Dear Art Friends,

This is an introduction to my art blog. I have wanted to do this for a long time because between commissions and large gallery paintings I do little oil Sketches of ideas for future paintings or just small things of beauty that strike me at odd moments. Because I paint every day, after a while, these little canvases add up.So I thought I would share them with you. I will be sending them out about every week or two. If you enjoy them, please forward them to friends on your email list. If you do not want to be bothered, no problem just cancel the blog.

Thanks, Nancy Paris Pruden

Available at Harris Gallery, Houston

Problem Solving

Jane is one of my friends with a rose garden, which she graciously let me harvest last Spring. I was so enchanted with this embarrassment of riches that I forgot one of the cardinal rules of composition. “Paint the shapes, Not the objects.” Off I went painting roses without asking myself the question, ” Is the shape of the bouquet pleasing? Does the bouquet work in the picture plane?” Alas, I ended up
re-streching the canvas and then painting out some of the beautiful roses to make the shape of the bouquet more pleasing. Sad examples below…

Hopefully I won’t do that again.

2008 flowers more

2009 Mark

YELLOW !

Answer to last weeks question

Thank all of you so much for responding to last week’s question;” What was the first painting on my Blog?” I got a winner at 7:15 AM. from a mother of little children (no wonder she was up so early.) However; many more of you said you had no idea… so I thought I would clue you into the answer which you too can see by clicking on BLOG to the left of this painting and scrolling down to February 2009. The last painting is Azaleas. Thought you might enjoy the symmetry of that.

This week’s painting is a chance for me to explore the color yellow, with the lemon yellow(cool yellow), the warm yellows in the roses, and the vase a dark yellow brown. It’s interesting for me to pick one hue and push it. Hope you agree!

Anniversary Azaleas

Special Thanks!

This week is my one year anniversary for writing this blog and I have had so much fun hearing from all of you! So, to celebrate, I am offering this little 8″x10″ painting of “Two-tone Azaleas” FREE to the first person who emails me back with the correct answer to the question;” What was the first painting on my blog?” Good luck!
Again, Thank you for viewing my art, Nancy