A new Sampler In Colored Pencil

August 5, 2022 Natalie Wargin

I decided to do another colored pencil sampler, just to get back into the swing of things after my exhibit in Woodstock. These drawings done in the style of an old fashioned sampler are relatively quick for me to execute and they’re very satisfying when completed. I’ve titled this one “Everything.”

Just above the curve of the earth are the moon and stars in the night sky and the soft clouds and sun of a new day. In the hills white tailed deer graze, odd birds fly, a rabbit runs, a horse gallops. Somebody should repair that fence. The woman waters her wildly successful garden. Just get a load of the peonies. An old dog relaxes. I’ll bet the house is cozy. The shed seems in good repair and if you choose to sit and rest for a moment you can watch the turtle in the pond under the buttonbush. There’s a black bear near the tree. I have to think about him.
This is everything.

“Sampler #4, Everything”
19 x 22 inches
Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge Drawing Paper
$400

I’m running a sale in my Etsy shop, 15% off any purchase. The sale runs from today, August 5 through Sunday, August 7.
This original piece of art is available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1278990519/original-colored-pencil-drawing-country?click_key=82736205cf8f36676c849f1f380c14b46f89819f%3A1278990519&click_sum=852e91ca&ref=shop_home_active_1

Prints of this image are also available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1265042630/art-print-original-colored-pencil?click_key=355b32be87acde1a1c3fa446a8713b5229ebfd6f%3A1265042630&click_sum=9f11c33f&ref=shop_home_active_1

Thank you for taking a look at what I’ve been up to. I appreciate it!

One Box Turtle, Coming Right Up

June 23, 2022 Natalie Wargin

This painting was a commission, a birthday gift for a man who has a soft spot for turtles. I saw this particular box turtle in my driveway and thought I'd paint her instead of one of the snappers that I usually see. Box turtles are especially beautiful and a little showy with bright orange markings. Unlike other wild creatures that I encounter turtles don't mind inspection or a nosey photographer getting close. That's my little house in the upper corner and the woods beyond. It's windy and the trees are getting tossed. And because they are blooming now I've added wild roses and hydrangeas. If you look very carefully you can see that the spiders have been busy too.

I’ve reopened my Etsy shop with a 20% off sale on any purchase through Sunday the 26th.
You can find prints of this turtle painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1239661358/art-print-of-original-acrylic-painting?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=natalie+wargin&ref=sr_gallery-1-3

NOTE: For those of you who follow me on Instagram I have a new account.
You can follow me here to see me working on new things:
@nataliewargin2.0

And as always, thank you for taking a look at my work.

Eleven pieces and a pre-show sale

May 13, 2022 Natalie Wargin

This is the final piece for my show at the Woodstock Artists Museum and my third Peaceable Kingdom. You may have heard my sigh of relief when I finished it. Below are all the pieces I will display along with details and prices. If you want to buy a painting before the show let me know. Any work purchased before May 20 will be discounted by 15%.

Peaceable Kingdom #3 - All Around Us
Acrylic on claybord, 24 x 18 inches, framed
$2200

There are 32 creatures here, all sharing the woodland, existing nicely, just as it really is. The birds are busy, bluebirds and sparrows and owl and woodpecker. The black bear dozes while a pair of squirrels chatter, the turtle looks surprised by the snow, the fisher heads for her underground shelter, the coyote is almost invisible. The dancing horse feels the excitement of the cold. There’s a little fox next to the stone wall where a chipmunk sleeps and a crow complains as crows do. Deer rest, so does a cow. A raccoon gets cozy, and turkeys, geese, and a single pheasant scatter. In front of the house, where welcoming lights shine, a bunny rests. There’s a goat there too. A woman, who might be me, walks the snowy lane, watching the dog who is certainly my Tilly.

Tomato Garden
Acrylic on claybord, 24 x 18 inches, framed
$2200

Porcupines At Mohonk
Acrylic on claybord, 24 x 18 inches, framed
SOLD

The Letter
Acrylic on claybord, 24 x 18 inches, framed
$2200

Red Fox And Barn
Acrylic gouache on birch board, 18 x 12 inches
SOLD

Foxes At High Falls
Acrylic on claybord, 24 x 18 inches, framed
$2200

Maggie And The Goose
Acrylic on birch board, 24 x 18 inches
SOLD

Donkeys And Pears
Acrylic on birch board, 20 x 16 inches
$2000

Memento Mori
Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge Drawing Paper, 28 x 18 inches, framed
$650

Meteor Shower And Bouquet
Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge Drawing Paper, 22 x 18 inches, framed
SOLD

The Fight
Acrylic on birch board, 18 x 24 inches, framed
$2200

Two Stories, One Pencil Drawing

April 21, 2022 Natalie Wargin

I feel the show in May nipping at my heels. This is the penultimate piece for my exhibit. It’s a colored pencil drawing, another sampler, that combines two of my favorite stories, the meteor shower and the weed bouquet. I’ve contained them within a floral border.

A few years ago, at 2AM on a very cold morning, my husband and I carried blankets and quilts out to the front yard where we laid down to watch a meteor shower. The dog took one look at this and went back in the house. Her loss, though, because it was a sight to see. I’ve shown it here with deer instead, under the shooting stars, helping themselves to my garden. The inset bouquet is actually a bunch of dried weeds, Queen Anne’s Lace and other things that looked pretty but made me sneeze so badly that I could not keep it. The floral border is adapted from samplers that I’ve admired.

“Meteor Shower and Bouquet”
Sampler #3
22 x 18 inches
Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge Drawing Paper

I’ll be closing my Etsy shop indefinitely while I get ready for my May show and another show that will come on it’s heals. Before I do I will run a final sale.
20% off any purchase from April 21 through April 24.
Here’s a link to my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin

Thank you, as always, for your interest in my work.

Porcupines At Mohonk - New Work

February 24, 2022 Natalie Wargin

This is a retelling of a story from a few years ago when I went for a hike at the Mohonk Preserve with my friends Mary Grace and Raedel. If you’re unfamiliar with the Mohonk Mountain House and the Preserve it’s worth checking out. The hotel alone is fairly mind blowing. I digress. It was a perfect spring morning — flowers blooming, bees buzzing, birds and little frogs too, the roof tops of the hotel visible in the distance. We chose an easy trail, a good walk and conversation being our intent. We were talking and laughing and we rounded a bend and Mary Grace almost stepped on a porcupine.

I’d never seen a porcupine outside of a zoo and it was all I could do to get my phone out of my pocket and start taking photos. I got several decent shots. The porcupine didn’t seem especially concerned about me nor did she seem at all put out about almost being stepped on. You see her here, ambling along the path, and once she reached an overgrown spot she stopped to grab and eat a bunch of leaves. She was gorgeous. I did wonder about those quills. Do they shoot them in self defense? Later I looked it up and learned that they do not. Instead they charge and impale a predator with multiple barbs.

I mentioned that this is a retelling. A while back I did a small watercolor based on this story. Here is a larger representation in acrylics, with more details of the porcupine and the day. This is the ninth piece for my show at the Woodstock Museum in May.

“Porcupines At Mohonk”
Acrylic on Clayboard
24 x 18 inches

I’m having a sale in my Etsy shop running from today through the 28th.
20% off on any print, any size.
Prints of this image are available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1182549973/art-print-of-original-acrylic-painting?click_key=e5175985330b1f06b173ee16d2f1970725b24287%3A1182549973&click_sum=bfa80afd&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

Thank you for following my work and reading my tales.

New Work and a PBS Interview

January 28, 2022 Natalie Wargin

Well, I’ve been keeping busy. This is a new painting featuring the monster tomato plant I grew this past summer. Just as I was finishing this piece I was contacted by WMHT, our local PBS station. Would I be interested in being featured on their show about the arts? Yes, I would.

First, a little about the interview. The producer/director and the camera woman came to my home, turned my living room into a sort of studio where the interview was filmed. Then we went to my work area in the basement where I was filmed while I painted. This was the hard part. The camera was almost literally on my shoulder. Good thing I’ve learned how to tune the world out when I need to. It’s a short piece and if you’d like to take a look here’s the link:
https://fb.watch/aLMWetGbjF/

Picture it, a single tomato plant that all but took over the front yard. She could never have known how perfect the conditions were for that little seed but all the warm sun, the good Hudson Valley dirt, and the careful watering created a wonderful monster. Here she is, her cozy house and peony hedge behind her, picking another basket full of tomatoes. There is abundant life all around. Birds are bickering, a chipmunk helps herself, a skunk has wandered in. And that very fast dog, who just can’t seem to help herself, is getting mighty close to that squirrel.

”Tomato Garden”
18 x 24 inches
Acrylic on Clayboard

I’ve reopened my Etsy shop and you can find prints of this image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1154168238/tomato-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=72bba725ab2f741b717dc5019fcda0489281b3cb%3A1154168238&click_sum=25d605b5&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

Thank you for reading along.
If you have any comments on the interview, or anything really, I’d love to hear them.

A Sampler In Colored Pencil

May 7, 2021 Natalie Wargin

This piece began as a colored pencil still life based on photos I took of a birthday bouquet. I didn’t intend for it to resemble a sampler but I think the color of the paper I was using (Canson drawing paper, Oyster) pulled it in that direction. I didn’t put up a fight. I love samplers, have stitched a few myself, so I went along for the ride.

The flowers are reds and pinks, large carnations, tulips, and other unidentified things. I have tried to bring my rural landscape into my floral pieces on several occasions and here I did that in a couple of ways. Right and left of the vase are small scenes with little houses, fences, wildlife. There’s that black dog again, dear Maggie I think. And when it came to the illustrious little blue vase I added a barnyard scene with cows and one little calf. I like to think the vase resembles chinoiserie with a Hudson Valley twist. Once I was certain that this drawing was truly a sampler I added the border of little black dots. Think lots of French knots.

“Sampler #1”
20 x 24 inches
Prismacolor pencil on Canson drawing paper, Oyster
$375.00

I’ll be running a sale from today, May 7 through Sunday May 9.
20% off any purchase.

You can find the original drawing in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1014448185/original-colored-pencil-drawing-floral?ref=shop_home_active_1

You can find prints of this image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1014443715/art-print-original-colored-pencil?ref=shop_home_active_2

Thanks so much for following along!

A little story about my grandmother

March 30, 2021 Natalie Wargin

This painting tells a little story about my grandmother, Emily Koscielski. Emily was a creative person who was a good cook, an excellent baker, a skilled embroiderer, a successful gardener. She loved flowers and birds, but especially flowers. She told me stories about gardens in Poland where there were only flowers, not a single blade of grass. Emily had a long narrow workroom in her basement where she made things like crepe paper flowers. You can see her at work here, looking serious and determined, busy adding to a wild paper garden of her own creation. There are ferns, lily-of-the-valley, wild roses, white tulips, frilly poppies and poppy seed heads, daffodils. I've given her room a cathedral door and centered her beneath sun and rain, night time and lightening to add emphasis to her conjuring powers.

As with the Peony drawing you saw last month I should credit the virus with the idea of this painting and the urge to make it. Like many of you I’ve been conversing quite a bit over the past months with family, including a cousin who has shared many of his family memories. I had fun correcting his misremembered stories but he did get me thinking a lot about my grandmother which has resulted in this painting.

“Emily’s Dream #2”
Acrylic on board
24 x 18 inches

You can find prints of this image in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/974871306/art-print-original-acrylic-painting?ref=shop_home_active_1
Also, I’m running a little sale, 15% off any item.

There are some detail images below. Thank you for reading along!

A Firefly Metaphor. A New Painting.

December 4, 2020 Natalie Wargin

Yes, I know. The Fourth of July isn’t on anyone’s mind right now. But this is a timely painting although I didn’t realize it until I was almost finished. Let me explain.

I set out to do a night time painting of Circle Avenue, a little neighborhood near my house that’s strung along a semi-circular road. You may have seen that I’ve painted this street before. I’m drawn to the neighborly feeling I get whenever I drive through. I also wanted to do another night scene.

While painting the trees I kept remembering all the fireflies that I see each summer lighting up the forest behind my house. The tall dark trees and all the tiny insect lights. On and off. It’s magical. I don’t need to tell you. So in the end I decided to add some fireflies. And a thought occurred to me. Here was some light in a dark landscape. Something I suppose, in a way, we’re all waiting for. I do not paint political statements or protest pieces. I believe that the beauty all around us will save us. Perhaps it’s my protest not to paint a protest. But I think I did paint a metaphor.

”July Fourth”
Acrylic on panel, 16 x 20 inches.
$1500.00
This painting along with prints of this image are available in my shop.

You can find the painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/915868367/fireflies-on-july-fourth-original?ref=shop_home_active_2

You can find prints of this image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/901940178/fireflies-on-july-fourth-art-print-of?ref=shop_home_active_1

I will be running a brief sale from December 4 through December 6.
20% off any purchase.

I wish you all the very happiest of holidays, whatever they may be.
Thank you for your interest in my work. It means the world.

A Mystery. The Letter.

November 3, 2020 Natalie Wargin

It’s early evening, crescent moon and stars in the sky. Dogwoods bloom along with all those other things. Wood ducks enjoy the peace. The lady of the house has received something interesting in the mail. Her faithful companion awaits her in another room, curious about the letter, knowing she’ll confide. Outside the garden and marsh are busy. An impressive snapper, new life.

This is my latest acrylic painting. I enjoyed this one. I wanted to do a night scene and I wanted to feature the big snapper that comes up to my yard every year to lay her eggs. I’ve never seen any of the eggs hatching nor have I ever seen any of the hatchlings. But if there have been some baby turtles I’m sure they’d make for the marsh and this is what they’d look like. I hadn’t planned such a detailed reflection in the marsh of the house and it’s inhabitants and although I found it tricky to do I’m pleased with the result.

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop. You can find them here:https://www.etsy.com/listing/872090607/art-print-original-painting-house-and?ref=shop_home_active_1

I’m also offering 20% off on any order from November 3 through November 7. You can find my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin

As always I want to thank you for your interest in my work.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Hello again...finally!

October 1, 2020 Natalie Wargin

Well, it has been a while, hasn’t it? Like many of you I have been plain off kilter. Although, since March, I continued to paint and draw I felt myself lose momentum. There became fewer and fewer opportunities for artists to show and share work. My pace slowed. But I want to get back to this newsletter, to let you see what I’ve been doing. I hope you’ve all been faring well and will continue to do so while the situation gets sorted.

One morning Maggie and I were walking in the woods above our house, on a deer path near the Upper Filigree. The deer were still sleeping. You can see the chipmunks resting safely in the stone wall. There’s a red tailed hawk in the red tree waiting them out. Red efts watch the from the rocks along the stream. It was very early spring and there was a dusting of snow so I could see the fresh turkey tracks. I heard them before I saw them and when we rounded a bend I warned Maggie not to chase the turkeys up ahead of us. But how silly of me. How could she resist? I knew the birds would elude her and Maggie was so happy with her harmless rousting. Happy doggie, unharmed birds, nice little anecdote.
”Chasing Turkeys,” acrylic on panel, 18 x 24 inches.

I’ve been tidying up my Etsy shop, relisting many items that had expired. I’m offering free domestic shipping on any order from October 1 through October 7. You can take a look here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin

Thanks so much for your interest in my work. It’s truly appreciated.

Hello! The shop’s open with new work!

March 19, 2020 Natalie Wargin

Hello again! Little did I realize when I was working on this bright piece that a splash of bold color might be just what we all need. Especially this spring. I hope you’re all taking care and keeping well.

You may remember that last year I put in a peony hedge. Surprisingly it was kind of a success. I cut some blooms, red ones and white ones, and took some photos to work from. Here I've featured only the red and deep pink flowers in a bouquet, and I will admit that in this painting I got a little carried away with red. I thought for a minute that I'd use up all of my red paint. I really worried a little. In the upper corner I opened a window for some relief and there was a pink house with an impatient woman in the window watching a very happy black dog. The woman might be me. I don’t recognize the dog.

“The Pink House”
12 x 16 inches, watercolor on Fabriano Hot Press.

Here’s a second piece finished just a week or so ago. The little yellow building is a Quaker chapel in the woods next to a trail. The trail, you can see it on the right, starts with a rocky section that's not difficult to negotiate unless it's rainy. Then be careful please.

The yellow chapel is sometimes used for weddings and is beautifully simple inside with benches arranged on the square, an open area in the center of them. Here are all of the woodland creatures I've grown accustomed to along with spring flowers -- day lilies, daffodils, fragrant mountain laurel.

I've added several foxes, mostly red, one gray. The grays are unusual here and after eleven years I've only seen one. Foxes are true survivors and should we finally destroy this planet of ours cockroaches and foxes will live on. Foxes are supremely adaptable. Social in a skulk or solitary they can live practically anywhere and they can eat practically anything.

“Fox Chapel”
18 x 24 inches, acrylic on board.

My Etsy shop is open again. I’ve added some new prints and some new originals and from March 19 through March 26 all prints and original work is 20% off.

You can find my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin

The “Red Peony” painting is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/770512022/original-watercolor-painting-of-red?ref=shop_home_active_4

And the “Fox Chapel” painting is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/785439255/original-acrylic-painting-woodland?ref=shop_home_active_7

Thank you for following along!

A Walk on the Farm. A New Landscape Painting

September 27, 2019 Natalie Wargin

Most likely I don’t need to remind you that my paintings depict things that have actually happened or things that I’ve observed. Occasionally I throw in a detail simply for effect and there’s one in this piece. The lights in the tree. But as for the rest of it, here’s the story.

My sister and I took her little dog, Riley, down to Davenport’s farm. We walked in the hot afternoon sun past the barn and the rattle trap truck, past the white duck who is actually part of a different story, down the dusty fields and we took a left, turning where we’d never turned before. What we saw surprised us. A secret garden. Lush cool greenery, ferns and shadowy trees, a couple of chairs beside a small stream. We would have lingered but Riley was running as usual, past the lettuces and corn, worrying the rabbits, startling a couple of wild turkeys. It was a good afternoon.

“The Walk.”
Acrylic on birch board.
20 x 16 inches.
$1800.

This painting and prints of this image are available in my shop which is now reopened. In addition to free shipping on any order over $35 I’m also offering 10% off any purchase from today, September 27 through Monday, September 30.
You can find the painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/739384531/the-walk-original-acrylic-painting?ref=shop_home_active_2&frs=1
You can find the prints here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/739385835/art-print-original-painting-the-walk?ref=listing_published_alert

Thank you for taking a look at what I’ve been up to!

"Tapestry" in Colored Pencil

August 28, 2019 Natalie Wargin

This piece started with some photos I took back in February of a birthday bouquet that I wasn’t overly fond of. The bouquet, not the photos. Of course I said “thank you” but the arrangement had just too many different colors, too many different things. Roses, tulips, ranunculus, little pips, scabiosa pods, lots of extra greenery (why do they always do that?), blackberries which were a surprise, sticks covered with greenshield lichen, also surprising. I took everything out of the vase, got rid of the greenery filler, spread it all out, added a mourning dove, and here it is.
“Tapestry.”
Prismacolor pencils on black Strathmore drawing paper.
25” x 19”.

I’ve been enjoying the colored pencils but this will be my last pencil piece for a while. It’s back to the landscapes for me. I’ve also closed my Etsy shop for a bit. It will be on an extended vacation and will reopen sometime in the fall.

I have a bit of news. My painting, “Ghost Story,” has been accepted to the Radius 50 Show at the Woodstock Artists Museum. The show runs from September 7 through September 29 with an artists reception on September 14 from 4 - 6pm. I’ll be at the reception so if you’re in the area stop by and say hello. I’d love to meet you!

Hope you’re all enjoying the end of summer and thank you for following along!

Peonies in Colored Pencil

July 26, 2019 Natalie Wargin

I may have mentioned that I have never had a green thumb. Garden success has always run in my family but I have had very little of it. My grandparents had a prolific flower garden behind their house. They also had a bountiful “Victory Garden” in a nearby plot shared with their neighbors following the second world war. My grandmother liked to tell me, as we toured her yard, about the beautiful gardens in Poland which inspired her. My mother always grew flowers. She got things to grow in the most unlikely places, a dizzying stand of purple irises right next to the garbage cans in the alley. My father had a postage stamp sized vegetable garden that gave an impressive yield. My sister has grown garlic commercially. And my brother in California, boastful thing that he is, loves to show us not only photos of his flowers and vegetables but also the system he designed that lets him water his plants from anywhere on the planet. By comparison I could get very little to thrive in my Chicago garden. But the times they are a-changing.

The Hudson Valley soil is rich. That must be a big part of it but my garden is definitely growing now. I have always wanted a peony hedge and when I found a sale a year ago, an offer I couldn’t refuse, I ordered ten roots. This spring I was rewarded. Not quite a full hedge yet but close and the blooms were impressive. Pinks and reds, including the color I love best, the pale pale almost white peony. This pencil drawing shows a bouquet of those flowers.

“Peonies.”
25’ x 19”
Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore drawing paper.
$275.

The original and prints of the image are available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/720837001/peonies-original-colored-pencil-drawing?ref=shop_home_active_3&frs=1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/720835595/peonies-art-print-of-original-colored?ref=shop_home_active_4&frs=1

In addition to the new drawing I’ve also added some new greeting cards. You can find them here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin?section_id=14952051

I have made some changes to my shop, now offering free shipping always on any order over $35.
In addition to this I’m running a sale, 20% off on any purchase of any amount from Friday, July 26 through Monday, July 29.

Thank you for following along!

Daffodils in Colored Pencil

June 21, 2019 Natalie Wargin

Shortly after I moved into this house in New York my sister, who lives only three miles from me, came over with a bunch of daffodil bulbs. Three varieties. I chose a spot which was easy because these would be the first things I planted here and there was plenty of room for planting. Now, eleven years later, they still come up in the spring, a reminder of where my garden began. This was the first small bouquet of the year. If you’ve been following me at all you’re familiar with the little blue vase. It really is a tiny thing and I chuckle at the absurd size it’s become. It did hold the daffodils but it’s simply not as large as it looks here. I’ve invented the table and the table scarf. I wanted some movement in this drawing and the blue linen cloth provided that. There must be a window open somewhere. The wallpaper pattern is taken from an older drawing of soapwort. The sparrows are there because I love sparrows.

“Daffodils”
Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore drawing paper.
19” x 25”

The original drawing and prints of the image are available in my shop.
All shop items are 20% off from June 21 through June 23.

You can find the original drawing here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/714829157/daffodils-original-colored-pencil?ref=listing_published_alert

Find the print here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/714826829/daffodils-art-print-of-original-colored?ref=shop_home_active_2

Thanks so much for following along!

A New Kingdom and a Podcast

May 30, 2019 Natalie Wargin

“Peaceable Kingdom. The Animals” detail.

This piece has taken it’s sweet time coming into being. I was sidetracked by several matters that took me away from my work. But here finally is the finished painting. It features the animals that I see almost daily. That’s me on a very good day, jawline tightened, with faithful Maggie in the center beneath a surge of blackbirds. In real life I was caught beneath that surge one morning on the trail with a flock of one hundred blasting above me, nearly touching my head. It was breathtaking. Here is a calmer version. I appear to be releasing a blackbird into the spiraling flock, insinuating myself I suppose, into this impossible scenario. Blackbirds, coyote, deer, black bear, fisher, turkeys, pheasant, squirrel, skunk, fox, rabbit, chipmunk. You’ll recognize my house in the background. The question remains, why are they all on the move? I could get political and say it has something to do with the damage we’ve done to our natural world and the list of soon to be extinct species I’ve been hearing about. But I actually think those crazy birds just got everyone excited.

“Peaceable Kingdom. The Animals.”
Acrylic on board
24” x 18”
$1500.

A reader made a suggestion that I add an audio feature to this newsletter. I kind of liked the idea so here goes. I wrote several versions of a script, all of which I tossed. They sounded too stiff and in the end I decided to simply talk about what I see when I look at this painting. Although I’ve called this a podcast it technically isn’t, not yet. You won’t find it on iTunes although, if this goes well, who knows?

ETSY SALE! Get free standard shipping on any purchase from May 30 through June 3.
The painting and prints of the image are available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/693860112/peaceable-kingdom-the-animals-original?ref=listing_published_alert

https://www.etsy.com/listing/693858252/peaceable-kingdom-the-animals-art-print?ref=shop_home_active_1

A Still Life in Colored Pencil

March 8, 2019 Natalie Wargin

There’s a long and not especially interesting story behind my decision to do this piece in colored pencil. I won’t bore you. Mostly though I blame my friends and family who have given me many sets of colored pencils over the years, none of which I’ve used until now. This floral still life is a reprise of a portion of a previous painting and features an arrangement of eucalyptus and thistle. The eucalyptus leaves fall softly around the bowl, buds very white. The bright pink thistles stand tall. The wallpaper pattern of subtle doves and garland makes a background. Someone spilled some sugar on the table. The ants are busy and happy. One may be whistling. A caterpillar seems interested.

This drawing is 30” x 22” on black Stonehenge paper. I used Prismacolor pencils which were a surprise and a delight. They are soft and waxy and they blend and cover well. And, lucky for me, they don’t smear if you brush a sleeve over the work. I think there will be more pencil work to come.

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/674332648/art-print-original-colored-pencil?ref=listing_published_alert
And I’m offering free shipping on all domestic orders from March 8 through March 12. No code necessary.

Thank you for indulging me.

Moonlight and Snowfall

January 17, 2019 Natalie Wargin

Finishing up a morning run I turned the corner into my driveway and there was a buck. I didn’t startle him in the least but he surprised me a little. He was very big. He looked at me and calmly kept on foraging. I can go most of the year without seeing many, or any, bucks but there he was. I’ve put him here, in a slightly different scene. Here it’s nighttime, the moon is full, and snow is beginning to fall. I’ve added a doe. The green house is mine. The red barn is not mine although it seems to make regular appearances in my work. The helter skelter arrangement of my neighbors homes is fairly accurate, typical in a rural setting. No straight lines or right angles here.

This is a watercolor painting on Fabriano paper, 17” x 13”. The original painting has been sold but prints of the image are available in my Etsy shop. I’m offering FREE SHIPPING on any order, no code needed. The offer runs from January 17 through January 22. You can find prints of this image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/674690645/art-print-original-watercolor-moonlight?ref=listing_published_alert

Happy Holidays!

December 11, 2018 Natalie Wargin

I realize that Lily of the Valley aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the holidays but I was in the mood to paint some flowers. I picked these in the spring and put them in the mottled blue vase and took some photos for “future” reference. It turned out that November was the “future.” I like this little vase, a gift from long ago that comes in handy for small things. The wallpaper is loosely based on a pattern design that I created in Illustrator. I don’t know where the red tiles came from but I think they look alright. Maybe a little Christmas-y.

Thanks to all of you for your continued interest in my work. I am grateful. I wish all of you the happiest of holidays, whatever those may be.

“Lily of the Valley,” watercolor, 10” x 12”, on Fabriano paper.

Prints of this painting are available in my Etsy shop.
FREE SHIPPING on every domestic purchase through December 21.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/665131253/art-print-original-watercolor-lily-of?ref=shop_home_active_1