Betsey Nelson

Small Designs

Small prepretory paintings are a good way to discover if a full size painting is going to work. sometimes i do these in one stretch over a week sometimes just one at a time just before the actual painting. The more experience I have painting, the more I try to distill into the essential, trying to let go of the story and just PAINT. Especially when I do the small sketches I start to grasp what a painting can actually be and I get closer to the painter I want to become.
Betsey Nelson is offering a weekend workshop in the landscape painting as design this "Art Experience" is offered through the Sedona Arts Center Jan 23 & 24, 2010. For details click HERE.

Betsey Nelson- plein air class

Roy Gould (artist)


Connie Willey (artist)



These are paintings done by two students who participated in two of the four plein air workshops that i taught. The first painting is an acrylic the second an oil. Due to unusually cold conditions we were forced to paint inside much of the workshop. Two days out of the four were warm enough to paint outside though for the way i teach it didn't really matter. All four workshops were full and all of the artists had a wonderful willingness to just go for it and try painting, thinking, seeing everything a bit differently.
These workshops were held in conjunction with the sedona plein air arts festival. and were all one day workshops.
Thank you to all the volunteer assistents for all their help and the m. graham paint company for providing the paint.
Please join us next year and through out the year as sedona arts center is always running day, two day, or week long or once a week classes in all media and all levels from beginner to advanced.

Betsey Nelson- End of the day Utah

Betsey Nelson - End of the day UT 8x10 oil on canvas board $485
Returning to areas, photos, or still life set ups that you once dismissed as material for a painting is always a good idea. You may very well change your mind either because your eye is better trained or your palette more comparable to the scene now or your other skills have improved to be able to do the subject justice. Returning again and again through the years may also improve enlightening.

Betsey Nelson- Working for Design

Betsey Nelson- Working for design 16x12

Sometimes painting isn't about creating a painting. Sometimes it is just experimenting with color, line, value, temperature or a combination of all to bring to the fore front work on design. For me my painting needs to re-evaluated to strengthen my work. This is one of those 'works". A nod to simplicity.

Betsey Nelson-The Look Back

Betsey Nelson-The Look Back 10x8 oil on canvas $475
Sometimes simple subject matter makes the best paintings. The less said in the painting and the better said is important.

Betsey Nelson - Parade Day

Betsey Nelson - Parade Day 10x8 $400

This a piece where the thought was more on color and flow than on subject.
Design should be the end all be all in painting.

Betsey Nelson - End Of The Day

Betsey Nelson-End Of The Day 7x5 $230
After a day of doing larger paintings it is nice to just quickly do a nice fluid small painting.
The thing is to keep it simple but strong.

Betsey Nelson-Full Sun

Betsey Nelson - Full Sun 12x9 oil $625
This is a quick start-painting. I usually work on something with a lot if intensity and get almost done (or done). I then leave the piece and come back with a fresh eye and try to clean up, strengthen or restate. Sometimes it needs nothing but a signature.

Betsey Nelson- Two Boats

Betsey Nelson - Two Boats 9x12 oil NFS
This is a start that i like and will go back to work on. If successful i will post the finished piece or successive steps to the finished piece. The intent of the piece has (thus far) been achieved. I was attempting to get the feel of dappled light on the two boats. As a painting gets worked and reworked the first steps of the painting,the start, can be destroyed in later stages. The artist can lose sight of the original intent and become engrossed in some insignificant parts/part usually only appearing on the artists radar and not at all important to the bigger picture. It can become just a figment of the artists obsession and on the larger scale insignificate to the viewer. This is one of the reason the student (and that would be all of us) needs to STEP BACK and view the painting as a whole.

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Betsey Nelson - Full Sun

Betsey Nelson - Full Sun AZ Strip 8x10 $450
This was painted after another long plein air day and painted quickly. I mainly wanted cature distance in a pretty monochromatic landscape.

Betsey Nelson - A Window To The Rocks

Betsey Nelson - A Window To The Rocks 8x10 oil on canvas panel $460
This was done on a trip to Sedona. A place I knew I could sneak a view but at a time where the light would be changing rapidly. I wasn't sure I could pull off the effects that I wanted but I did have a goal in mind. Sometimes paintingis just for pure pleasure and sometimes (maybe too often!)there is a goal and then there is a good chance I may fail. To paint what I know I can paint doesn't require the same intensity and therefore the painting often lacks that something special.

Betsey Nelson - Boat Study Plein Air

Betsey Nelson - Boat Study Plein Air 8x10 oil on panel $460
This study along with a photograph gives me enough information to do a studio painting. The studio painting would be a different size and having all this information would allow me to play with the painting and create another painting. I find I am unable to just create a larger version of the original I keep asking myself what's the point? But to take the information and create a new painting would challenge and interest me.

Betsey Nelson - Horse study

Betsey Nelson - Horse Study oil 9x12 NFS

As a participant in the recent Sedona Plein Air festival i had an opportunity to teach two workshops and talk with some established artist as well as beginning artists and all levels in between. I think the most common misconception that I discovered is that the less experienced artists all thought that reworking or continuing work on either a workshop piece or one of their past pieces was a good idea. All the experienced artists agree that this is a BAD idea a much better idea (with some exceptions of course) is to do another painting. Not all attempts are going to work and usually it is a much better idea to try again either with the same landscape or still life etc. or even an entirely new subject. The idea is the more you paint the more you learn and those ones that work should start to become more frequent. Everyone no matter what their skill level will create bad paintings once in awhile, and more often if they are commited to growing as a painter.

This study was just a search for information on how to paint a horse from life what to look for in the horse and the normal painting relationships i think all good paintings should have. When i had gotten that information i stopped. The study stands on its own as a study and for use when i need to do a painting.

Betsey Nelson - Losing Light

Betsey Nelson 6x8 oil on canvas board $350

This was done on a painting trip with several other artists. To minamize the decision factor for picking the painting spots we decided that if one of us was interested in a view we would all paint at least a 6x8. The trip became a visual diary and we probably learned more doing lots of small quick paintings rather than only a few larger pieces and we probably took more chances knowing that it was 'just" a small painting.

Betsey Nelson-Sedona Fall Light

Betsey Nelson edona Fall Light 8x10 oil $460

With plein air festivals in full swing i thought a plein air piece was a good idea.

Even though Sedona's plein air festival held Ocvt.19th-26th will probably not have this silver light of late fall the light can change quickly so the best defense is thoughtful approach and though a quick painting, not a hurried one. Working too fast just multiplies your mistakes but, still we seem to need to learn that again and again.

Betsey Nelson- Head Study II

Betsey Nelson 12x10 $360

This is a second head study done of the same man in Head Study I (see earlier blog posting). Again same principles apply just a more "finished" study. But does it say anymore than the other?

Betsey Nelson - Bess In White

oil 16x12 $760
This sketch reminds me of Hawthornes words about not painting the features. Putting in the right spots of color. Also his advice of putting variety in whites. Both wonderful bits of advice.

Pink Bows

Betsey Nelson oil on canvas panel 7x5 $220
How much information for a small painting of a person? Always a question for me but more so in such a small painting. Less is best. It allows for the viewer to become more involved. Their story completes the painting process.

Santa Fe

Betsey Nelson oil on canvas panel 5x7 $220
This was done from a photo just as an experiment to see how much information could be painted on a 5x7 panel(alot). Most of the painting was done within an hour. Finishes where added over the course of several days. Most times less is more and as you spend more time with your paintings you realize the strength will be in less not more information.

Canyon Resident

Betsey Nelson oil on canvas panel 5x7 $220
A chance encounter with a pack team coming out of the canyon allowed me to get some wonderful pictures for a painting. A play with color (photos never show the true colors or the true brillance of sunlight) helped me to capture the feeling of a sunny hot spring day at the Grand Canyon.