Apple Tumble on Green - SOLD

Apple Tumble on Green Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" SOLD at $35.00 plus shipping. Another apple painting on green, using the techniques from the new book. This one is for a collector who wanted yesterday's piece, but missed it, if she wants it. (Yes, she did.)

Goldens on Green - SOLD

Goldens on Green Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 8" SOLD at $35.00 plus shipping. This is another painting done by trying to use the techniques in the book I'm studying right now. Except I did blend this one more than the first. I still like it, and I'm getting so much out of this book. (Capturing Radiant Light and Color with Oils and Soft Pastels, by Susan Sarback. )

Mountain Road with Stone Wall

Mountain Road with Stone Wall Oil on Stretched Canvas, 24" x 24" SOLD. This one turned out so nicely, though it appears a bit washed out here. It was a larger version of a plein air piece I did a few years ago when I was visiting a friend, Carl Wolfram, at his home in the mountains of Massachusetts. He and his friends made the stone wall, and it's huge and beautiful, although it doesn't appear that big here.

Goldens Color Study - SOLD

Goldens Color Study Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 8" SOLD at $30.00 plus $5.00 shipping. One of the nicest things about earning a paycheck is new art books and materials. The book I'm studying right now is called Capturing Radiant Light and Color in Oils and Soft Pastels by Susan Sarback. This is my first attempt at following her theories. Her method makes some good sense, and it's a shift in thinking that I'm finding very interesting.

Red and Yellow Tulip - SOLD

Red and Yellow Tulip Oil on Stretched Canvas, 4" x 5" SOLD at $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping. I think this might be the smallest canvas I've ever done. It was one of the tulip paintings from this past weekend. Not a great painting, just a sweet little one.

Deep Pink Tulips 2 - SOLD

Deep Pink Tulips 2 Oil on Gessobord, 8" x 10" SOLD at $45.00 plus shipping. Also done during the weekend, really the same colors as the one from yesterday, only a better photo, and a slightly different colored background. I still haven't decided whether I like the Gessobord or not. I did put two extra coats of Gesso on it before painting, it just seemed too slick otherwise.

Deep Pink Tulips - Not Available

Deep Pink Tulips Oil on Canvas Panel, 6" x 6" Gifted, Not Available. I had such positive responses to my tulips from last week that I stopped at the street vendor's cart again on Friday evening after work. He had deep pink and yellow-red bunches, though I was looking for the soft pink again. (Not quite ready for white or deep red yet.) I managed to get three small paintings done this weekend, and this is the first one. (Sorry for the terrible photo, too much glare.)

Iris Grouping Revised - SOLD

Iris Grouping revised Detail below

My collectors constantly impress me with their eye for composition and color. You may not realize it, but you are probably a lot more clever about these things than you realize, or can articulate. The collector who requested this painting was generally pleased with it, but had a few suggestions she asked me to implement. Although I had to use gouache to do a couple of revisions, thus making it no longer a transparent watercolor, it does work better now. (The camera can tell the difference better than the human eye, between opaque and transparent, so it actually looks beter than this in real life.) I changed the pink petals to dark yellow, and added some filler petals to the unfolding bud at the center. Yes, that's better!

Pink Tulips - SOLD

Pink Tulips Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 8" SOLD at $45.00 plus shipping. I've been drooling over the pink tulips done by an amazing painter in the DP lineup. Oriana Kacicek does the most detailed and beautiful work. So on Friday evening I stopped by one of the street vendors in DC, who told me he'd been waiting for me all day. What a sweetie. Bought some pink tulips, and tried to paint them. Much more difficult than I imagined, they are so delicate. At any rate, here's my attempt.

Spring Iris Grouping

Spring Iris Grouping
Watercolor on 300 lb CP Paper Full Sheet Size, Paper 22" x 30",
Image 20.5" x 2.5"
on Hold at $125 plus shipping.
Details below.

This one was done by request, in the full sheet size. It's almost spring, flowers are definitely on my mind.

Pears in Bowl, Pastel Drawing

Pears in Bowl, Pastel Drawing Pastel on Canson Paper, approx. 8.5" x 8.5" Available at $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping. I am toying with pastels, reading about them, playing with them. This one was done in some Rembrant soft pastel, and some PanPastels, which I am really enjoying. It was done from a photo shared in one of my Flickr artist groups, Drawings From Other Member's Photographs. There are several Flickr groups along these same lines, which is a really nice way to find good references, without going through pages and pages of images.

Blue Hydrangea Foursome - SOLD

Blue Hydrangea Foursome Oil on Stretched Canvas, 12" x 12" SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. I am posting this one again, so it will get picked up by the DP gallery, I hope. Sometimes the program sees a similar painting and passes it by. We'll see.

Blue Hydrangea Threesome - SOLD

Blue Hydrangea Threesome Oil on Stretched Canvas, 12" x 12" SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. This was the second of two blue hydrangeas paintings I did this weekend. I love painting them, you can play with light. One of my new collectors, who is also an old high school friend, mentioned hydrangeas, so there you go. This one has more lavender in it, and the tone in the leaves is cool.

Blue Hydrangea Foursome - SOLD

Blue Hydrangea Foursome Oil on Stretched Canvas, 12" x 12" SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. This was the first of two hydrangea paintings I did over the weekend. The blooms are clearly blue, with touches of lavender, and the leaves are warm toned.

Pansies on Blue - SOLD

Pansies on Blue Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 10" SOLD at $40.00 plus shipping. This one is actually a piece I finished last weekend, but my computer and my camera have had a falling out, and aren't speaking at the moment. I had to load my photos onto a disk to get this one posted, and who knows how it will all get untangled. Meanwhile, I am painting, but my posting might be even more sporadic than it is at the moment. "Oh, la" as my friend, B. would say.

Oil Painting for Beginners Class

The Spring session of my online class for beginners in oil is taking enrollments now. Our start date is March 18. The cost this session is $75.00. The class runs for six weeks, with a week off for Easter, and a possible extra week, if students want or need it. This puts us done at the end of April. Lessons are posted once a week to our Yahoo group, where students can download and/or print them to save. Along with instructions, there are exercises and homework, always optional. We have a Flickr group, where students can post their exercises and homework, for comments from fellow students and myself. This will be the 4th session of this class, and I continue to add more information as we go along. My students have given me much positive response, and I've offered enough instruction and resources so everybody stays challenged. If you'd like to see the general outline of the lessons (towards the bottom of the description), here's a link to our Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OilPaintingOnline/ or for more details, please email me with your questions, to NelVanL@aol.com I'm planning on a fun class, jumping us into some spring painting!

Pansies on Pink - SOLD

Pansies on Pink
Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10"
SOLD at $50.00 plus shipping.

I'm not sure about your monitor, but on mine these purple pansies look blue. They are actually more purple on a pale pink background.

Pears Redux - SOLD

Pears Redux Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 8" SOLD at $35.00 plus shipping. I was not completely happy with the pears from last weekend, so used my new light and got more contrast, which always helps. Ah, much better.

Promise Pansies - SOLD

Promise Pansies

Oil on Stretched Canvas, 8" x 8"

SOLD at $35.00 plus shipping.

I was in the Home Depot today, looking at lights to make more value contrast in my still life work, and of course, they snagged me with a cart of lovely pansies. They promise spring! I didn't really capture the color and depth of the petals, but that's what more painting is for. Still, a sweet little painting. Don't you just love pansies?

Long Still Life - SOLD

Long Still Life Oil on Canvas Panel, 15" x 30" Revised and SOLD at 60.00 plus shipping. There are some things I really like about this one, some things I wish I had done differently, but I had to set it up in two stages, so the composition lacks some finesse. I like the color harmony a lot, I like the objects themselves, I like the shine through the glass on that back pear (that worked), and I like the new funky mug. A bit of an experiment working this large.