Venice Art Trek with Niki Gulley and Scott Williams

 

Venice Art Trek
9″ x 12″ pastel by Niki Gulley

We just got back from teaching our latest Plein Air Painting and Photography Art Trek in Venice during Carnivalé and had the most amazing time! The weather was ideal, and we found our way to this quiet landing to paint a typical Venetian canal on our first morning. I liked the way the sunlight raked across the colorful buildings and emphasized all of the texture in the stucco and brickwork. We had to paint quickly since boats kept entering and leaving our scene, all part of the morning hustle and bustle in Venice. Luckily I loosely got the red boat in right before it took off!
 
If you’d like to join us on one of our upcoming Art Treks, please let me know. For more details, E-mail Niki Gulley or go to nikigulley.com/artreks.

Palette Knife Oil Painting from Venice by Niki Gulley

  

 “Venetian Textures II” ©2023 Niki Gulley

16″ x 12″ textured oil on canvas panel 

I started this piece during our Plein Air / Photography Art Trek Workshop that my husband, Scott Williams, and I lead in Venice, Italy. We had painted several other grand locations, but decided on day three to paint a more intimate vignette of the canals. Since the whole city is on water, I love how their “garage doors” are actually for their boats! In this painting, I wanted to focus on all of the wonderful architectural textures and age of the homes as seen in the peeling stucco, crumbling bricks and weathered wood. Luckily I had a steady stream of gondolas passing as I was painting so I could add one in to set the mood.

To purchase and for more details, go to nikigulley.com/venetian-textures/.

To see more of my contemporary textured landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
 
For more information on my Venice and other travel paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
 
***
 
 
If you’d like to join us on one of upcoming Art Treks or Foodie Treks, please let us know.
For more information on upcoming trips, please visit http://www.ArtTreks.org.
 
***

https://www.instagram.com/nikigulley/

“Venetian Textures” Oil Painting by Palette Knife Artist Niki Gulley

 

“Venetian Textures” ©2021 Niki Gulley

SOLD • 12″ x 9″ textured oil on canvas panel

Just Sold! I started this piece during our Plein Air / Photography Art Trek Workshop that my husband, Scott Williams, and I lead in Venice, Italy. We had painted several other grand locations, but decided on day three to paint a more intimate vignette of the canals. Since the whole city is on water, I love how their “garage doors” are actually for their boats! In this painting, I wanted to focus on all of the wonderful architectural textures and age of the homes as seen in the peeling stucco, crumbling bricks and weathered wood. 

***

To see more of my contemporary textured landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
 
For more information on my Venice and other travel paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
 

***

 
If you’d like to join us on one of upcoming Art Treks or Foodie Treks, please let us know. We’ll be returning to Venice in February 2023!
 
 
 
For more information on upcoming Art Treks, please visit http://www.ArtTreks.org.
 

https://www.instagram.com/nikigulley/

Palette Knife Oil Painting from Venice by Niki Gulley

 

 “Venetian Textures II” ©2022 Niki Gulley

16″ x 12″ textured oil on canvas panel 

I started this piece during our Plein Air / Photography Art Trek Workshop that my husband, Scott Williams, and I lead in Venice, Italy. We had painted several other grand locations, but decided on day three to paint a more intimate vignette of the canals. Since the whole city is on water, I love how their “garage doors” are actually for their boats! In this painting, I wanted to focus on all of the wonderful architectural textures and age of the homes as seen in the peeling stucco, crumbling bricks and weathered wood. Luckily I had a steady stream of gondolas passing as I was painting so I could add one in to set the mood.

To purchase and for more details, go to nikigulley.com/venetian-textures/.

***To see more of my contemporary textured landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
 
For more information on my Venice and other travel paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
 

https://www.instagram.com/nikigulley/

New Palette Knife Oil Painting from Venice by Niki Gulley

 

 

 “Venetian Textures II” ©2021 Niki Gulley

16″ x 12″ textured oil on canvas panel 

I started this piece during our Plein Air / Photography Art Trek Workshop that my husband, Scott Williams, and I lead in Venice, Italy. We had painted several other grand locations, but decided on day three to paint a more intimate vignette of the canals. Since the whole city is on water, I love how their “garage doors” are actually for their boats! In this painting, I wanted to focus on all of the wonderful architectural textures and age of the homes as seen in the peeling stucco, crumbling bricks and weathered wood. Luckily I had a steady stream of gondolas passing as I was painting so I could add one in to set the mood.

To purchase and for more details, go to nikigulley.com/venetian-textures/.

***To see more of my contemporary textured landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
 
For more information on my Venice and other travel paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
 

https://www.instagram.com/nikigulley/

New “Venetian Textures” Oil Painting by Palette Knife Artist Niki Gulley

“Venetian Textures” ©2021 Niki Gulley

12″ x 9″ textured oil on canvas panel

I started this piece during our Plein Air / Photography Art Trek Workshop that my husband, Scott Williams, and I lead in Venice, Italy. We had painted several other grand locations, but decided on day three to paint a more intimate vignette of the canals. Since the whole city is on water, I love how their “garage doors” are actually for their boats! In this painting, I wanted to focus on all of the wonderful architectural textures and age of the homes as seen in the peeling stucco, crumbling bricks and weathered wood. 

To purchase and for more details, check out nikigulley.com/venetian-textures-ii/.

***To see more of my contemporary textured landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
 
For more information on my Venice and other travel paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
 

https://www.instagram.com/nikigulley/

Venice Art Trek with Niki Gulley and Scott Williams

Venice Art Trek 2014
9″ x 12″ pastel by Niki Gulley

We just got back from teaching our latest Plein Air Painting and Photography Art Trek in Venice during Carnivalé and had the most amazing time! The weather was ideal, and we found our way to this quiet landing to paint a typical Venetian canal on our first morning. I liked the way the sunlight raked across the colorful buildings and emphasized all of the texture in the stucco and brickwork. We had to paint quickly since boats kept entering and leaving our scene, all part of the morning hustle and bustle in Venice. Luckily I loosely got the red boat in right before it took off!
If you’d like to join us on one of our upcoming Art Treks, please let me know. For more details, E-mail Niki Gulley or go to nikigulley.com/artreks.

White Rock Lake oil painting by Niki Gulley

9″ x 12″ oil painting by Niki Gulley at White Rock Lake

I painted this small oil painting at White Rock Lake earlier this week, getting ready for my Plein Air Workshop this weekend. It was a perfect morning – blue skies and a gentle breeze, with an ideal temperature. I was attracted to the multi-colored sailboats and the interesting pattern they formed. With so many boats, I sketched out my composition and then I had to paint very quickly before the light changed – a fun challenge and an enjoyable, peaceful morning.

For more information on this weekend’s painting workshop, visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=13.

To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings and local Dallas scenes, visit my website at nikigulley.com/?page_id=33.

“Tell Me Your Dreams” oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Tell Me Your Dreams” ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 11″ x 14″ oil painting

Just sold! I absolutely love poppies and seeing them growing in mass! In this painting I wanted to show them in a different way than we’re used to seeing poppies so I chose a low angle to show off the beauty of their simplified forms and the strength of such a delicate flower, while capturing the azure blue sky behind them.

If you’d like to learn how to paint nature, join us at the Dallas Arboretum and White Rock Lake this weekend for a 2-day painting and or photography workshop. Space if filling up quickly, so e-mail Niki@NikiGulley.com for more information and to register or visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=13.
***
To see more of my contemporary landscape and poppy paintings, visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=33.








Art Treks: Tuscany – Day 4 with Niki Gulley & Scott Williams

“Pienza” • 4” x 10″ oil by Niki Gulley

Day 4 – ART TREKS: TUSCANY
with Niki Gulley & Scott Williams

After a busy two days of exploring surrounding hill towns, on day 4 of our Tuscany workshop, we decided to slow down the pace and enjoy the beautiful 360 degree views surrounding our villa. Today each one of my painters painters picked a different subject, feeling much more confident about painting en plein air and expressing their personal vision.
I chose this view of Pienza for my demo, and decided that I wanted two main focal points to help tell the story of what I was seeing in the scene. I was particularly attracted to the hill town above with the church steeple rising above the rest of the village, and a simple stone house on the bottom right below. Unfortunately the trees had grown so large that they were slightly hiding the house, so with artistic license, I just moved them off to the right a little to see the house better! I arranged the composition through a series of diagonal lines to lead your eye through the scene. Then I painted in the sky and hills with a thin application of water mixable oil paint so that the paint could be drying in those areas while I started blocking in the hill town, densest foliage and farmhouse below with thicker paint. Lastly I added even thicker highlights to the buildings and details to the rows of crops to complete the painting.
One of my students, Rosemary Achepohl, and her palette knife sketches from our villa. Rosemary chose to work with 5×7 boards and a single subject and they turned out great! You can see her work and her husband’s paintings, Fred Achepohl, from our Tuscany trip in Grapevine, Texas, at grapevinemainstreetartgallery.com.

***
If you would like to join us on future ART TREKS to Paris, France in May or Tuscany, Italy in September,visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=1420, which goes into detail about our upcoming Plein Air Painting and Photography Workshops. 

Or, if you’d be interested in learning how to paint “plein air” or improve your location painting a little closer to home, visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=13, which tells you about my upcoming Painting Workshop at the Dallas Arboretum and White Rock Lake, Oct. 29th and 30th.
***
E-mail me at Niki@NikiGulley.com for more information.