Blog

 

Wednesday was a great day- I got to deliver a portrait of a young man in Charlotte. Briggs is a sweet, active boy, and he was a terrific sitter. Hopefully the portrait captures this, and also that warm summer light and air. As I always say, I have the best job in the world. Thanks to Briggs and his awesome family and Portraits Inc's amazing Kathy Southerland.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great week painting in Cashiers, NC in July. The organizers really do a fine job of getting us to cool places, putting us up in style, and getting buyers to see the art. Of course, artists just want to paint, hang out with other artists, and maybe sell some work! I got to room with my bud Richard Oversmith again. Here are lots of pictures. Sadly the best one didn't get taken, but I learned a lesson; when you come upon three bears 30 feet away, the first thing to do is pull out the iphone and get some photos!

 

 

Whiteside Mountain-24x30-Oil

 

Lonesome Valley Tree-20x16-Oil

 

Mountain Top Home-16x20-Oil

 

Chinquapin View-24x20-Oil

 

Cashier's View-11x14-Oil

 

Richard Oversmith- we both painted here the next day.

 

Living the life...

 

Fresh bread, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella... life is good!

 

with the nice folks who bought my 'quick draw'

It was an honor to participate in the very successful first Plein Air Richmond June 17-23. Loryn Brazier's Gallery did a great job organizing the event, which featured 40 great artists and benefited the Richmond Symphony. My hosts Chrissy and Bookie Boland were fantastic. It's always so great hanging out with artists and spending time with national treasure Everett Raymond Kinstler.

 

 

View From Church Hill-16x20-Oil

 

Goochland Pasture-20x16-Oil

 

Maymont Carriage House-11x14-Oil

 

Carillon-20x16-Oil

 

James From Libby Park-11x14-Oil

 

Confederate Memorial-11x14-Oil

 

 

photos By Christina Boland

 

 

 

 

I was lucky enough to be invited to paint in Charleston at the end of May. The Plein Air Painters of the SouthEast (PAP-SE) sponsored the event, and Dee Beard Dean and her husband Nick were kind enough to put me and a few other painters up in their fantastic home. We all displayed our work from the week in four different Charleston galleries. My work was put into the Horton Hayes Gallery and it was a pleasure meeting those folks, and hanging out with artist friends all week in such a great, picturesque town.

 

 

#25 Queen Street-11x14-Oil

 

Tory-20x16-Oil

 

Charleston Window Box-11x14-Oil

 

Charleston House-14x11-Oil

 

River Pines-11x14-Oil

 

It is such an honor painting portraits! Here are some photos of recent deliveries. You can see the portraits themselves here.

 

 

 

I'll be teaching a 3-Day Portrait Painting Workshop in Tryon, NC, April 20-22. The class will take place at our Skyuka Fine Art gallery from 9-4 each day.

 

Artists will work from life over the weekend to grasp the fundamentals of portraiture. This workshop is open to all media, but oil will be emphasized. Class size is limited to 12, and the cost of the workshop is $300.

The artists will concentrate on painting the portrait from live models. There will be lectures and demos by me, and group 'critiques' (mostly just putting the paintings along the wall and having each artist say 'how it's going').

You can email rich@richnelson.com or call 828-859-0318 for more information.

You can view my work at http://richardchristiannelson.com or read about recent awards and notable commissions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Christian_Nelson

Class size is limited to twelve participants, so get in touch if you're interested! There is more information on this and other upcoming workshops at richardchristiannelson.com/workshops

Three months since the last blog post! Sheesh. Since then I've been to Jackson MS, Atlanta and Athens GA, home to MI for the Holidays, and to Charlotte (x3), all for many different events, deliveries, and sittings.

 

Last week our good friends Paul and Debbie Davis hosted a terrific party at their beautiful home in South Florida. I arrived early and did some painting in the Everglades and Palm Beach. How's that for a contrast; from alligators and airboats to Michael Kors and Maybachs.

 

 

 

Paul, Debbie, and their 16 year old son Dalton pulled out all the stops as you can see in the attached photos and video (a first for me!). The event was successful in every way. So many really nice folks attended. I look forward to getting back there soon! With Kim and the kids!

 

Here are some more photos from the trip... the last one is with Floridian MJP. We've known each other since High School!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

River #7-Oil-84x48

I see it's been seven weeks since my last blog post. Sheesh! This gives me a huge feeling of... gratitude. I have been so busy with painting and drawing portraits, getting out to paint autumn landscapes, traveling for sittings and deliveries, helping Kim (now and then) set up new shows and events at the gallery, being a husband and a dad, and even playing in a rock band one night a week, that there just hasn't been much time to send email newsletters and write blogs. And you know what? That's OK. We're feeling so blessed that we're fully engaged and hanging in there!

 

I listen to books when I paint, and right now it's Steven Rattner's "Overhaul', about the early Obama administration's auto bailout. Being from Detroit, this strikes home. Actually I happen to be painting former GM Chairman Ed Whitacre's portrait as I listen (not a coincidence- it's fun to have what you're listening to relate to what your working on). But the point is that the book takes us back three years and reminds me that most of us have been through some really tough times. And they may not be over for a while. Heck, every time things seem to be looking up something knocks us back down. Many are still suffering.

 

But... hopefully things are getting better, and will continue to improve. In a macro sense there's not much we can do about that. We just each do the best we can every day. I have a sense that we will emerge stronger, and maybe even better, from the challenges we've faced. Maybe that's crazy talk.

 

I will blog and send newsletters now and then. But I'd rather be making art than talking about it, and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Last week we had a five day portrait workshop here, with eight painters. We all made good progress.

 

 

Here are some photos of the group, and some of the studies I did. Most of these were an hour or two as I was mostly walking around to work with each painter.

 

Thanks to everyone for coming to Tryon, and to our terrific models. Hopefully I'll get more photos of the group, and of the terrific paintings produced. If you're interested in painting together, consider the Autumn Landscape Workshop here October 24-28.