Artist Statement

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Tall Tree Plein Air - SOLD

Tall Tree Plein Air Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 20" SOLD At the edge of the property, on the side of the house, there is a wonderful, tall grouping of trees, and I've been wanting to paint the largest one in the late afternoon light. With plein air painting, it's a sort of a frantic race to paint before the light changes too much. So I set up my outdoor gear in the shade of the garage, and waited until around 5:00 pm to start with this. It's more a reaction to the colors and shapes than an accurate rendition of the tree, but I think some of the "feeling" of it comes through, the elegance against an impossibly blue sky, so lovely. This will be my last Louisiana oil painting. I may have some watercolors, but no more oils until I get settled in Maryland.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Irises in Purple - SOLD

Irises in Purple Watercolor on Paper, 13.5" x 21" image size SOLD. I missed this one, thought it was sold, but it was still stapled to my Gator Board. So here's one more older painting, up for grabs. Quite large for a watercolor.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

On the Road - SOLD

On the Road Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 16" SOLD at $25.00 plus shipping. I'm having a bit of fun, repainting old pieces. Nip and tuck, a little deeper shadow here and there, brighten up some foliage here and there. This used to be a much more colorful piece but I like it much better this way.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Dirt Path - SOLD

Dirt Path Oil on Canvas Mounted on Board, approximately 16" x 16" SOLD at $40.00 plus shipping. I always liked this painting but it might have been too "goldeny" for most folks. Yellow sky, what? So today, I just touched it up and changed the sky, there's still some yellow underpainting showing through in little bits in the sky, but overall, I think deepending the colors in the trees and refining the path makes the painting work better. It's a medium sized painting, but not exactly 16" x 16", since this is one of the boards I had cut, and they weren't exact.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Online Oil Painting for Beginners

I will be teaching another session of the Beginners Online Oil Painting Class, starting March 18, 2010. Online learning is becoming more and more popular, as you can attend class in your jammies, and make comments and ask questions any time of the day or night. If you at all interested, I will post a link at the bottom of this post so that you can visit our class room (it's a Yahoo Group site) and check out the files section to see what we'll be covering. If you have arrived here following a link, the payment button is also on this post, at the bottom. Welcome to all the new classmates! We're gonnna have some fun with oil paints (and for some of you, the Water Soluble oils.)
And here's the Yahoo link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OilPaintingOnline/

Please send me an email if you have any questions. NelVanL@aol.com

Monday, June 01, 2009

Blooming Bush - SOLD

Blooming Bush Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" SOLD at $25.00 plus shipping. I don't think this one ever got picked up by the Daily Painters gallery. Often when I do a series of the same image, the pick-up program thinks it's the same painting, and passes it by. I have punched this one up a little in intensity, darkened the shadows and clarified in spots added a bit more midtone color. I would love to see someone claim this little one.

Sunflowers and Lilacs Watercolors - SOLD

Lilacs in Watercolor Watercolor on Paper, image area 17" x 21" SOLD Sunflowers in Watercolor Watercolor on paper, image area 12" x 18" SOLD Two nice watercolors that got overlooked, but I'd love to send them to new homes, rather than leave them behind. Make an offer, and please be willing to cover shipping on these. The lilacs is quite large for a watercolor, so I've included a foot ruler in the photo, for size reference.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Red House in Shade - SOLD

Red House in Shade Oil on Masonite Panel, 10" x 12" approximately SOLD at $20.00 plus shipping. This is a redo of an early plein air piece, (this was a cool old house in Barre, abandoned) which I've always liked, probably because I can remember sitting exactly there in that field on a lovely sunny day. I tamped down a patch of the field grass to set myself up, and spooked myself a couple of time thinking about snakes in that grass. I'm not great at painting buildings, so the house looks a bit awkward to me, but I'm content with the "feel" of the painting as a whole.

Sienna Landscape Studies - Claimed

Sienna Landscape Studies
Both Claimed, 10" x 10"
Oil on stretched canvas Little studies taken from one of my watercolor books, by Roland Roycraft , a wonderful Michigan watercolorist. Since they are both copies of a corner of one of his paintings, I am doing a non-profit on both of them. Isn't this color scheme lovely? I think I use too much green sometimes, all my paintings look alike (to me anyway.) Time to learn to branch out!