France – Page 2

New Sunflower Painting

May 2, 2012

36″ x 48″ textured painting on wrap around canvas

Sun Drenched III was inspired by our trip to Provence, France last summer. Our timing was perfect and the sunflowers and lavender were in full bloom. While we came across many fields of lavender, we had to search a little harder for sunflowers. Of course that meant sampling more of the local cuisine and wines for much needed fuel as we looked! (My husband likes to say we have to suffer four our art.)

When we eventually came across these sunflowers, I knew immediately they would make a perfect painting. Their bright, smiling faces as big as dinner plates, the sun dappled path leading you deep into the golden field to the quaint stone farmhouse in the distance, and a beautiful summer day with a few peaceful clouds drifting by made for the ideal subject. The resulting painting is so full of color and texture, and my hope is that when you gaze into it, this piece immediately lifts your spirits and brightens up any spot in your home.

If you’re in Dallas this weekend, please stop by my booth at Richardson’s Cottonwood Art Festival where I will be exhibiting, or you can always drop by my Dallas gallery this summer, American Fine Art, americanfineart.com/.

Cottonwood Art Festival
May 5 • 10am – 8pm
May 6 • 10am – 6pm

Richardson, TX •

Cottonwood Park •

on Beltline Rd. just east of Coit

cottonwoodartfestival.com/

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Web – NikiGulley.com • E-mail – Niki Gulley

“Loosening Up” Painting workshop

February 6, 2012

12” x 24” textured oil on wrap around canvas

My initial study for a 48″ x 90″ triptych, but I love how this small oil turned out, too! Inspired by Monet’s Gardens in Giverny, France, I wanted to paint a contemporary rendition of his lily pond, which would be flowing with color, light, warmth and energy.

If you’d like more information on this painting, please me at Niki Gulley. Or, if you’d like to create paintings with more freedom and expression, please join me Feb. 18th and 19th for a workshop I’m teaching on “Loosening Up.”

“Loosening Up” Painting Workshop

Feb. 18 and / or Feb. 19

Dallas, TX

See nikigulley.com/?page_id=13 for details and to register.

Also, Scott Williams and I will be leading a plein air painting / photography workshop in Paris, France this May. If you join us, you too could paint Monet’s Gardens in person! Visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=1420, which goes into detail on our Paris, Italy, and Santa Fe Art Treks. Paris and Tuscany are filling up quickly, so let us know if you would like to come along for one of these amazing trips!

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If you have any questions, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.

To see more of my contemporary landscape oil paintings, visit NikiGulley.com.

New Lavender Painting

August 16, 2010

20” x 30” acrylic on canvas

My husband and I have an uncanny sense of timing when it comes to the weather. We got married during a hurricane on the coast of Florida, we unknowingly planned our European workshop during the spewing of ash in Iceland, we’ve participated in art shows with 70 mph microbursts that destroyed 50 artist tents, and of course we chose to come home to Dallas after two months on the road during the hottest week of summer. With average temperatures around 103°, it wasn’t quite the home-coming I had in mind.

Making the best of it, I immersed myself in my air-conditioned studio and painted happier places – fantasizing about somewhere cooler, where plants grow profusely rather than wilting and withering in boiling temperatures and a beautiful location completely free of concrete. I remembered the gorgeous, aromatic lavender fields we’d seen in Europe a few years before at this exact time of year and through my painting I was transported back. I hope you experience that same bliss looking at “Summertime Bouquets.”

If you’re in the Chicago area this weekend, you can see “Summertime Bouquets” along with my other recent paintings at my booth #355 at the Gold Coast Art Show. For more information on the show, visit amdurproductions.com/f-goldcoast-public.html.