Inspiration For Today:

Ingres! LOVE his pencil portraits.

Complete!

A little bit of the background is still wet, this is as much as I could reduce the glare from the wet areas of paint. Once it dries and I spray it with a protective finish it won't have that problem. Also, in these photographs the background is a hair darker than the original. The last update was more accurate in that aspect.

Almost there..

Just a few little things left to finish up on this! (mostly refining the rope)

Sunny Fall Day!

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I cleaned my studio Tuesday which made a perfect day today for painting in the studio!! I paint closer to the back corner to keep direct sunbeams off my painting, but have a perfect view of my clean space and the yellow leaves and sunbeams! The other chair and easel I sat in is out of view of this picture.

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Below are a few views from out of my window this fall. Can you believe I live in a city and have such a green backdrop?! (Even if it is mostly weeds!) I am so lucky!
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Closing in For Completion

You can click to zoom in on the first image. I don't know why I can't get it to happen for the second. Anybody know how that works?

Baby portrait is just about there!

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Swing painting progresses. Sorry for the light glare. The surface is wet and shiny.
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Thanks for looking! Feel free to leave comments!
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Art find of the Day

Check out this mural!

http://www.woostercollective.com/2009/06/boxis_to_die_for_on_the_streets_of_athen.html

It's a bit depressing but the simplicity of their pose and emotion is incredible. It's very similar to the work that I am doing now: simple expressions, simple poses, the weight of the subjects and lots of space!

I see stuff like this and wish I could have been the artist! (Especially since it's in Athens!)

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I need to pay better attention to upcoming exhibitions at museums. Maxfield Parrish work is at Delaware Art Museum right now! http://www.delart.org/exhibitions/fantasies_fairytales.html I'm thinking about going this or next Sunday. Come along!

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And with my own art:

I'm actually really busy with art right now. I'm working with Bright Ideas Press to do more coloring pages for a homeschool ciriculum Tyler and Helen have written. I have worked with Bright Ideas Press in the past to create coloring pages for this book: http://www.brightideaspress.com/YSGComposers.htm
I'll be sure to show a sample or two of the current project when I get them in ink and scanned in.

More for Today

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I started adding color. I need to make choices about how I'm going to approach the background. I won't touch the brush till I have a plan!

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Works in Progress

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Sorry it's been so long since an update! I'm finally getting back into a rhythm again. I'm really excited to show you what I have in progress now!

This first image is a portrait commission in progress. I am so excited about painting the most beautiful baby I've ever seen! I've only just started to add glazes of color to her skin. The background will be in muted pinkish-purples and whites and will fade into more of a watercolor effect.
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This second image is one you've seen before (if you follow this blog) in two different forms. One is a sketch from my sketchbook. Then another time I started it as a painting but ended up making it too big of an image for the effect I was going for. I named it a study and used loose paint strokes, bright colors, and just had fun with it. My original intentions have been to do this image as a painting the way it is now below with a lot of space and the girl painted with a sort of delicate detail. The space, the weight of the girl, and the little details are what make me excited about this piece. I will be adding muted color to this. Click image to see in detail!
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Both of these works are on board. Painting on board is going so much better for my style of painting than it ever was on canvas. Goodbye canvas! Hello higher quality work!
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My First Landscape!

My friend took this photograph and had a lot of faith in my ability when commissioning me to paint my first landscape! It was a lot more fun than I anticipated. I really enjoyed painting the mountains and creating a depth of field much wider than the usual portrait requires.

Funny story- several days after completing the boat in the foreground, I had walked into my room and was very impressed by the luminocity of the boat! "Wow!" I thought, "I am better than I thought!" After a moment I realised the boat was luminous because the sun was shining through the back of the painting! It shone through the boat more because the paint wasn't as thick and opaque as the rest of the paint on the rest of the canvas! But Jen had the same reaction with me, so I'm not alone in my mistake. We still were excited about the effect! hehe...

Mark your calendars!

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What? Art in the Park
Where? Mario Lanza Park, 2nd & Catherine

When? Sunday, May 17, 11am - 5pm
Why? Support yours truely!
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I think you need some art on your walls! I'm selling a variety of floral drawings and photographs. All are matted. Everything is $25 and under (!) so this is absoultely fantastic time to purchase a Nicole Petersen work of art. Your walls will never be happier! If you can't purchase anything right now but want to say hello, a walk by and a "oh look at this fantastic work!" to a random stranger would be completely sufficient! ;-) Here is a hint of what you can anticipate to find (click to see close ups):

Portrait and 3 Cherries

I took better pictures before sending it off to its new home:

1 x 2" acrylic paintings for Nelle's birthday (being that her last name is Cherry):

I'm Still Here

I've been busy with a variety of things so I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update lately. Here is a completed portrait I finished just this week. Forgive my bad photo quality.

Artist on Wire

I watched Man on Wire yesterday as I was painting. Before putting it on I thought, "How could a movie about someone walking a wire between the Twin Towers be enough of a plot for 1 and 1/2hrs?" But I was curious and I was multitasking anyway so I put it on. It was a great film. Besides enjoying the story and the filmography, a couple things had an impact on me. One, the score is classical music. It's gorgeous. I forgot how fantastic it is to paint to classical music. When I paint to it I feel like my art is an extension of the music. Suddenly music isn't just keeping me alert and entertained, its giving me focus and purpose. The other thing that had an impact on me was this eloquent quote from the "skywalker", "If I die, what a beautiful death. To die in the exercise of passion.” Being an artist involes risks. Granted, unlike skywalking if I paint a stroke in the wrong direction or don't sell a painting I won't plummet to my death. I can catch a bit of artist vertigo every now and again if I look down, but that can't prevent me from making every effort. The fantastic thing is that when you succeed, as it was for the skywalker and everyone who witnessed his feat on the towers, the results can be breathtaking.

More Monkey Business

I had a smaller square board that I wanted to paint something on it to go with the others. But I couldn't figure out what to do. I went back through my photographs and forgot that i had a picture of this stuffed monkey that the youngest put on the swing. He is happy to be part of the fun, too!

Swing Study no2

I had so much fun with the last one that I couldn't wait to do this one. I decided to skip going out anywhere last night and painted this instead. Don't be fooled by the amount of time it takes me to do this oil in comparrison to my portraits. An average portrait I work on over a period of 4-6 months depending on complexity.

So here it is! The sister (one of them) of the other swing picture. My favorite thing about these are that both girls are using the swings unconventionally. I love kids. Don't they make you want to be one again, too?

Swing Study

Today I was so excited about painting, I worked on a portrait commission all morning and straight through lunch! Not on purpose; once in a while when I'm having fun and making progress I don't get as hungry. The commission needed the rest of the night off, so I spontaneously decided to do a painting that I have been wanting to paint from the image of the girl on the swing. I ended up doing the underpainting too large on the board for the effect I was going for, so instead I did an energetic and quick color study with thick paint. Armed with new brushes, this was a fun process! Here is right after I decided to do more of a study. I started to paint the swings first.



And the complete study:

Business Cards!

I got my business cards today! My little manakin wanted to model them for me. His life has been pretty well pointless till now. (For some reason every artist has to have a manakin, but I find it completely useless- and I even do figurative work!) Anyway, back to the point- I have business cards! The back is a watermark of the front with all the information on it. Annabelle is the fantastic model that you see on my card. Her beautiful face has definately got to help get business! Hehe, thanks Mel and Annie! Also, I want to thank Brendan for my fantastic website! Links to my website and photography are to the left of this page.

Pastel Portrait Suprize!

Starring my nephew, Hayden!

I have been working on these pastels for my mom and my sister's birthdays. You are aware of the first pastel, which I showed you the work in progress. Here it is complete:



My sister's pastel started as only a black and white charcoal. When I was near finished, it exploded itself into a pastel project. Because of this it became another belated gift (by 8 days), but I think maybe this made the suprize even more effective! In order to finish these projects in my goal time I worked late last night. I was so involved in the process that I also recieved my own suprize when I was getting ready for bed and saw myself in the mirror:



I don't know if you can tell to what extent, but the brown pastel is all over my face! This morning I worked on the pastels from 8-10:00am and then I drove to Dover to suprize my mom and sister with my presence and pastels!

Here is my sister's gift. It is from a photograph I took about a year and a half ago. The original photo was out of focus and Hayden had a pacifier covering a lot of his face. I had wanted to make it into a drawing since I photographed it. My sister had never even seen the original photo.



The visit made for a lovely Saint Patricks Day today! Hayden (now two) recognized himself and his mom in both images. He's my most honest critic!

Happy Belated Birthday, Mom!

It's not quite finished, but I'll probably have it ready by Saturday.

Before this, the last time I did a color pastel had to be 2002. And I actually never tried pastel for portraiture. Now I see why its such a great meduim for creating skin and clothing textures. But I do get annoyed with the mess and the large width of the pastel.

When it's complete I'll take a better quality photo for the blog!

Primarily Updated

She walks
collecting the light
and the colors
that will prepare her palette
and illuminate her canvas.

Check out the link to my photographs on the left to see some of my photography. I put some brand new portrait ones up today!

Snow Day!

Really, a snow day is just another work day for the artist. But the snow brings a beautiful view for working and excellent lighting for painting! Sunny days are very difficult, everything gets glary and I have to keep shifting the angle of the canvas as the sun changes. Here's a bit of what my work space looks like today! Time to stop typing and embrace this perfect day for working on a commission. I hope you're having a wonderful snow day (or sunshine day to my non east coast friends)!

Note from the Past

In middle school I used to draw all the time. I forgot that this was something that was such a part of me back then as it is now; that others knew me for my love of art even at an early age. Today my mom gave me a letter she found of mine. It is a dear note from a girl in elementry school to her middle school age friend (me!).

"Dear Nicole,
I wish we could be friends again because someday I would like to draw just like you. And if you want to be my friend agian drop this on my front porch."

Primarily

I was playing with an effect in photoshop yesterday, and accidentally ended up with this primary color scheme. I loved it so much, I couldn't wait to do a study! This isn't quite complete, but I wanted to share it. It's on 12 x 8" board. My thoughts on this are about the basic beginnings of the painter, the primary color colors and the light that illuminates her world.

Meet My Sketchbook

This sketchbook was truely created with artists in mind.

Its cover inspires me to draw in its pages with detail and elegance.

My goal in this sketchbook is not to fill it to the brim with work, but let the space speak.

An Artist's Poem

Suspended hand over fate;
Curiously creation waits.
Movement breaking silent space
Grants the artist's heart a face.

By Nicole Petersen, written today for her first passage of her artist blog.