Tracy Arm Falls

I was out of town for several days this past week and I didn't have much time to paint so I decided to finish a painting I had started a (long) while ago.  It is such a good feeling when I finish a project that's been hanging around the studio so I don't know why I have so many unfinished projects.  I guess it's an even better feeling to start a new project.  : )

Anyway, I was glad I had a painting that was almost finished so I could stay on track with finishing a painting a week.  I was cutting it a little too close this week.

This scene is in Alaska.  We were on a cruise a couple of years ago and I have many photos of wonderful places that will provide reference material for paintings for a long time.  Alaska is so beautiful that by the end of the week, my eyes had overdosed on 'beautiful'.  The Tracy Arm, where the reference photo for this painting was taken,  has many waterfalls and amazing vistas as well as wildlife.  I was wishing that my camera had a better zoom so that I could get some close-ups but even without it, I got some nice pictures.  The water in this area is such an lovely shade of turquoise.  The glacial ice pulverizes the rock as it moves over the surface and as the ice melts, the powdered rock is suspended in the water and it reflects the light and makes the water a milky turquoise color.  It looks unreal.

Tracy Arm Falls
Image size 8" x 16"
Oil

Category › Alaska , nancy goldman , oil paintings , Tracy Arm

Skagway

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

Category › Alaska , nancy goldman , pastel paintings , Skagway

Sitka At Dusk

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

Category › Alaska , nancy goldman , pastels , Sitka

Summer in Alaska

I'm still working on painting loosely.  Maybe I'm starting to see things differently because "loose" is getting easier for me.  I know this is still pretty tight compared to most loose watercolor paintings but for me, it's pretty darn loose.  Actually, I'm missing working on my tight paintings.  Maybe switching between the two styles is the answer for me.

I've been told that it's important for an artist to have a distinctive 'style' so that their work is recognizable but I enjoy painting in so many different mediums and different ways that I wonder if I will ever settle on one style.  I guess time will tell the answer to that one.

Summer in Alaska
Image Size 15" x 22"
Watercolor

Category › Alaska , nancy goldman , watercolor

Alaska Reflections

I'm back to my using photos from Alaska.  On the train we took from Anchorage to Seward, the country was so beautiful!  I took lots of pictures on that 4 hour ride and this is painted from one of them.
It is a palette knife painting.  Using a palette knife is good for me because I am forced to paint loosely.  I know some artists can get a lot of detail with the palette knife but I'm not one of them.

Alaska Reflections
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil
Unframed
$100.00

Category › Alaska , nancy goldman , palette knife paintings , train from Anchorage to Seward

Rushing Water

I can't seem to stop myself from painting with a palette knife which I find interesting since oil painting doesn't even rate in the top three of my favorite mediums list.  I'm just glad that my cravings for cake have stopped!

This is from another photo taken in Alaska.   As you get closer to the glaciers, the water has this beautiful turquoise color.  It may not be quite this turquoise but I decided to employ that artistic license thingy  just because I can.  What a feeling of power!  Everybody would want to be an artist if they knew how much power we have. : )

I really like working on these small 6" x 6" canvases which is good because I spent most of the week organizing my studio (again).  We took out a refrigerator and I had visions of gaining so much storage space but only about half of what I thought I was going to put there actually fit.  Sigh....  I guess I need to paint faster so I can use up all of those extra (large) canvases and frames that I seem to have collected.  My new motto should be more working and less shopping when it comes to art supplies.

Rushing Water

Image Size 6" x 6"

Oil

Unframed, gallery wrapped canvas with sides painted.  It can be displayed on an easel or hung w/o frame

$100.00

Category › Alaska , Alaska oil paintings , nancy goldman , palette knife paintings , waterfalls

Alaska Peaks

Jerry and I just got back from a cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 26th anniversary. I think Alaska is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. Being from Southern California, I'm not used to seeing huge expanses of green trees in every direction along with wildlife and lots of rivers and lakes. We spent 3 days after the cruise in Vancouver, Canada which is equally beautiful. I finally got to see Buchart gardens in Victoria which has always been on my list of must see places. By the time we came home, my brain was on beauty overload. I took almost 1000 pictures so you will probably be seeing a lot of greenery in my paintings in the near future.

We didn't get home until Saturday so I decided that my painting this week should be small. The colors in this painting are very different from my preferred bright colors but I wanted to capture the feeling of the coldness. Actually, it was in the high 50's but to me, that was cold. I've been admiring palette knife paintings done by other artists so I thought I would try one. Being a control freak, I wasn't sure I would like it because I love to work a painting to death with detail but I had so much fun, I can't wait to do another one. The experience was a cross between doing a home improvement project with drywall compound and frosting a cake. Right now, I'd rather have a cake as a finished project than a painting. Cake is the perfect food group and I would really be happy if one was in front of me because I'm rather hungry.

Alaska Peaks

Image Size 6" x 6"

Oil
Unframed, gallery wrapped canvas with painted sides, no frame needed
$100.00

Category › Alaska , lakes , mountains , nancy goldman , oil paintings of alaska , palette knife paintings , rivers , snow