Two California Workshops, Leslie Saeta, Palette Knive in Ventura, VW Beetle Oil Painting and Urban Sketchers in Dallas by Texas Artist Nancy Standlee

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

I returned Friday night, November 14 from a great two weeks art workshops in California and I guess I will work backwards in the posts. One of the workshop ladies spotted this VW on Leslie Saeta’s street near the Ventura beach and all the class walked down and met the owner and took lots of photos and figured this cute bug must be painted. I felt like the traveling van symbolized my experiences as I flew from DFW to Phoenix to change planes, Monterrey, CA took a rental to Carmel, CA where I took 5 days with Patti Mollica, in acrylic and flew from Monterrey to Santa Barbara by way of LAX, got a shuttle to Ventura and from Ventura another shuttle to LAX and back to DFW. We painted 5 days in “Paradise Pallete Knife Paintings by the Beach” and left shirt sleeve weather to arrive to freezing cold in DFW area. 

Here is a photo of the class on the beach:

 Lucy, Tina, Debbie, Leslie, Karla, and NS
 
I headed to Dallas and the Bishop Arts District on Saturday, Nov. 15 to join the Urban Sketchers of Texas for outdoor sketching in the afternoon. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the tips and info I’ve discovered by way of my journeys.

 Pizza at Enzo’s before painting – so many layers!

This is a great chair for sketching, the Xpress Lounger from REI and it comes in XL and regular http://www.rei.com/product/783457
/gci-outdoor-xpress-lounger-chair and you can see me trying it out along with some fingerless mittens purchased on the way to the venue. This chair is super easy to carry, put up and take down.

This is my sketch in the Moleskine A4 journal. Need to work on my architectural skills. I hope to do that in the next 12 weeks as I’m taking another online class with Liz Steel and it is excellent. http://www.lizsteel.com/2014/10/sketching-foundations-course.html
She lives in Australia, is an architect and in 7 years has filled 100 sketchbooks. Oh, yes, I’m sure to pick up a few tidbits along the way.