Nancy Freeman Studio
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River of Small Explosions

8/23/2017

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When I lived in the SkyBox, (9th floor overlooking I395) I would sit with a nice glass of wine and watch the rush hour traffic, always bumper to bumper, both directions. It was an endless river of tiny internal combustion explosions.
I'm very pleased that this pastel painting was juried into the Maryland Pastel Society's National Exhibition. Always an honor.
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Quick Draw Champion

7/19/2017

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​Ellicott City Plein Air continued:
"Greens for Lunch"
Saturday morning was the Quick Draw competition. We all (62 artists) got two hours to complete a painting, then we all gathered for an immediate judging and prizes. I decided to paint the festive umbrellas outside the little cafes. It was a fabulous sunny morning, I had a nice shady spot, a large iced coffee, and a big macaroon dipped in chocolate to inspire me. I wasn't worried about the time constraints, since I was using pastels. Life was good! After the closing buzzer, we all packed up and took our entries to be juried. I was quite surprised to see most of the juried artists had already framed their pieces! Next year. There was a big crowd, and a number of pieces were sold in the first 20 minutes, including mine. There were some very good artist there.
Then, much to my astonishment, I won first prize! The judge said he liked it because it was so happy and friendly. The nice lady who bought it was even more pleased than I was.
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First Plein Air Event!

7/19/2017

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​I'm trying to catch up on some posts...starting with the weekend. 

Ellicott City Plein Air competition event

What a wonderful weekend! First of all. the weather, which is usually hideously hot in July, was quite congenial ... blue skies with fluffy white clouds, a nice breeze, not too hot, not too humid, no rain ... perfect for painting outdoors. There were 30 "official" artist that were juried in, with lots of prizes and a month long group exhibition. There were also maybe 60 more "Open Paint" artists, including a few children, who could just come paint at the same time. They got a few prizes, too, and an opening night exhibition. As you wandered around, there were artists scattered all over the place. It was very festive. Most people worked in oils, but there were a number of watercolor artists, three other pastelists, and a smattering of other media (including wood block prints!). We had to get our canvases and paper stamped in the morning.
"Through the Arch"

Friday I did a painting of an old stone arch that is still holding up the train track. A train even came through at one point! I was using an experimental surface, which fought back hard, but it looks good from a distance. I might try that one again next year with a more congenial surface. I was so grateful for the shade, and for my ice water.
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"Quick Sketch, Aspens"

10/9/2015

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"Quick Sketch, Aspens" -
Pastel on Tobacco Brown canson paper, about 6 x 12. This was a class demo, and took about 20 -25 minutes. I love doing landscapes on this brown color, (which has subtle speckles) - It really makes the blues and green sing!
Makes me happy.
The row of colors along the bottom are the various individual pastels that I used.
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Under Pressure

10/4/2015

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While we're on the subject of ROCKS, here's "Under Pressure", pastel. I used this composition to discuss not only issues of drawing rocks, but also working with grays and whites (hint - grays and whites can have LOTS of COLOR in them, and still read as gray or white. (Grey as the Brits would say). The stripes below are all the colors that I used for the painting, in the order that I used them. NancyFreemanStudio.com. Thanks!
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Dancing Rock

10/4/2015

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"Dancing Rock"

Pastel, 18"x12"


This happy stack o' rocks is just dancing on down the street.
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"Trees of Asilomar"

10/4/2015

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"Trees of Asilomar",
At ten feet wide, this digital work is one of the largest artworks I've done. I often use the grid structures because I like how each piece is it's own abstract compositions, yet contributes to the whole.
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"Trees of Asilomar", on a big dining room wall.
The final form here is individual panels printed in waterproof archival inks on archival paper, then mounted with acrylic on five wood door panels. It's a huge amount of work to produce these large pieces, but it's always so rewarding to see them at this scale.
Detail from "Trees of Asilomar". This would represent about an 8 inch section.
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"Coming or Going?" step-by-step

9/25/2015

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"Coming or Going?" pastel 15"x15"
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Underpainting - establishing the tone
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Blocking in the composition
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Refining the shapes with the lighter tones
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Shooting Stars

9/16/2015

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"Shooting Stars"
From the Cable Spools series. I liked how weathering had produced long dark trails from so many of the elements, and how they related to the wood grain. It looked as if they were racing along. This one took a lot of layers and tweaking, but I like the free-form result.
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Catch of the Day - Cable Spool

9/11/2015

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The Monocle
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Inner Spool
It cooled off a lot yesterday, so I went for a nice long walk. I came upon some giant wooden spools for cable with amazing surfaces and visual themes. I took lots of pictures, but most of them will need much fussing. Here are two that only required moderate transforming.
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    About
    the Artist

    Nancy Freeman is a native of California who lives now in Washington, DC. A lifelong artist, she paints portraits and other commissions for a living, which keeps her traditional skills tuned and supports her decades-old obsession with computer art, and pastel painting.

    She is currently using her 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th computers, but remembers
    when Dick Tracy had to make do with a two-way wrist radio.

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