Watercolor Beach Painting, Beachcombers 13083, Day 25 of the Leslie Saeta 30/30 challenge, ArtByte Collage Tutorial, Book of Poems, Dreams of the Turtle King. Illustrated by Texas Contemporary Artist Nancy Standlee

Nancy Standlee Art Blog showcases paintings of acrylic, collage, mixed media, watercolor, plein air and workshop experiences.

 Another Artist of Texas , Denise Bossarte, has asked me to illustrate her book of poems, “Dreams of the Turtle King” poems inspired by South Florida beaches, and this is my second watercolor sketch with the Namiki Falcon and Lexington Gray ink. I’ve been plein air painting on the  Sandbridge beach in Virginia while in the Leslie Saeta workshop. Now I have 22 more illustrations to go for the book and they will all be beach related. I have about 6 to go for the Leslie Saeta challenge and some of these can overlap. After the book illustration images are scanned they will be available for shipping, approximately in two weeks. 

My paintings are available on the Daily Paintworks gallery page HERE.

I have an ArtByte, an affordable collage tutorial available HERE. 

This was my set up painting plein air at the Flip Flop Farmer fruit stand in Virginia and by then I’d busted my chair but what saved my bacon was the umbrella and the James Coulter easel. We were breaking for lunch and we left our things, jumped in the car for a pizza break and I was renewed to finish the oil painting. See that tree line that is following the back roof line, well that is a bad composition and will be fixed. Sometimes you just don’t see clearly until there is a photo on a computer monitor. There were so many neat things to paint everywhere you looked and I was delighted to find all these brightly colored wooden, hand made fruit bins. The “farmer” was very careful not to put a yellow item in a yellow box.  I need to do a little touch up on this one as it smudged in a few places getting a wet painting from VA. to Texas but it was a wonderful trip, great workshop and some special side trips like the one to visit an artist friend across the bay.

Gloria Coker, is an impressionist figure artist from Newport News and I got to spend some time with her on Friday after the workshop and visit her studio and see this fabulous acrylic figurative painting.

You will love me after I give you this link to her website as you will spend several hours just admiring her original work at Gloria Coker Fine Art.  
In 2004 several of the Texas painter friends went to Duck NC to study and paint with her in her beach house.

 On the plane.. yes, the passengers knew right away we were on a girl trip.

 One of my favorite Gloria pics. She was so kind to us with her instruction and hospitality and someone we all wanted to paint like and she cooked for us also.
And Leslie cooked for us and now I’m wondering what my response will be like when I ask the next workshop instructor if she/he will be “fixing” my night meal? 

Our version of a glamor shot in paint clothes. From left, Pat Salazar, Cindy Campbell, Maryann Stephens, Karen Foster, and NS (and several friends with their head shots on painting stirrers/sticks that kept showing up in strange places). 
 To see work by other artists who are following along with the 30/30 go to the Leslie Saeta blog. I have joined hundreds of other artists for this September painting challenge and we are trying to paint and post a painting each day. It doesn’t have to be a finished piece but some piece of art each day. On some of the larger commission pieces I have posted portions over a 3 day period. On the smaller pieces I can do one a day and to finish out the challenge I will be posting these watercolors.

Original fine art and affordable prints can be found at:

contact: [email protected]

Texas Daily Painter, Watercolor, Pen and Ink sketches,  Beach paintings, small paper painting, poetry book, poems, beach poems, beachcomber,  Artists of Texas, Nancy Standlee Fine Art, Daily Paintworks, Pinterest, Canvas by Canvas, Check Advantage, Leslie Saeta 30/30 challenge, Etsy, Dreams of the Turtle King, torn paper collage, Virginia, bird collage, Denise Bossarte, photography, Artbyte, collage tutorial, Gloria Coker, figurative acrylic paintings,