New “Looking Up” Palette Knife Oil Painting by Contemporary Impressionist Niki Gulley

“Looking Up” ©2015 Niki Gulley
18″ x 24” textured oil painting

Full of fun and whimsy, I wanted to give this red barn personality and also make you feel like a kid again, climbing trees, swinging from their branches and returning to a simpler time in your childhood. Hinting that the barn has humanlike features, I feel like it, too, is inviting you to come play inside. Using vivid colors, distorted perspective and energetic thick oil paint strokes, I hope “Looking Up” brings joy to your home and reminds you of the simpler pleasures when you were a kid.

For more information on my textured palette knife oil paintings, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.
Or, please visit my website at  NikiGulley.com to see more of my contemporary landscape paintings.
 

Just Sold – “Textures of Time” Palette Knife Oil Painting by Niki Gulley

“Textures of Time” ©2013 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 18″ x 24” textured oil painting

In my next painting from this barn series, I wanted to show the personality and individuality of this red barn, since it was built by hand from nearby trees on the property by the owner’s family. I almost feel like it has a playful twinkle in its windows, inviting us to come closer and check out it’s hand-carved timbers and discover what stories it holds. Juxtaposed behind this sturdy oak, two enduring souls, are loaded with character, texture and rustic beauty, monuments to a simpler disappearing way of life.

For more information on my textured palette knife oil paintings, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.

Or, please visit my website at NikiGulley.com to see more of my contemporary landscape paintings.

“Looking Up” New Red Barn oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Looking Up” ©2015 Niki Gulley
18″ x 24” textured oil painting

Full of fun and whimsy, I not only wanted to show the personality of this red barn but also make you feel like a kid again, climbing trees, swinging from their branches and returning to a simpler time in your childhood. Hinting that the barn has humanlike features, I feel like it, too, is inviting you to come play inside. Using vivid colors, distorted perspective and energetic thick oil paint strokes, I hope “Looking Up” brings joy to your home and reminds you of the simpler pleasures when you were a kid.

For more information on my textured palette knife oil paintings, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.

Or, please visit my website at NikiGulley.com to see more of my contemporary landscape paintings.

SOLD – “Long Shadows” Palette Knife oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Long Shadows,” Nash Farm ©2015 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 10″ x 20” textured oil painting

Nash Farm, Grapevine Painted on location in Grapevine, TX, I was drawn to this old barn still standing amidst all of the modern housing and commercial buildings encroaching upon it. Full of texture and character, I wanted to capture its essence on that beautiful spring day. While the air was still crisp, the sun was strong casting beautiful shadows from the oaks and welcoming in spring.

For more information on my textured palette knife oil paintings, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.
Or, please visit my website at  NikiGulley.com to see more of my contemporary landscape paintings.
 

“Embrace” textured birch oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Embrace” ©2015 Niki Gulley
textured oil painting • 36″ x 36″ on wrap around canvas
I like to play with blurring the lines between realism and abstraction so that some things are left up to the viewer’s imagination. In the case of “Embrace,” I chose this unusual, asymmetrical heart-shaped composition and teased your eye with foreground and background emerging and disappearing to create a more abstract scene. Choosing fiery reds contrasted against turquoise blues cause the colors to dance and vibrate. While diagonal strokes and a circular composition combined with the vibrant hues, create a sense of energy, movement and harmony. Using all of these elements, I wanted to create an uplifting, whimsical, passionate painting filled with youthful hope and discovery.

To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
For more information on my palette knife birch and aspen tree paintings, please e-mail Niki Gulley.

“Aqua Dreams” Palette Knife Oil Painting by Contemporary Impressionist Niki Gulley

“Aqua Dreams” ©2015 Niki Gulley
36” x 60” textured oil on canvas

When we arrived at this tranquil spot, the early morning light was very cool in color, but as the sun began to rise from the horizon, it shone this beautiful warm light that shimmered on the water’s surface and cast its hope of what was to come from the brand new day. I remember the peacefulness I felt in that moment, and a sense that anything was possible. In Aqua Dreams, by showing the contrast in the cool aqua/blues in the foreground waters against the warm golden glow on the distant pond’s edge, I wanted to share that feeling of hope and promise communicated by nature.

To see more of my aspen and birch tree paintings, please visit nikigulley.com.
E-mail – Niki Gulley

Just Sold – Colorado Aspen Tree Oil Painting by Contemporary Impressionist Niki Gulley

“Aspen Concerto” ©2015 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 24” x 18” textured oil painting
Colorado’s celebrated quaking aspen trees stand arrow straight in the valleys and
up and down the hills.
Slim white trunks sing out against the forest background and each leaf provides
a sparkling symphony of notes whispering through the mountains.
Flames of yellow leaves flicker against autumn’s burning reds
and the deep, cool blue mountain streaked with early banks of snow.
This painting captures the breathtaking colors of
Colorado in the fall, the Aspens at their most beautiful, the peaceful snow-banked mountain, the rustling murmur and musical sigh of the fluttering leaves.
E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her contemporary landscape paintings.

Just Sold – “Living on the Edge” Colorado Aspen Tree Painting by Niki Gulley

“Living on the Edge” ©2014 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 20” x 16” textured oil painting
Balancing on the edge of a cliff, this pair of aspen trees stands tall, united against the elements. Painted with palette knife and extremely thick oil paint, this painting captures the textures of the rocky mountain, fall foliage and their natural surroundings.
E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her palette knife aspen tree and contemporary landscape paintings.

Just Sold – “Branching Out” New Textured Palette Knife Barn painting by Niki Gulley

“Branching Out” ©2013 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 18″ x 24” textured oil painting

Having grown up in Chicago, my husband and I return to the Midwest every summer, driving through miles of farmland between Texas and Illinois. While sometimes stark, I also find a peacefulness in the wide open countryside, a nostalgic tug on a simpler time from my childhood, and a fascination with the rustic beauty of each barn. I find it inspiring that so many of the structures were built by the farmers themselves from nearby trees, cut down and fashioned by hand. Each one has its unique personality, both pragmatic and aesthetic, a symbol that’s stood the test of time despite a disappearing way of life. In “Branching Out,” I wanted to juxtapose this sturdy oak framing an iconic red barn in the background, inviting you to climb its branches and relive childhood memories.

For more information on my textured palette knife oil paintings, please e-mail me at Niki Gulley.
Or, please visit my website at  NikiGulley.com to see more of my contemporary landscape paintings.
 

New “Autumn Reflections” Palette Knife Oil Painting by Contemporary Impressionist Niki Gulley

“Autumn Reflections” ©2015 Niki Gulley
18″ x 48″ textured oil painting on gallery wrap canvas

In Autumn Reflections, I wanted to give you the feeling of a beautiful, peaceful retreat on a colorful autumn day. To create that feeling of being immersed in nature, I chose this long panorama format so that the sanctuary is completely engulfed in fall foliage, a perfect escape from bustling city life. Loaded with uplifting color, still waters suggest a calming effect. One small ripple in the lake’s distance lets you know that some ducks just swam by and you are surrounded by wildlife, not a care in the world.

If you’re in the Dallas area this coming weekend and you’d like to see Autumn Reflections and more of my palette knife paintings in person, please stop by my booth at the Cottonwood Art Festival.

Cottonwood Art Festival
Sat. Oct. 3 • 10am – 7pm
Sun. Sun. Oct. 4 • 10am – 5pm
Richardson, TX
Cottonwood Park at Coit & Beltline
If you have any questions, please e-mail Niki Gulley.
To see more of Niki Gulley’s contemporary landscape paintings, visit NikiGulley.com.