Nancy Goldman Art

Puerto Vallarta Sunset

2012-02-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

This painting was my second attempt at a poured watercolor. I think my first attempt, Colimilla, was more successful but this was a learning experience. I may try it again because I think this scene works well for pouring. I would like to get more color variation next time.

My reference photo was taken just south of Puerto Vallarta and I loved the white light glistening on the water.

Puerto Vallarta Sunset
Image Size 11" x 15"
Watercolor

Descanso's Gate

2012-02-06T16:21:00.000-08:00

If you live in Southern California, maybe you've visited Descanso Gardens in La Canada/Flintridge. That is where I took the reference photo for this pastel painting. If you haven't been there and have a chance to go, it's worth the trip. It's about 160 acres and has about 1000 California Coastal Oaks in a forest with huge camillias growing beneath them. There is also a rose garden, lilac garden, koi pond, Japanese garden and tea house, art gallery, gift shop, a cafe, classes and so much more. I've been there at different times of the year and I don't think I have a favorite (there are always so many things in bloom) but this year I think I might go in March for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Descanso's Gate

Image Size 7" x 10"

Pastel

Tuscany

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Cypress trees and rolling hills make me immediately think of Tuscany. And......when I think of Tuscany, I think of relaxing, and wine, and lots of pasta. No wonder I keep coming back to this as a subject for painting. I used very little color in this one and kept it simple with very little detail. That's quite a departure from the norm for me but I'm pretty happy with the result.

This is another pastel on Wallis pastel paper. I really love that surface. It can hold many layers without the tooth filling up. It sure eats up the pastels though.

Morning in the Vineyard

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

There is something very soothing about vineyards. I like the repetitious rows so neatly arranged. Here, the morning sun is peaking over the hills lighting up the vines. Okay, that's a little too flowery for me. Let's just say that the sun is shining and it's morning.

This is a pastel on Wallis paper.

Morning in the Vineyard
Pastel
8" x 10"

Another Bird

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

This is a painting I started while we were in Mexico awhile ago when the only reference photos I had with me were birds of paradise. I hadn't done much more that draw it and put an initial layer of paint in the sky and it looked like it was going to be way too tight so I attached rice paper to it and continued painting.

I love the effect with the rice paper. I don't know why I don't do paintings with rice paper more often. It gives a softness and a nice textural quality that I can't get without it. There are also goobers where the rice paper isn't attached completely so the paint spreads which for some reason, doesn't bother me. It seems to go with the overall look.

The weather here has been so beautiful since before Christmas with temps in the 70s and 80s and almost balmy so working on a tropical painting seemed fitting.

Another Bird
Image Size 12" x 16"
Watercolor

Big Fish, Small Pond

2012-01-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

I've painted koi fish so many times because they are really pretty and fun to paint. I had this incredible piece of textured mulberry paper that I purchased well over a year ago but I'd never used it because it seemed almost too special. I thought a watery subject would be perfect for it. Of course, when I think water, I think koi. I used acrylics thinned down like watercolor for this. I knew I wanted some intense darks and didn't think I could achieve them with watercolor because this paper needed to be sealed before painting on it and in the past, when I've used watercolors on sealed paper, my darks are pretty weak.

This paper had no sizing in it at all and it acted like a blotter so I used acrylic matte medium to seal it first. I guess I didn't seal it enough though because the paint creeped and seeped all over the place. As I added more layers of paint, that became less of a problem because each layer of acrylic sealed the paper more.

Having so much texture in the paper was fun and frustrating at the same time. Once I relaxed and let the paint do what it wanted, I enjoyed the process. Below is a close-up of the paper to show the texture. I shot this photo in the sun because I thought the texture would show better but because of the shadows, it looks like there are deep grooves in the paper when actually the areas next to the shadows are raised.

Using acrylics very thin like watercolor is really fun. It's nice that I don't have to worry about disturbing previous layers (because once they dry, they are permanent) and I can still get the interesting effects of glazing. Watercolors are still prettier and more interesting in my opinion because of the sedimentary qualities of many of the watercolor paints. Acrylics tend to look a little more flat.

Big Fish, Small Pond
Image Size 22" x 30"
Acrylic

Purple Figs

2012-01-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

These don't look so purple because my photo didn't capture the color so well - probably because it's so dark. This is a an oil that I started awhile ago. One of my New Year's resolutions is to finish unfinished paintings in my studio. I'm tired of it always looking so messy even when I clean it up. There's just too much stuff out there. I have a lot of oil paintings that I've started and haven't felt like finishing. I enjoyed finishing this but really, oil isn't my best medium.

I have no patience with any medium but watercolor. I can spend weeks working on one watercolor painting and enjoy the process, which is usually tedious because of my style of painting but give me oil paints (or pastels, colored pencils etc.) and I feel the need to work quickly so I don't lose interest. Maybe another resolution should be to become more patient. Or...maybe I should stick to painting in watercolors.

Purple Figs
Image Size 6" x 12"
Oil
Unframed, gallery wrapped canvas painted on sides, no frame needed

Stressed

2011-12-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

I felt the need to throw some paint and this is the result. I looked back at last year's post at this time and it is very similar. You can check out that one, "Strained" if you'd like and you'll see that this time of year is not my favorite but it's my own fault. I always feel out of control. Last year, I made plans to do a better job of being organized about the holidays but obviously that didn't happen. I just don't think I have it in me to get things done in a timely manner and that causes STRESS.

Phew....now it's over for another year. I know those of you that love Christmas think I'm crazy but I'm really happy that we can get on to the new year. I'll make the same resolution to be more organized and we'll see what the outcome is for 2012. Who knows, if I get everything done ahead of time for the holidays next year, Christmas may become my favorite holiday.

This is a watercolor with bits of acrylic which I had to use (the white) because it was getting so dark. It sure was liberating to throw all of that paint though.

Stressed
Image size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Skagway

2011-12-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

There were so many beautiful places that we visited during our Alaskan cruise last year and I've been looking through all of my photos from that trip.
I found this beautiful scene in Skagway. It was such a clear, crisp day in June. I'm not used to seeing snow that time of year so this was a refreshing change. The temperature high during the day was around 58 degrees F - also a first. I'm used to our "June Gloom" but even with no sun shining, it's still much, much warmer than that. I've never worn a jacket and scarf in June before.

This is done in pastels on Sennelier La Carte paper.

Skagway
Image size 6" x 10"
Pastels
Unframed

Silk Wisteria, painting on silk

2011-12-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun with this one, I think I will need to do another silk painting really soon. This one has my favorite color combination - purple and lime green. Wisterias have such beautiful and showy flowers. I've always wanted one in our yard but we don't really have a spot for it. They can get fairly large. As they get old, their trunk structure is very interesting. Fortunately, two of our neighbors have them in their front yards so I get to enjoy them each spring when they are blooming.

Silk Wisteria
Image Size 15" x 15.5"
Silk dyes on silk
Stretched on archival board but unframed
$250.00

Breaking Through The Clouds

2011-12-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

This was painted from a photo I took while traveling on a bus between Liverno and Lucca in Tuscany. The sky was so beautiful and the scene was so tranquil that I had to try to capture the feeling. I really love the Tuscan countryside and you'll probably see many more scenes from this area in the future.

Breaking Through The Clouds
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Unframed
$100.00

Sitka At Dusk

2011-11-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last year we went on a cruise to Alaska and this is from one of my photos I took as we were leaving Sitka. I wanted to capture the feeling of cold and the overcast late afternoon light. I used mostly cool colors with bits of warm colors added in here and there. I used a deep electric blue suede paper as my surface. The more I work with the pastels, the more I like them. The softer pastels are really wonderful on this suede paper. I wasn't sure about using such a bright color paper but I think it gave an interesting effect.

One of these days I'm going to really splurge and get some Terry Ludwig pastels. They make some of the most beautiful, rich darks I've ever seen and they are a very soft pastel. I was able to try them in a pastel workshop once and I really liked them. They are a handmade pastel and they offer over 500 colors!

Sitka At Dusk
Image Size 11.5" x 15.5"
Pastels
Unframed
$175.00

Sunny Spain

2011-11-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

About 10 years ago, we visited the south of Spain and this was painted from a picture I took of one of the many whitewashed, hillside towns. What impressed me about each town we visited was how clean and white all of the buildings were. In fact, we saw buildings being freshened up with white paint in every town we visited.

I started this painting years ago and set it aside. I finally finished it this week. I used pastels on a rust colored mat board that I had coated with pumice gel which gave it enough tooth to hold many layers of pastels. My friend gave me some Sennelier pastels that she decided she wasn't going to use and I really enjoyed trying them. They are the softest pastels I've ever used and have a really buttery feeling. I can't wait to use them again. Thanks Peggy!!!

Sunny Spain
Image Size 9.5" x 16.5"
Pastels
$150.00

Inspired by Joseph Raffael

2011-11-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last spring, I was fortunate to see the work of Joseph Raffael in person. There was an exhibit at Soka University and it was truly amazing. His work is beautiful on his website but can't be appreciated fully until you see it in person. His paintings are HUGE and very intricate. I could have stayed at the show for days and not tired of looking and finding new things.

I decided to try to paint like him. I started this right after seeing the show but it then I ignored it until last week. Most of his paintings have these incredible borders that look like confetti. The way he paints them (I think) is to put the confetti colors on first and then paint around them. He had blooms in the background color of the border that I didn't want so I did my background color first, leaving white areas that I could fill in with color and then I used plastic wrap to get more texture.

My intention for the flowers and background was to NOT care about blooms and be very loose and messy. Well, I started out that way but it was really stressful for me so other than one bloom in the background (which drove me crazy) and the type of border I did, this is nothing like Joseph's work. I had good intentions. Maybe if I'd had a glass of wine first it would have turned out differently. Also, I think the flowers I picked really didn't lend themselves to the broken, textural color that he does so well.

The border on this was fun. I've always used borders in my silk paintings but rarely in my watercolors although I'm not sure why that is. I'll probably use borders in the future but I doubt if I'll do the confetti look again. That just seems to be too much of a signature of Joseph's.

To check out Joseph Raffael's beautiful paintings, click on his name. He also has videos on his site that are fun to watch.

Inspired by Joseph Raffael
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Unframed

Colimilla - Poured Watercolor

2011-11-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Colimillia is such cute little town. It is in the lagoon by Barra de Navidad, another charming town in Mexico. Both are about 40 minutes north of Manzanillo. They were hit by a hurricane a couple of weeks ago and many of the buildings on the beach in Barra were badly damaged. Colimilla was protected from the waves by being in the lagoon but I think there might have been some flooding. We will be visiting there soon and I'm anxious to see how the people in both towns are doing. The hurricane was only a category 2 luckily. It was supposed to be a category 3 when it hit land but fortunately it lost some of its power.

I painted this from a couple of pictures I took last spring. I love the serene feeling of the calm water and the setting sun. The pangas (small boats), like the one in this painting, go between the several restaurants in Colimilla and the Grand Bay Hotel and Barra de Navidad. It looks like it's time for a cocktail - and maybe some ceviche and coconut shrimp. : )

This is the first poured painting that I've tried. I went to a demo by Linda Baker a couple of weeks ago and this is the technique that she uses. Of course, she made it look really easy. I wouldn't say that it was hard but there is definitely a learning curve. The next one will be much easier. I really like the look that pouring watercolor gives to a painting. It has a very graphic quality, which you should know by now is the look that attracts me to a painting. I can't wait to try it again.

After saying in the last post that I was done painting flowers for awhile, the first thing I started working on the next day was a floral that I'd started last spring. Sigh..... At least this post isn't flowers but I'm afraid next week's probably will be but they will NOT be pink!

Colimilla
Image size 11" x 18"
Watercolor
Unframed
$190.00

Bougainvillea Mexicana

2011-10-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here is it. Can you believe it? I actually did something I said I was going to do. This is the watercolor version of the bougainvillea silk painting that I did last week. Many times I say I'm going to do this painting or that painting and they never get posted. That's because they never get painted. I guess I have more ideas of what to paint than the motivation to paint them. I get easily distracted by new ideas and the old ones just get forgotten. I should probably write them down for those times that I can't think of anything to paint.

This is a large painting and I really had to work hard to finish it for today. I fought with the paper the whole time. It is on Arches 300# rough. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose that paper for a floral. Maybe because the wall was stucco I thought it would be a good choice. I drew this and painted the background quite some time ago so I don't really remember my thought process. Also, though I love the heavier papers, it is really hard to get some of the color mixtures and effects that I want. I was hoping to paint the shadows with a looser, more watery feeling but didn't think I could get that with the heavier paper. The edges were drying creepy (I mean creepy crawly, not creepy scary, even though it's Halloween) instead of blurry like I wanted. Also, when I floated the colors blends on the paper they looked beautiful but because the paper took so long to dry, the paints blended together too much and lost the effect that they had when they were wet so I was unhappy with that aspect of the painting too. I had to do a lot more glazes to get the effect I wanted. That seems to happen on the 300# cold press paper too but the Arches 300# hot press seems very different in how it accepts the paint and is one of my favorite papers which is weird because I hate their 140# hot press. That paper is very hard for me to work on because I like my paints to blend smoothly and that doesn't happen easily on the lighter weight hot press. Maybe if I didn't wear my glasses while I paint I would relax and not worry about things like that because they would look blended. : )

Anyway, enough about paper. I'm sure those of you that aren't artists are yawning by now. I'm really pretty happy with this painting even though I was cursing at it while I was working on it. Maybe that helped. I'm not sure what I'll paint next but it won't be flowers. As much as I like them, I'm sick of them for now, especially pink flowers!

Bougainvillea Mexicana
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Unframed

Wrought Iron Bougainvillea - Silk Painting

2011-10-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

Last week I taught my niece how to paint on silk and that made me miss silk painting so I decided to paint one this week. I have some photos of bougainvillea against an orange building and am working on painting it in watercolor so I thought I would try painting it using silk dyes on silk also. It has a completely different look than the watercolor painting.

I was planning to put shadows from the bougainvillea on the wall but felt that this design was already too busy and the shadows probably wouldn't read right in a silk painting. I am going to make the shadows fairly important in the watercolor painting. That painting doesn't have the wrought iron so it's busy in a different way.

In this painting, I used salt to give a suggestion of stucco in the wall but the color I used didn't react very much with the salt. I probably had the color too light. I also experimented with using colored resists for parts of the details but need to go darker next time. It's all a learning experience, right?

By the way, my niece is a natural at the silk painting. Her painting is turning out great and she's already planning her next project. Silk painting is VERY addictive but it's a pretty healthy addiction.

Wrought Iron Bougainvillea
Image Size 15.5" x 23.25"
Silk dyes on silk
Stretched but unframed

Orvieto

2011-10-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

I took the photo for this painting in 2005 in Orvieto, Italy. It's such a charming town and I love this scene. In fact, I painted it before in a landscape format twice as large. For this painting, I wanted to use the portrait format to emphasize the height of the building in the foreground. Also, this one is painted more loosely and colorfully. I never took a picture of the original painting and although it is hanging in our home, I'm too lazy to try to take a picture of it through the glass. They never seem to come out well without a lot of reflections anyway so you will just have to imagine what it looks like. : )

Orvieto

Image Size 22" x 15"

Watercolor

Unframed

Palau Beach

2011-10-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Palau Beach sounds like it should be in the South Pacific and looks like it would be there or in the Caribbean but it is in Sardinia. That is the location for Virtual Paintout this month. I didn't know where Sardinia was and in case you don't either, it's in the mediterranean off the coast of Italy (and is part of Italy) just below the island of Corsica (which is part of France). I was attracted to the cloud formations and the beautiful color of the water. This is an oil painted on a 3/4" thick gallery wrapped canvas with the sides painted and doesn't need a frame.

Palau Beach
Image Size 8" x 16"
Oil
Unframed
$125.00

California Vineyard

2011-10-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me some velour paper - I'm not sure that's what it's called but that's what it looks like to me. I know they make mat board with a velour or sueded surface and this seems the same but is a paper. This piece was a bright yellow and I planned to have bits of it showing through but that didn't happen. It was hard to get a clean looking sky because of the yellow and I had intended to have a clear, blue sky but the clouds seemed to work better with that yellow base.

This is a picture I took at a vineyard up in Buellton, CA. In the photo, it was a beautiful, cloudless day but not anymore when a little artistic license is used. Clouds are so much fun to do, especially in pastels. This paper had such a velvety surface, it was easy to get the cloud effects I wanted.

I have some more of the paper in bright yellow, bright blue, bright kelly green and beige so you will probably be seeing more pastels done on this surface in the near future.

Thanks for the paper, Beverly!

California Vineyard
Image size 8" x 8"
Pastels
Unframed
$110.00

Cactus Flower-watercolor on TerraSkin

2011-09-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing around with the TerraSkin paper surface. I love the watery effects I can get with it and it forces me to paint more loosely. I took some pictures of cacti flowering at Sherman Gardens a while ago and had been wanting to try painting them. The flowers on these cacti are so beautiful I will probably paint them many times in several mediums. This is a very small painting but I think a huge painting of these would be amazing.

Cactus Flower
Image Size 5.5" x 4"
Watercolor
Unframed
$75.00

Stone Hollihocks- TerraSkin

2011-09-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

What a weird title for this painting, right? Well, it's painted on "stone" of a sort. I found out about this new "paper" from a blogger (sorry I don't remember who) and hunted it down because I just had to try it. It is called TerraSkin and is made from 75-80% stone (recycled calcium carbonate, the mineral in marble) and an environmentally friendly polyethylene resin. It uses about 50% less energy to produce, no bleach and little to no water. It is also acid free. When I heard about it, I couldn't wait to try it. I'm always looking for interesting substrates for my art.

One of the environmental perks of this "paper" is that it is biodegradable in 3-9 months with enough heat, moisture and sun. Of course, I don't want my art degrading but I would imagine that a piece of regular paper would be destroyed much, much quicker in that type of environment than this surface would. Remember people, don't put your art in the direct sun and definitely don't put your paintings in the landfill and expect for them to survive. : )

This paper has a wonderful chalky feel to it and it comes in various weights. I think this painting is done on the heaviest paper. The paint sits on the surface much like on yupo (I'm talking about watercolors) but I think this surface is more forgiving in a few instances. I started a completely different design on this paper and erased all of it and that didn't seem to change the surface of the paper. With Yupo, I've found that erasing is a big no no. Also, fingerprints don't seem to be such an issue with this paper as they are with Yupo. Lifting paint was similar when the paint was freshly dried but seemed to be a little harder to lift as it sat longer. It could still be lifted but didn't feel as impermanent as on Yupo and it was easier to get a blended edge when lifting instead of being either white or the color. Of course, I have NOT had much luck working on Yupo so for those of you that know what you're doing, these issues are probably not even problems for you.

I like the TerraSkin surface and look forward to painting on a large piece of it. I really like the effect of the paints on this paper, which is similar to the look on Yupo, but working on TerraSkin seems easier.

I would love to hear from anyone that has painted on this surface with watercolor and what your experiences have been.

Stone Hollihocks
Image Size 5.5" x 4"
Watercolor
Unframed
$75.00

Bougainvillea in Colored Pencil

2011-09-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

I really need to get some new reference material! I love bougainvillea but I think I've painted them enough! We have been traveling and I needed something to work on while on the plane. Colored pencils are the best medium for me in this instance because it doesn't take much space and if there is turbulence, there are no spills. There were a few pencil skips during turbulence but it worked out okay.

I am so amazed by artists that use colored pencil as their primary medium. It is a very time consuming process and being stuck on a plane is about the only time I have enough patience to work with them. It sure makes me appreciate the skills and time needed to finish a colored pencil painting. This is a small one and it took many hours more than if it was done in any other medium that I use. Even though I really like the look of colored pencils that have been burnished, I didn't burnish this one because there was a bit too much texture in the paper, even though it is a hot pressed watercolor paper. I usually like using smooth Bristol paper for colored pencils. This paper did have a little more tooth to hold more layers of color, which was nice, so I guess each type of paper has its pros and cons.

Bougainvillea in Colored Pencil
Image Size 7" x 10"
Colored Pencil
Unframed
$150.00

Lake Powell Reflections

2011-09-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying these watery, loose paintings. I know I will go back an forth between painting like this and really tight but variety is fun. As much as I like really controlling the watercolor, wet into wet painting gives beautiful effects.

Lake Powell Reflections
Image Size 22" x 15"
Watercolor
Unframed
$325.00

Lost Canyon III

2011-08-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another Lost Canyon abstract. This has some interesting textures that aren't really showing up in this photo. I love what watercolor pigments do on wet paper. You can't get that with any other medium.

Lost Canyon III
Image Size 15" x 22"
Unframed
$325.00