Nancy Boyle Art Blog

  My animal characters are inspired by my life growing up in Boston in a large, extended family. My father's parents came over from the west coast of Ireland for work. They had six children and it multiplied from there. My mother's side was a blend of recent immigrants from Ireland and long ago immigrants from England in the 1600s. I also had the freedom from about age 14 to go into Boston myself and wander around exploring. Here are some of the characters that I created who live in the fictional world of Nellenby. Mr Frog's lesson is inspired by my time at Girls Latin School in Boston. We learned Latin and passed by Roman and Greek statues in the corridors. Wonderful school with creaky wooden floors and very good teachers. The lion character is based on my late father, Edward Boyle, who started in the Boston police, studied at night, and became an attorney in Boston who wore hats and smoked cigars. He had an office at 18 Tremont Street and I would stop by during my wanderi

I spent a week in Rockland Maine for a watercolor workshop with Frank Eber, http://www.frankeber.com . Coastal Maine Art Workshops hosted and provided an indoor studio space for the 17 artists who participated. Several days were dry enough to paint outdoors in Rockland, Owl’s Head and South Thomaston. Frank started each day with a lesson in principles of design followed by a demo. We then worked from photos or outdoors. It was an excellent, well organized workshop and Frank was continuously teaching and working one on one with students. I came away with some fresh perspectives on composition, choosing a painting location; and  with some new palette colors- greenish raw umber (DS), cobalt turquoise, Indian yellow, and Verona ochre. Frank does a careful, but not overly detailed pencil sketch to start. He is able to keep a strong design the focus throughout the painting which is often done in three stages, drying between. He expertly edited elements from the scene that did not s

I have visited Lake Cochituate state park in Framingham, Mass. several times this summer for sketching. There is a lot of activity including the beach area with people on the sand or in the water, lifeguards under their bright orange and white umbrellas, the shapes of kayaks and sailboats from many viewpoints, the treeline across the lake and the small green boathouse in a pale green color that is challenging to capture.

This summer I have the opportunity to paint and sketch at a local working farm estate with a lot of history. There are many views and subjects including very distant hills and tree lines. Being up high is a benefit in this hot, muggy summer as there is always a breeze, and the many large trees make it possible to relax and focus while sitting in the shade. My goal with these sketches is to get the feel of the place, explore the different themes and locations. There is a lot of texture on a farm that is interesting to explore with a calligraphic style using markers and dry brush. Fence posts, wires, pasture grasses, horse and cattle tails swishing the flies away, many types of trees, broken bare branches of aging trees, aged barn board, clumps of earth. The distant hills and trees are opportunities to capture atmosphere with greys, blues and violets. In several I have experimented with new color combinations, including a new favorite - carbozole violet and yellow ochre. The ochr