by the camera, making the original a more dynamic, exciting piece than what you see here.
For purchase information of this framed 36x24 inch painting, please see my website.

THREE GENERATIONS, 9111, commission portraits of three women

This portrait is of three women representing three generations. I think I nailed the likeness of all three, but it's always nerve wracking to see if the client will like the work (he hasn't seen this yet.) I had to combine two photos to create the composition and I've only seen one of the subjects in person.
Painting faces is not as daunting as some would think. Each face has reference points that can be measured - space between the eyes, length of the face, length of the nose, width of the smile, etc. A projector is a great help in getting accurate mapping of the key points on a face. My projector is an inexpensive model that projects a pretty fuzzy image, but it is a huge time saver to be able to
sketch in the key points of the projected image.
Teeth can be a problem to portray and all these ladies have big, beautiful smiles. If you paint each tooth, it tends to look artificial, so I usually "suggest" teeth without painting them individually.
I love to paint people with glasses. They are a very important part of the "look" of a person who wears them. I like to tint the glass slightly blue or blue-green.

NEST 4, 9110, textured bird nest with eggs ©Carol Nelson Fine Art

The Colorado Watercolor Society sent me a prospectus for their upcoming show 3/5/2010 - 3/14/2010 in Denver. All media has to be water media on paper. I haven't done anything on paper in several years, but I use acrylic paints all the time and they are considered water media. That's as far as I read the prospectus before jumping in.

I went out a bought one sheet of 300 lb watercolor paper and painted this little textured nest of eggs. I tore the edges of that paper, then mounted it on a piece of burlap, over another piece of paper painted blue-green, and mounted all that on a piece of mat board on which I had put little spatters.

It's a big four layer sandwich. All of this is in a shadow box frame under glass. I think it's a creative presentation for this subject matter. Then I reread the prospectus. Oh no! They won't allow any paintings unless they're matted in "clean, white mats". My burlap and texture, let alone the spatters, are absolutely verboten. They've been in that clean, white mat mode for years. Colored liners or fillets must be no more than a quarter inch.

Maybe I'm a nonconformist at heart. I wish they would create a category for "experimental watermedia" where anything goes, including framing. What do you watercolorists think of these restrictive rules???
For purchase information on this very nonconforming water media painting, please see my website.

CONCOURSE B, 9109, airport commuters © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This is the latest torture installment on Karin Jurick's blog, Different Strokes from Different Folks.blogspot.com. Painting this was like being waterboarded. I just wanted it to be over. The dramatic lighting from an overhead skylight and the extreme foreshortening of the figures made for 4 hours of hell. Check out the blog, and see how nearly everyone struggled with this one - although several are excellent.

As you can see from the reference photo, I took a few liberties with the colors. The people in the photo don't even look real to me. To purchase this 6x6 oil painting for $100, please email me at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net

SOLD

PRECIOUS METALS, 9108, metals and mixed media abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I love doing these mixed media geologic abstracts. This one has copper, pewter, and aluminum metals and gold and copper paints and foils. With all the shiny components, it appeals to my inner crow. That shiny little purple rectangle is purple colored aluminum foil I found in an art supply store and is made by a Japanese company. LOVE IT.

I showed it to my husband, seeking his suggestions for a title. His title was SOS, meaning Same Old S__t. Did I tell you he's not an abstract kind of guy? Even so, I thought that quite rude. After 16 years of marital harmony, I have developed a thick skin and his opinions are water off a duck. Quack, quack.

If you're interested in purchasing this painting, better hurry, because I'm shipping it off to my newest gallery, The Bradley Art Gallery, in Stoughton, WI. next week. For more about my abstract work, please see my website or email me at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net.

BUTTERFLY POPPIES, 9107, textured palette knife poppies © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I don't know if there is any such thing as "butterfly poppies," but it seemed appropriate for this painting because as I was working on the petals I was reminded of butterfly wings. Once again, I continue on my palette knife binge. I just like the texture you get with a knife.

I originally had magenta, yellow and orange poppies, but it did not seem like the painting was pulling together with all the variety in the flower colors. Eventually they all ended up much closer to one another in hue. The black background showing through here and there has a unifying effect.
This painting took me quite a while to work out the color scheme, but I'm finally happy with the finished result.

For purchase information on this gallery wrapped 24x24 inch (61x61cm) painting, please see my website, or email me at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net.

THREE'S COMPANY, 9106, textured palette knife still life © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I am having fun with these palette knife paintings. The unique texture created by a knife is so pure - you are literally looking at a slice of pure pigment. This is not to say I don't mix the paints out of the tube - I do, but when I have mixed the desired color mixture, it is applied directly. The result is a passage without a lot of blending of colors into each other.
I took a lot of liberties with the colors in these pears. Pears come in a lot of colors although the turquoise may be a bit of an exaggeration.
For purchase information of this painting, please see my website, or send me an email at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net.

APPLE TRIO, 9105, textured palette knife still life © Carol Nelson Fine Art

Notice that little copyright sign in the title of this post? All you have to type is the following three symbols or words with no spaces: & copy ;
I think that is very cool, although it won't stop the Chinese from copying your work.

This painting was difficult to photograph because of the red. There is a lot of alizarin red (Golden's Alizarin Crimson Hue fluid acrylic) in these apples and, for some reason, instead of getting that gorgeous deep, rich red, it wants to show as brown. I had to tweek the colors to get a fair representation of the painting, but I lost a little of the purple tones in the background in the process.

I used four other red family colors in these apples - Golden's Primal Magenta and Pyrrole Orange, and Liquitex's Napthol Red Light and Quinacridone Crimson.
Those colors are SO LUSCIOUS. I was outside varnishing the painting yesterday and when the sun shines on this piece, it literally knocks your socks off. Actually, I wasn't wearing socks at the time, but I know they would have flown off if I had been.
For purchase information on this painting, please see my website or email me at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net

1st PLACE

My painting, SHINING THROUGH, 9076, was awarded 1st place in the juried GATEWAY TO THE ROCKIES SHOW. I knew (or at least had a feeling) I had a winner when I painted that one. This painting has gold metallic paint which glows softly under the right lighting.
Reception for this art show will be on Friday, 11/13/2009, for those in the Denver area. Details on my website under "events".

UP CLOSE, 9104, textured poppy close up painting © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This extreme closeup of a poppy is in the tradition of huge floral paintings for which Georgia O'Keefe was famous. I painted this on a cradled panel with the painting extending around to the edges. In spite of it's small size, (12 x 6 inches) it packs a lot of bang for the buck. If you have a spot that needs a little color, this will do the job.
For purchase information, please see my website, or email me at carolnelsonfineart@comcast.net.
SOLD

GOLDEN POPPIES 1, 9102, textured poppy floral painting © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I haven't painted any poppies lately and was having withdrawal symptoms. Usually I've painted them on a canvas ground, so this painting on MDF panel was something new. I really like the way the sculpted petals look on this smooth surface.
For purchase information on this beautifully framed piece, please see my website.

NEST 3, 9101, textured birds nest with eggs © Carol Nelson Fine Art

Another bird nest with eggs that are speckled pinkish and brown. This painting is on a 5x7 inch gessoboard panel, which I would normally frame without glass. I had this black frame with double matting in my studio. When I slipped the painting in under the matting, it looked so good that I'm going to present it in this fashion.
If the glass is distracting, it can be removed, but on a matted painting, I like having glass to protect the mat. For purchase information, please see my website.

BLUE HEAVEN, 9099, textured blue hydrangea flowers © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I enjoyed doing a hydrangea commission so much last week I just had to try doing another one. This one is on 6 x 6 inch panel and also features use of abundant texture. For purchase information, please see my website.

NEST, 9098, textured bird nest with eggs © Carol Nelson Fine Art

There is something intimate about peeking into a bird's nest to see a clutch of eggs. It is a sight rarely seen, and it is reassuring, in a way, to see nature's wild creatures going on with their life's business as they have for thousands of years.
I painted this piece on Gessoboard, which is a very smooth surface. To suggest a structure of weeds, grasses and twigs surrounding the eggs, I used heavy body acrylic paints mixed with modeling paste applied with a palette knife. The knife edge gave the thin, grass-like strokes I was looking for.
This painting is sold, but, stay tuned, as I plan on doing a series of eggs in nests.