"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 abstract floral collage © 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.

20% off my book - 100 PORTRAITS

 

Blurb (my publisher), 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 my 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.

"FLOWER TRIBUNE", 10161, daily painter mixed media floral © 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.

"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.

"LAST LIGHT," textured geologic abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art"

"LAST LIGHT"

This 24x24 geologic abstract is sold, but I have many others.  Please click here to go to my website.

"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.

"BLOSSOMS 3, 10157" textured impressionist floral © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"BLOSSOMS 3, 10157"

As you can see, this impressionist floral is also heavily textured. For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

"MINI ABSTRACT 3, 10153, daily painter mixed media abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"MINI ABSTRACT 3, 10153"

This is another mini abstract I picked out on a sheet of painted watercolor paper.  I allowed colors to flow together in a random fashion, the added a few strokes to strengthen the composition.

Since it reminded me of flowing water over rocks, I added  more rock/pebble forms to suggest that look.  Click here for purchase information on my website.

"BLOSSOMS 2, 10156" textured impressionist floral © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"BLOSSOMS 2, 10156"

You can probably see the similarity in style between this painting and the previous one, "BLOSSOMS 1".  The sheet of wc paper I used for this painting had these high chroma warm colors plus splashes of dark blue going across randomly.  Even though I didn't incorporate the splashes into the design, they add a random quality I like.

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

"BLOSSOMS 1, 10155" textured impressionist floral © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"BLOSSOMS 1, 10155"

If you saw my two previous blog posts, Mini Abstract 1 and 2, you would know how I painted this floral.  It was the same technique of randomly applying texture and paint to a sheet of heavy watercolor paper - letting the painting paint itself in a way.

The trick is finding the painting on the sheet where you have mixed all these colors.  When I found these flowers, all that was defined, more or less, was the pots.  The left pot had some texture marks I had made using a comb.  It looked like it could be a clay pot.

Using a 1 inch brush, I quickly laid in the suggestion of blossoms. It's important that they be painted loosely.

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

"MINI ABSTRACT 2, 10152, daily painter mixed media abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"Mini Abstract 2, 10152"

This is another version of a mini abstract measuring only 7x5 inches.  You can see the texturing I did on the paper before I started painting.  Also, there is copper and tyvek collaged into this piece.
For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

"MINI ABSTRACT 1, 10151, daily painter mixed media abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"MINI ABSTRACT 1, 10151"

I created this mixed media mini abstract to show my class a limited palette, mixed media abstract with texture.  The painting painted itself and all I had to do was pick it out from a larger sheet of merging swirls of color.  I then added and subtracted a few things to complete the painting.

To purchase this 4x4 painting, please click here to go to my website.

"POPPY SKETCH 2," 10150, daily painter textured poppy © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"POPPY SKETCH 2,"  10150

This is a second preliminary painting sketch for a much larger commission piece.  This 8x8 acrylic on paper is matted to 12x12 outside dimensions.
For pricing information, please click here to go to my website.

"POPPY SKETCH 1," 10149, daily painter textured poppy © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"POPPY SKETCH 1," 10149

This is an 8x8 inch sketch for a much larger commission piece.  It is painted on watercolor paper using textured acrylic.  It comes with a white mat with outside dimensions of 11x14.
For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

"ASPEN LEAF SERIES 11 ," 10147, daily painter acrylic collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"ASPEN LEAF SERIES 11," 10147

The leaves are turning here in Colorado.  It's our annual reminder that winter is around the corner.  For almost everyone I know who lives here, it is their favorite time of year with cool air, warm sun, and brilliant colors - Nature at her best. 

This is a smaller version of my recent aspen leaf collages.  This one measures 8.75 inches high by 5 inches wide.  For purchase information, please click here to go to my website.

"COLORS OF MUSIC - RED," 10148, daily painter abstract collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"COLORS OF MUSIC - RED"

This abstract collage was a piece I did for my Creating with Acrylics class.  I was showing them how to put together several collage elements in an abstract design using a limited palette. I used acrylic modeling paste, prepared tyvek, sheet music, micaceous iron oxide, red aluminum foil, nails, brads, and various acrylic paints on this piece.

This one happened to have a piece sheet music in the collage - voila! - a new series is born.  More "COLORS OF MUSIC" to come.


This painting is mounted on a textured support and (will be) covered with epoxy resin.  I have photographed it BEFORE the epoxy has been applied.

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

"ASPEN LEAF SERIES 10 ," daily painter acrylic collage © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"ASPEN LEAF SERIES 10"

 detail

This is another in the aspen leaf series.  I took the photo before I put on the clear epoxy resin layer because it is easier to photograph without the shine of the epoxy.
Click here to go to my website for purchase information.