The Garden of Life

"The Garden of Life"

© Nancy Laliberte 

20" x 24" acrylic on canvas

click here to purchase

Currently, I am working on a few painting commissions that will be gifts (can't post them just yet), and because we are having such chilly weather, it's the perfect reason to post a bright, and cheerful painting. This piece was inspired by the amazing garden at my parent's home. It's a colorful piece that really brightens a room and puts a smile on your face. I really enjoy getting lost in the space around the flowers and leaves. You can read more about the story behind it, here.

Have a bright and happy day!
Nancy


Gift yourself the gift of a "Creative Time Out," check out my upcoming creative journaling and painting classes.

More from the Charrette

"Floral Study"

© Nancy Laliberte

10" x 8" oil on canvas panel

Continuing to work with the water-soluable oil paints, my good friend and fellow artist, Val Berkely and I, decided to follow an exercise from the book, Painting with Water-Soluable Oils by Sean Dye. Kevin Macpherson is a featured artist in the book so we followed his painting exercise to help us get a feel for working loosely and with lots of paint. In the end, our pieces didn't look like Kevin's but we had fun trying! My painting ended up looking better upside down, and somewhere hidden under the layers is a vase that is, well, upside down.

"Block Study"

© Nancy Laliberte

8" x 10" oil on panel

A block study exercise adapted from Susan Sarback's book, Capturing Radiant Color in Oils. Susan studied with Henry Hensche at the Cape Cod School of Art. One of the artists featured in the book is John Ebersberger, whom I had the opportunity to study with in 2004. That was my first introduction to seeing color and palette knife painting. To this day I still remember, "light plane, shadow plane." Block studies are a great exercise in seeing color and breaking down the masses with more color--something I think I could have pushed more in the painting. This piece was done primarily with a palette knife with a bit of brushwork at the end.

A good charrette always includes some art videos and our favorite was Larry Seiler's Painting a Waterfalls in Oils. Larry is a high school art instructor and all I can say is he has some lucky kids. His video was very complete and he does a great job explaining palette colors, design, brushwork and more. Check out his blog and website for more painting tips and other good stuff.

Petite Peinture: Nymphaea in Pink

"Nymphaea in Pink"

© 2010 Nancy Laliberte

4" x 4" x 1-3/8" Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$28 plus shipping

To help me explore composition and color ideas, I like to do smaller versions of bigger paintings. The 4x4 format is great for this. I am working on a series of water lily paintings for my upcoming show, "Where We Live," and wanted to do some "exploring" with the "portrait" of a water lily. I also wanted to experiment with color and capture the sunlit glow of the flower while keeping the background minimal.

A Bit of Sunshine

"A Bit of Sunshine"

© 2009 Nancy Laliberte

5" x 5" acrylic on paper

Nothing like a bouquet of flowers to cheer you up! I love painting these as they always get me warmed up for more...painting!

Pansies from Heaven

"Pansies from Heaven"

© 2009 Nancy Laliberte

10" x 8" acrylic on archival matboard

SOLD

My Granny O'Gara always planted pansies in her garden. In her memory I always make sure I plant a pot or two in my own garden. I started this piece last fall from life and then recently finished it up in the studio using a photo reference. It starting looking a little too "tight" so I took a big brush and went back in to simplify the shapes and give it the painterly look I was going for in the first place.

Wausau Spring Exhibitour

"Plein Air Heliopsis"

© 2009 Nancy Laliberte

8" x 10" acrylic on panel

$150

These flowers grow in one of my mother's gardens and my challenge was to create a variety of greens, capture the "spirit" of the flowers, and simply work en plein air. It is part of a plein air flower series I have going. This painting will also be featured in Wausau's Spring Exhibitour Gallery Walk tomorrow night from 6-8 pm. My artist friend Val Berkely and I will be at Associated Bank (corner of Scott & 4th St). The theme of our show is "Double Blooms" and will feature all florals. Here in north central Wisconsin, winter is very, very long. We thought lots of bright floral paintings would be just the ticket to welcome spring! If you are in the Wausau area--please stop by and take in Exhibitour. It is a huge social event that always draws a large crowd, and you just may find that perfect flower painting to go above the sofa ; )