When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them." (Nikki)

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language." (Paul Gauguin)

leaves

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

Chrysanthemums Chair Update

Sunday, October 18th, 2015


 
Chrysanthemums Chair, work in progress

Chrysanthemums Chair front detail, painting in progress Oct. 2015    Chrysanthemums Chair back plaster layering detail, Oct. 2015

Chrysanthemums Chair front and back: plaster layering, sanding and painting in progress

A Creative Twist

Saturday, January 19th, 2013


 

  Sugar cookies: leaf-shapes placed over twisted waxed paper create 3D effects

…well, just a twist of waxed paper actually. The leaf-shaped cookie dough was laid gently over twisted pieces of waxed paper. After the cookies baked and cooled the waxed paper was removed, so they’re a little more interesting than flat cookies.  The Sugar Cookies recipe is the same as used for Culture Cookies, which is listed at the end of the article. While you’re munching on the cookies you bake, browse back to the top and read the article!

 

Fairy Lake Sumac

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012


 

Fairy Lake Sumac, 16 x 20 inches oil pastels on paper

Fairy Lake Sumac – Sumac bushes during Fall, Fairy Lake BC Canada, 16H x 20W inches with mat, oil pastels on 140 lb W/C paper.
This piece has a base of watercolor crayons, which I hadn’t heard of before and was excited to try. The crayon colors were weak though, and they do not paint well either, so oil pastels were layered on top with areas scratched away using fingernails and pottery tools.

Bigleaf Maple watercolors

Sunday, November 4th, 2012


 

Big Leaf Maple 12H x 16W inches watercolors on 140 lb 100% cotton paper

 Big Leaf Maple near Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, BC Canada, 12H x 16W inches watercolors on 140 lb 100% cotton paper. Framed size 22H x 26W inches.

True colors

Thursday, May 26th, 2011


 

Fern tree shadows cast across garden rocks, Chapala, Mexico

Tree fern shadows cast across garden rocks in Chapala, Mexico

“Your true colors are beautiful” – Cindy Lauper

I’ve been in Mexico for the past two weeks, so I’ll be contributing more images to the True Colors website, created in 2007 as tribute to the colorful landscapes and cultures here. Developed separately from the other chapters of nikkiartwork.com, trucolors.info is considered as one complete and independent project. I’ve posted a few more of the recent pieces in this series on nikkiphotography.com

Practical design

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010


 

Oak Leaf End Tables, set of two 24H x 12W inches with a 20 inch glass top  Oak Leaf End Tables, set of two 24H x 12W inches with a 20 inch glass top

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Aesop’s Fables

Oak Leaf bedside tables, 24H x 12W inches with a 20-inch glass top. Large, crinkled paper mâché leaf-shapes are creased, folded and arranged over the top of heavy cardboard tubes. The tubes are available in a variety of dimensions, sold in hardware stores as use for cement foundations.
I’ve had this idea to make bedside tables for a few years now, and selling the house, prepping it in a minimalist way for viewing has motivated me to finally make them. Faux suede effects were the intention here, and I’m pleased with the results. it really does look like suede. A brown circular woven mat covers the glass and hides the space looking into the tube.

Norway Maple: finished, combined posts

Friday, April 9th, 2010


 

Norway Maple, 36H x 48W x 3D inches acrylics, gel paste on canvas, wrapped sides painted, navy colored narrow frame
Norway Maple, 36H x 48W x 3D inches acrylics, gel paste on canvas, wrapped sides painted, navy colored narrow frame.


Thumbnails: Combined, edited posts of progression between Dec. 8th, 2009 – March, 2010. Started December 8th, 2009: modeling gel is available in varied textures, finishes and viscosity. Acrylics paint can be mixed with the medium or when dry paint can be applied over top. 3) January 18th, 2010: applying modeling paste to the base painting and sculpting with a small trowel.

  Started Dec. 10th, 2009: 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, will sculpt with modeling gel medium on canvas   Modeling Paste   Norway Maple, applying modeling gel to canvas - work in progress

Norway Maple, detail image of acrylics painted over dried modeling pasteJan. 28th:– used  a dry brush so paint would catch mostly on the textures, and kept the feeling soft. Intentions are to maintain the fresh pure colors. Studied from a distance for about a week after this stage to contemplate what the next move will be.
 

Feb. 27th: lighter background colors were added in order to open up the space.
Norway Maple, detail image of lower center, February 28th: very nearly finished

Feb. 28th: Adding a solid patch of turquoise to lower left and some tiny details like that may ground the whole thing, but that’s about it; am leaving it out of sight for a while. This really is a carnival of color, I love it!
Norway Maple: scrubbing off areas, clarifying focal point and compositionMarch 9th: Subtle changes since last post…have been working more on tones in the background which weren’t planned initially; I had hoped to use only pure colors without the usual layering, but it’s otherwise too hard to look at. Also am connecting a few shapes horizontally, and it’s almost “there”, but ‘2D Pinecone’ was started in the meantime to avoid overworking this.
March 6th: Thanks, Virginia for taking the time to write and digitize a detailed, objective critique. I sure appreciate your opinion about what might improve this.

Writing

Thursday, April 1st, 2010


 

 Leaf study, conte and graphite on paper

The article on Drawing is finally revised and re-posted…10 days writing and revising. If I could draw about extreme writing I would, because it would certainly be a lot easier! Tomorrow, a treat away from all the computer work: starting a new painting.  Today: a leaf study, conte and graphite on paper.

Norway Maple, work in progress

Thursday, December 10th, 2009


 

Norway Maple, work in progress: 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics, will sculpt with modeling paste medium on canvasNorway Maple, work in progress: 36H x 48W x 2D inches acrylics, will sculpt edges of leaves with modeling paste medium on canvas. Gallery wrapped sides painted. The watercolor classes really helped with awareness of color choices, keeping those colors pure and marks fresh, and also a desire to leave more abstract elements alone; less realism and more expressionism. All of those things will be magnified in this painting.

After today, blogging and Artwork will be infrequent until mid-January. Driving up to western Canada, there will be plenty of snow-covered trees and winter photo opportunities along the way to Alberta, B.C. and back. Working up until the last possible moment, I started this painting of purple Maple leaves that were seen in Madison, WI during late August. Modeling/Molding paste will be applied, then painted with acrylics when dry, this will be a 3 dimensional-ish painting.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Simple Beauty

Sunday, October 18th, 2009


 

Stem on the sidewalk, uptown Dallas TX

Simple beauty, McKinney Ave. sidewalk, Uptown Dallas, Texas

« Previous Entries Next Entries »