More "Beach People"

Today, a good friend, Kelley MacDonald joined me to paint in the studio, which always gets me motivated. I was able to start this before she got here and managed to take it this far before our gang of painting pals showed up for a "surprise"celebration of her 55th birthday! Congratulations Kelley! Irish coffee's, pizza, cupcakes and a lot of laughs. Just another afternoon at "work", I guess.

Figure Demo

I've been experimenting with various ways to approach figures lately. I am taking a figure drawing class with Diane Rappisi at North River Arts Society that is based on grasping the gesture or "body language".  That, as a subject, has always excited me. Especially people doing what people do on the beach. See more of my latest attempts on my website; www.nancycolella.com. Today I used black to draw my map. A la Ken Auster and Karin Jurick. My two idols.

 The "map"

Block in of lights and darks

The background added 

Stay tuned to see the final final.....and I need a title. 

Fun with Prints

Lately, I've had some folks inquiring about getting prints made of my work.
One gal asked if I could blow up a 6" by 8" painting of "Glass of Cab" into a 24" by 30" gallery wrapped print! I couldn't imagine how that would work but my pals Bill and Phyllis at Image Resolutions convinced me to go for it. Here is the result! The client is hanging it in her newly renovated dining room!

Also, the General Manager of the Hotel Commonwealth, Boston asked if I could provide art works for his newly designed "Baseball Suite". I went to see the space and then had these two 8 x 10 paintings "blown up" and printed on 16 x 20 gallery wrapped canvas.

"Go Sox"                                 "Dawgs Hea!" 

We installed them today. That's Adam Sperling, the General Manager. He was quite pleased! 

Suddenly Spring Subjects!

I have a wonderful young girl (6th grade) who comes to my studio on Tuesday afternoons for an hour to "just paint." We usually work side by side, on the same subject. She uses acrylics and I use oils, and today our surface was gessoed watercolor paper. I set up this bunch of bright red Ranunculus on a low stool, with the idea of getting a little abstract and have some fun. To me, these flowers scream SPRING! and it was so fun!

Meghan's painting
(She gets it!) 

My Painting

Funny thing. The ranunculus is a medicinal plant that comes from the Latin word rana which means "frog"!?? 

Dreaded Commission

A friend of mine asked me to do a painting of her and her daughter's "lovies". I warned her that I don't do "portraits" of any kind, but told her to bring them over and I'd give it a try. These are the girls. Pretty roughed up and pretty scary looking, really. But talk about "feelin' the love"! These gals have had it all!

Here's my take on them. 

I may have grayed them down a little too much. (They are kind of "dirty") Think I'll add a few warmer values to the face and arms of the plastic doll so she looks more, well, like plastic. Plastic surgery so to speak.  

I've joined a New Gallery

I have joined a wonderful group of fellow artists from the South Shore in a new Gallery that recently  opened in Duxbury, MA. The Duxbury Gallery is located at Five Corners (Nine Standish St.) in Duxbury, Mass and offers contemporary fine art and 19th century maritime paintings. They are open Tues. - Sat. from 10 - 5 pm. Stop by and check out the wonderful work represented in this beautiful space.

Pretty in Pink 

7 x 9 

                            

This month's "challenge" entry

"Counting Sheep"

8 x 8 

This month, our "Girls Just Wanna' Paint" challenge topic was "Dream". For many of us, this was, well, challenging! After struggling with images of teeth falling out (one of my more common recurring dreams) I settled on this image of sheep crowding into each other in the wonderful way they seem to do. To be honest, I don't think I've ever "counted sheep" to put myself to sleep but I DO count my blessings, and that always puts me right out. Lucky me.