nancy dunn

Fundraiser Sally

2011-11-27T18:30:00.004-05:00

Another fundraiser for Animal Compassion Network was held in November and I took a picture of my last Golden and put her in a mountain meadow looking like she's waiting for something to be thrown or fed to her! She was all Golden Retriever but had a slight underbite which I never noticed until her first puppy visit with the vet. She was a real sweetheart... 12"x12" acrylic on canvas museum profile edges.

Ayla and Aiden

2011-04-17T15:48:00.003-04:00

This is the latest commission that I finished recently. This is a brother and sister, Ayla and Aiden, 22x28 acylic on canvas. I combined two separate photos and invented the background. The original pictures were taken in an outdoor setting but I wanted to add a bit of whimsy. To me it feels a little bit like they are in a fairy tale or at a garden party where there are either lights or fireflies in the trees. I'm especially fond of Ayla's suspicious look and the delicateness of her dress and Aiden's shirt. The scripture reference on the back is Luke 18:16.

2011-04-12T18:30:00.000-04:00

This is one of my older paintings. It hangs in my mother's house and is a portrait of where I grew up and love dearly. I have this picture because I was there recently for my Mama's funeral. She turned 94 in February and succumbed to the final stages of senile dementia. I don't remember the exact size of this but it is big.

Carissa and the Butterfly

2010-12-05T17:36:00.005-05:00

This is the latest off the easel. 18x24 acrylic on canvas of my great niece Carissa who lives in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. I went to Canada this past summer to visit and Carissa very graciously shared her bedroom with me and gave me many wonderful gifts of rocks and coins and handwritten notes. Her Mom (who is a wonderful photographer) caught this shot of Carissa as she came in from the pool to show off the butterfly she just found. I think one day she'll be a scientist of some sort because she loves insects, rocks and animals. Or maybe we all love that kind of stuff at her age!

By the way this is her Christmas present! Shhhh!

The verse on the back is Psalm 65:8

Chewy

2010-09-05T17:37:00.002-04:00

Here's my latest painting. It's Chewy, one of my nephew's cats. 12" x 12" acrylic on canvas. It's a donation to an auction to raise funds for caring for animals. I tried to be a little looser on this one too and really had fun with the eyes and the fur. I think I used too much Payne's Gray but overall I'm pretty happy. I hope it raises lots of money for the organization!

2010-08-14T16:46:00.002-04:00

Here's my latest. This is a commission for the lovely Miss Marilyn mentioned in a previous post. These are five of her Cocker Spaniels, some of whom have since passed on, done from a photograph she took. She makes the hats and paints the sunglasses to match and used to sell them on the beach in California and Myrtle Beach, SC. They weren't originally on a beach so I made up the background to go with the history. Their name tags are in pink or blue for a girl or boy and the names are on the tags. I had a lot of fun doing this one. If I remember correctly the size is 40" X 30" . Acrylic on canvas.

2010-01-26T19:03:00.005-05:00

Here's my latest painting and I absolutely ADORE it! This young man is currently deployed in Iraq and his Mom misses him terribly. His Aunt (Mom's sister) commissioned me to do this so that she can feel close to him from afar. He has such a wonderful face to paint and the medals, flag and uniform were a challenge to paint. The face is the most wonderful part though and I thoroughly enjoyed painting him. I chose Ephesians 6:14-17 for the Bible reference. Our soldiers that protect us and our precious freedom need the very best of protection.

Eric Randall Mahaffey

18X24 Acrylic on canvas

Otis's Cabin

2009-10-18T17:38:00.005-04:00

Here's the latest to come off the easel. This is a commission for a lady from Georgia whose late husband built this cabin in Byson City, NC and only got to enjoy it for a short while before he passed away. It's a beautiful peaceful setting with a raucous stream that runs behind it backed up to a beautiful mountainside. She is not able to get to the cabin as often as she likes and this is going to hang in her home in Georgia to remind her of this lovely peaceful place. The Bible reference on the back is Isaiah 32:18. Now go look it up and read your Bible!

Acrylic on canvas. 24 x 30

What a long strange trip it's been.....

2009-08-17T20:55:00.008-04:00

So many emotions I've traveled through this year. The first month was raw open wound screaming in agony if you tried to touch it, to cope with it, to understand it.

Then came the sensation of floating in a raging ocean or river with no power over your destination, just go with the flow.

Then came the rock tumbler that is used to polish the rouch edges off of rocks to make the smooth surface so desirable for jewery makers. Just tumbling through life and grabbing for a bit of love and sanity offerred by those who will. Perhaps some laughter which is the greatest healer for me.

I've worked on a few things which I'm at varying stages of progression. This is Adam after he takes a bite of the apple and is on the verge of understanding the horrors of sins released onto mankind. His expression is subtle but, you get the idea that he knows something is

cosmicly different.

Noah playing baseball and getting his serious looks down

pat!

Kira playing on the beach.

Amanda

2008-12-27T19:02:00.006-05:00

This is the Christmas gift for my sister's youngest daughter, my niece, Amanda. She is a grammar school art teacher so I invented a gallery scene behind her and put her sitting at a desk surrounded by her students' work. Her hands were difficult to work on as I had no references to work from and they are somewhat deformed by rheumatoid arthritis which she was stricken with at the tender age of 2. Her face is so indicative of the wit and willingness to use it that she possesses in abundance.

I had forgotten to mention that I have begun to add scriptural references on the backs of the paintings that are relevant to the subject or the reason for the gift of the painting. This one has Proverbs 22:6 and Psalm 127:3. The wedding gift to Kara has Genesis 2:24. I like to think that my paintings might make people read the Bible.

Acrylic on canvas 24x30

Terrible loss.

2008-12-13T19:32:00.010-05:00

I lost my best friend, my husband a week ago to liver disease. I'm so lost wthout him that I can't think straight. Here we are in happier, healthier days.

Bailey and Sam

2008-12-13T19:17:00.002-05:00

This is a commission that I recently finished as a Christmas gift for the owners of these two dogs. This painting is going to Salt Lake City, Utah. 16x20 acrylic on canvas.

2008-11-30T18:56:00.003-05:00

My sweet Harry died today. After 11 & 1/2 safe and happy years he somehow ingested antifreeze and despite heroic efforts to save him, we had to let him go. This painting will no longer be for sale.

2008-11-26T16:21:00.006-05:00

Wow! A lot's happened since I last showed you what I was working on. I finally finished it. Here's what it looked like (yes, I said looked like)

These are the pictures I was working from and merging together.

As it turns out, the person commissioning the work had been misinformed about which child was the cousin and was to be left out, and which was the brother in the family to be left in and I had to do some fast and heavy editing at the last minute. But I managed to do it freehand with just a brush! I usually have to do a drawing first but surprised myself and here is the finished product which is now on its way to meet the family. (There's more to the story but for the sake of brevity that's the gist of it)

2008-11-11T18:10:00.003-05:00

This is what I've been working on for a while. This is a commissioned portrait of a family with a bittersweet story. The two primary pictures I am working from were taken in 1967. One is of the mom and dad in front of the "57 Chevy. He's in uniform because he is about to ship off to Viet Nam. The other is of mom with all of the kids you see here plus a cousin that is not in this painting. I merged the two pictures and have used some school pictures for some of the children.
This family's pictures were destroyed in a fire 3 months before the father was killed in a construction accident after coming back from Viet Nam. The eldest son, on the right, died in his 20s of cancer. The painting is a gift for the son to the immediate right of the father. I love the period in time thats captured here and it will be the only picture wth all of them together. The lady that comissioned this is giving the painting to the boy that is between his father and brother who have passed away for a Christmas gift. She hopes it will bring back some of the closeness the family once had. I'll keep you updated as I go.

2008-10-08T17:11:00.004-04:00

These are a series I did from a few pictures I shot one morning when the sun was coming in my kitchen window and hitting this wild apple that my husband had picked while working out in the country. We used to have a scrawny apple tree that produced apples like this in our back yard and our neighbor called them "horse apples" because that was all they were good for-feeding to the horses. (I had heard that this was also what you called horse poop but who am I to say?)

Anyway, I thought the sunlight was so beautiful and fleeting, I added a few zinnias from the garden and changed the angles as the sun was going in and out of clouds and this is the result. I hope you like them!

Acrylic on museum profile canvas which means that they don't have to be framed because the edges are deep and finished (see picture) and they are 12 x 12.

Kara at Bodega Bay

2008-09-12T11:49:00.004-04:00

This is my latest portrait. It's going to be a wedding gift for a couple that lives in New York state. Kara and I worked together for about a year and I just love her. I know she is going to be half of a very happy marriage and this portrait seems to have her looking off into the future and as a friend put it "looking very contented".

Thanks to some brilliant suggestions from my friends at Wet Canvas, I went back into this and tweaked some areas. The face was not showing enough contrast to differentiate it from the background and the rocks were lacking a little definition. See what you think.

Sketches

2008-09-03T11:41:00.002-04:00

I thought I would share some of my sketches from a portrait drawing class I took a while back at ABTech. I'm going to be starting another class next week on painting. I hope I get better! I'm at a mental road block right now with colors so I'm hoping to get some inspiration and direction.

Sanctuary of Stuff

2008-08-28T18:53:00.003-04:00

We've added a new location for displaying the lamps and my paintings. It's Sanctuary of Stuff in north Asheville just off Merrimon Ave. in Woodfin. After 4 months at Biltmore Emporium we've had no sales. Now it could be that people just don't like our stuff but I've had several people tell me that they just couldn't stand the heat because the place doesn't have air conditioning. We rented the space in the spring when it was still cool and the thought just didn't occur to us that this would be the case. Parking is a little awkward there too and they still have a fair amount of empty booths. I think the place still has great possibilities but just not for us.
S.O.S on the other hand has AC, YAY!!!!, ample parking, lots of traffic already as it's been in business for a while, and it's full of wonderful vendors with lots of stuff to look at and buy. Check out their website at http://www.sactuaryofstuff.com/

Harry and The Daisies

2008-06-19T15:38:00.000-04:00

Here's another one done this week. My cat Harry and a vase of daisies from the garden. I invented the rug so it's a bit weird but this was done for fun.

18x24

Acrylic on canvas

Charles

2008-06-19T15:31:00.000-04:00

Charles reworked.

I pulled out an old sketch I did in a drawing class a few years ago and turned it into a painting. I've never attempted dark skin before and I think it looks OK. I'm thinking of making his tank a simple plaid, what do you think?
I've always been fond of this sketch because the model, Charles, had such a sweet face and demeanor. During breaks, he showed us pictures of his new baby. So sweet.

16x20
Acrylic on canvas

Finished?

2008-06-03T16:11:00.000-04:00

I wonder if any artist ever feels as if they are truly finished with a work. I'm not happy with Amy's shirt and I may go back and make her have a little more form or shape but overall I feel like I'm done for today anyway. We'll see what my friends over at WetCanvas.com have to say about it too.

I made some changes to the shirt and I think I'm satisfied. The brush strokes are showing up more harshly here than they are in real life. I'm going to let this rest a bit before I varnish it to see if anything else bothers me.

More Progress

2008-05-29T16:20:00.000-04:00

I've been able to do a lot of work on this today.

2008-05-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

The cat box smell got to me so I worked all day yesterday cleaning out some bookshelves to make room for my setup in a spare bedroom. Today I got down to work again and added some more clouds to carry the horizon away and worked on David's face mostly, and a little on Amy. It feels good to be out of the basement and I hope it means I'm going to pick up a little progress. Hope you like it!

Paintings are up!

2008-05-24T19:11:00.000-04:00

This is the wonderful Marilyn that runs the Biltmore Emporium. She has a can do attitude and a genuine enthusiasm for doing the job. She has 9 Cocker Spaniels and one of them, Miss Daisy, comes with her to work every day and greets customers from her perch on the counter. Marilyn makes dog clothing and hats and used to be a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas. You need to come by just to meet her and Miss Daisy!

Here's the booth nearly all set up. We've still got to put in a few more lamps but this is pretty much how it's going to look. As I get more paintings done that will be for sale, the walls will fill up. A friend suggested that I have prints made that people could buy without having the investment of their own portrait. Tourists like souvenirs and Asheville is a tourist destination so it's a great idea.

Yippee!

2008-05-21T19:46:00.002-04:00

We (the current owner of the lamp company that I have worked for for the last 10 years and I) rented a booth today in a new venue for arts, antiques, etc. We're sharing the space and offering the lamps and my paintings. To begin with, I'll be showing a couple of my already owned paintings in hopes of getting commissions for portraits and as I'm able to paint more, I'll add some pieces that will be for sale. The name of the place is Biltmore Emporium and it's just out of Biltmore Village on Sweeten Creek Road. Wish me luck!

Jordan Siblings

2008-05-08T17:12:00.000-04:00

I didn't get much done on this today. Grayed up the sky with a wash and umber washed in the features. I think this one is going to be better than I thought but that's counting your chickens before they're hatched.

Mason, Callen and Tulip

2008-05-08T09:28:00.000-04:00

This is a portrait of my dear friends' children and their dog. I had a lot of fun doing this one and learned a lot. It's very big(don't remember the demensions) and the girls are close to life size. Acrylic on canvas.

Made it to the stinky basement

2008-05-06T14:32:00.001-04:00

I'm waiting on the background to dry before I begin to block in the faces. The photo I'm using for reference is a not so hot one with a blurred image of the beach house and bushes in the background so I've changed it to look like the beach at low tide and bright midday sun especially appropiate as they're all three squinting. Their father was my brother and passed away in 2000. He'd get a kick out of this.

Proof of the never empty cat boxes.

Attempt to cover up smell.

View From Craggy Pinnacle

2008-05-06T13:16:00.000-04:00

This is "View from Craggy Pinnacle"

This was donated to an auction for a local art group.

Cherry Tree

2008-05-06T13:08:00.000-04:00

These are two views of the cherry tree in our yard in late winter.They are 24x48 and acrylic. All of my work is acrylic and a little on the large side.

Me and my Sister

2008-05-06T13:04:00.000-04:00

Me and my sister, Martha. The necklace she is wearing is not the one that was in the photo I went by. I went shopping and found one that had three crystal hearts and when I gave it to her, she(being a big fan of jewelry) noticed it and I surprised her with the gift of the necklace too. I told her the three crystals were representative of her three beautiful daughters. Tears were had all around.

Eileen

2008-05-06T13:02:00.000-04:00

My niece Eileen. She lives at the beach.

Amy and Hunter

2008-05-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

My niece Amy and her son Hunter.

Georgie

2008-05-06T12:59:00.000-04:00

This is my Mom. This was done from a small black and white school photo when she was 15 or 16, 1924 or 1925.

Beth

2008-05-06T12:57:00.000-04:00

My niece Beth. This is one of my favorites.

Introducing My Art

2008-05-06T12:47:00.001-04:00

OK. I find myself unemployed, middle-aged and wondering what the heck I'm going to do. I should be in my basement right now painting a portrait for one of my nephews but it's where we keep the cat boxes and it's a little stinky even when it's cleaned up-(there's a constant supply of material if you catch my drift)-and I can't get it off my mind that I need a space to send people to for an idea of the type of painting I do. I would like(I think) to be able to paint on canvas for income but it's scary to think that I might be abe to do it or worse, to fail. Anyway, here's a few things I've done over the past few years.