CAROL NELSON FINE ART BLOG: aspens

Showing posts with label aspens. Show all posts

"COLORADO GOLD" golden aspens mountains © Carol Nelson Fine Art

A beautiful stand of aspens in the Colorado high country. Did you know that when you see a group of aspens, it's really all one plant?
They send up new shoots from the underground root system.

This 6x6 original oil on panel will be available tomorrow at auction on Daily Paintworks. Click here to see the auction.

Click here to buy it now for $100 on my website.

"ASPEN GLADE" 12010, mixed media contemporary aspen forest © Carol Nelson Fine Art


Aspen Glade

I might have gone a little overboard with the colors in this piece. It's VERY vibrant. I love color and just can't get enough, so to speak.
I used a palette knife to apply most of the paint, so it is heavily textured. For more information, please click here to go to my website.

"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.

"FALL IN COLORADO II & III" daily painter original landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

FALL IN COLORADO II, 10143

FALL IN COLORADO III, 10144

Here's two more versions of the photos I took while we were up in Breckenridge, CO. These are painted in oil on paper using a brush and a palette knife. The knife is really great for adding texture and simulating leaves.
For purchase information, please see my website.

"FALL IN COLORADO," 10142, daily painter original landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This is my interpretation of the photo I took last week up in the mountains. It's so fun to paint using the FULL palette. As you can see by viewing the reference photo below, I did not exaggerate these colors one bit.

This original oil painting is on
a 7x5 inch gessobord panel and is available, unframed, for $110, including shipping in the US/Canada.

Please see my website for more information or to purchase this painting.

"SHADES OF FALL," 10128, daily painter original landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

One of the things students of oil painting are often told is to "loosen up," meaning don't over work the painting. Don't nit pick. Don't work and rework a passage. Use larger brushes. Paint shapes, not details.

This painting is done on a red toned panel. My goal was to minimize the number of brush strokes - not an easy task with a complex landscape.
Here we have three main color masses - the dark trees on the left, the yellow grouping in the middle, and the orange bushes on the right. Once those large blocks of color were in place, it was a matter of working smaller and and smaller to fill in the details of the rocks and water.

For purchase information on this 6x6 original oil painting, please click here to see my website.

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"FIRST SNOW" - 10110, daily painter original landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This is always a spectacular sight in the mountains when the autumn colors are still on the aspen trees and the first dusting of snow is on the ground. It means Old Man Winter is fast approaching.

This 12x6 inch original oil is painted on a cradled panel. For purchase information, please click here for my website.

If you're up in Summit County in Colorado this weekend, be sure to visit the 27th annual July Art Festival in Breckenridge, July 2-4. I will have my booth set up with this painting and many others.

"HIGH COUNTRY," 10108, daily painter original © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This lovely scene is typical of what you will find in the Colorado "high country." The aspens turning gold in September are spectacular against the dark green spruce trees.

This painting is approximately 12 x 6 inches. Painted in oil on a cradled wood panel. Framing not necessary. For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

Aspen Dream, 9054, mixed media abstract triptych

This painting is a triptych on panels. I had trouble with the photo. The panels are not that dark on the bottom. If I lightened the bottom, the top was over exposed - AAARRRRGGHH. I cut out the leaf forms from thin metal and then nailed them to the panels.

My next outdoor show is over July 4th in Breckenridge, CO. Artwork with an aspen theme sells well in the mountains - especially to Texas tourists who want to take a little Colorado home with them. For purchase information, please see my website.
SOLD

Golden Moment, fall landscape

What an age we live in! The internet and email puts me in contact with people all over the globe looking at my work. Their encouraging comments mean so much to me. I feel so gratified and thankful when they plunk down their hard-earned money to own one of my paintings.

Today I met a collector (Kay from California) in person. Some people you just click with right away. Kay is warm, vivacious and with a great sense of humor. Our lives paralleled each other in so many ways. It's funny when you feel you already know someone you just met.

Kay was here in Colorado visiting her parents. She spent many years living in CO and now misses it so much. Golden Moment is a fall scene of aspens on the road to Cottonwood Pass west of Buena Vista, CO, - a little bit of Colorado for Kay to take home.
SOLD

POND SERIES VII, textured acrylic of golden aspen leaves

This is a revision of an earlier painting. The whole Pond Series featured flowing free-form backgrounds with sculpted aspen leaves "floating" on the surface. Previously, the background on the upper left was very dark. I wanted to keep it rich looking, but lightened it up with some more purple/green. I also toned down the orange. The leaves are sculpted with acrylic medium and then painted with metallic gold and bronze.

For purchase information, please see my website:

http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=3851&subkeyvalue=186622&page=WorksDetail

Aspen View, 24x48 oil painting of Colorado high country

Here are several close up views of this large landscape. The lower picture is the entire 24x48 oil painting.

These aspens are on the road to Cottonwood Pass, west of Buena Vista, CO. In the spring and early summer, the leaves are a vibrant yellow-green. The contrast against the dark conifers is beautiful. Aspen trunks have chlorophyll in them, giving them a greenish hue. In the fall, as the trees prepare for winter, the trunks are more golden.

For purchase information, please see my website http://carolnelsonfineart.com/works/177579

Historic Breckenridge, 15x30 oil, peak 8 of ski mountain

Breckenridge, Colorado is one of our favorite places. It is a beautiful place to visit all year round. Of course, it is best known for it world class skiing in the winter. Fall is spectacular as the aspens turn golden. There are many of the original buildings, such as this one, from Breck's past as an early mining town scattered throughout the village. The huge variety of shops, restaurants, and galleries make this much more than a ski town.

To purchase this painting, please see www.carolnelsonfineart.com, click on works, then landscapes.

Summer Aspens, 36x48 oil of aspen leaves

I'm not calling this the final version, but it's close. There will be small tweeks I will do in the next few weeks as it drys. After all this work, I'm not sure how I feel about this painting. It definately needs to be viewed from at least 15 feet away. To view this painting in a room, please click on this link, http://www.boundlessgallery.com/artist/9472.art, select the painting, and click "view in a room."

Early Snow, 10x30 triptych

I was just messing around with this one. First I painted the three panels with gold acrylic paint. The sheen of the gold shows through here and there, but does not show in this photo.

I wanted to do a stylized, limited palette scene. This painting uses quinacridone gold, raw sienna, red oxide, ultramarine blue, black, white and the metallic gold underpainting. I wanted to use Payne's gray, but didn't have any, so I made my own version with the blue, black and white. The panels look good with a black background, so I will probably mount them on a wood panel painted black.

Aspen Leaves 4, 10x10 oil painting of fall foliage

This is the last in my aspen leaves series. Sometimes aspen leaves have a lot of red in them. There is one stand of aspens in SW Colorado that is always red in the fall and is in a spectacular setting. See painting of them on my website, http://www.carolnelsonfineart.com/. The painting is under "landscapes" and is called Red Aspens.

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