The Illustrated Journal

 Here are some pages from my Covid Journal. I've been keeping it since March 15th, when we went into lockdown. Each day I note the number of cases and deaths. At first, everything was new about this event we are all experiencing. Now it is different and my journaling has changed. I am drawing less and writing more. Hope you enjoy. For more about me, see www.nancycanyon.com

Facebook Post by Ben Mann

IT’S IN HER NATURE
Nancy Canyon writes poetry and creates beautifully visceral paintings that shimmer and transport me to the bliss of our local hiking trails. Lucky for me, she’s my studio neighbor, just one flight down...(and yet I look up to her. Don’t think about that too hard!)
We are both participants in the 25th annual Whatcom Artist Studio Tour coming up shortly, so come to our historic building and get your fix of color, levity and community. 🍁

Www.studiotour.net

Flowers

Please come visit my studio during 4th Friday Art Walk in Fairhaven, Washington. I am on the second floor of a vintage building...yes there are stairs, but the good thing is there are a number of studios at the top of the climb that will give you a creativity shot-in-the-arm. Here at the Morgan Block Building we have writers, painters, jewelers, and more. It's a real treat and a good place to shop for gifts or to outfit your condo or new home..

I will be open Friday the 26th from 5:30-8:00. 1000 Harris, #6, Historic Fairhaven in Bellingham, WA.

Yellow Iris

Purple Water

Lavender Iris

2018 Shows & Events

2018 SHOWS & STUDIO OPENINGS

May-Dec: Open Studio every Fourth Friday, 1000 Harris, #6, Historic Fairhaven

June 3 Opening, Cooper Lanza Gallery, 1415 13th St., Bellingham, WA 98225 

June 7 Opening, Jansen Art Center, 321 Front Street, Lynden, WA

Sept. 7 Opening, Allied Arts of Whatcom County, Cornwall Ave, Bellingham, WA

Oct. 6 & 7, 14 & 15, WAST--Whatcom Artist Studio Tour, 1000 Harris #6, Historic Fairhaven

WAST Review by Molly Brennan

Canyons work is a collection of pieces inspired by nature not traditionally landscape painting but rather snapshot moments of reflection and detail. Many of her works feature a crisp leaf floating on the mirrored surface of the water. This creates an abstracted view of nature from the reflection of the forest branches. She uses acrylic paint on canvas for the majority of her works, sometimes using very thin layers of paint to create a watercolor effect. Using lots of bright colors and pastels adds texture and softness to different painting especially in her lily pad paintings. What makes her work unique is how she displays a new perspective of nature by showing small details instead of the big picture. The detail of raindrops on the surface of the water and a leaf floating by becomes the whole subject of the painting instead of an afterthought.

 

            - Molly Brennan, WWU Art History Student

Note: Molly Brennan is an Art History Student interning with Nancy Canyon during the Whatcom Aritst Studio Tour, 2017. 

Lilies

I've always been fascinated with large leaves, well really any leaves, for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I'd gather leaves in Audubon Park in the fall: oak, maple, chestnut.  I loved the shapes and the colors. Back at home, I heated paraffin on the stove in a soup can and when liquid, dipped each leaf in hot wax and laid it out on a paper towel to cool, thus preserving the beauty I found in nature. 

Now I'm preserving the beauty I find in nature in a different way. Scudder Pond is overgrowning with cattails and the lilies are tall and lush and more hidden. While paddleboarding on Padden Lake, I've passed clumps of lilies with hearty green seed pods floating where the flowers once bobbed yellow. I love the shape, the ridges, the heft of the pods and hope to take my drawing book out there and sketch one of these calm days. We'll see.

Anyway, here are a few paintings to enjoy.

See me in my studio at 1000 Harris, #6, Fairhave in Bellingham Washington, by appointment and the third Fridays of the month for artwalk.

More Lilies

Each year I marvel at the growth of vegetation erupting across Scudder Pond. The pond feeds ducks and beavers, geese, and river otters. There are often turtles sunning themselvs and bull frogs hurrumping at night. Lily pads are lovely, fresh in pinks and reddish browns and withered latter, lazy browns and tortured greens. All of it reflects on the water's surface, even the clouds above. Enjoy the following paintings.

The Daily Artist, to be published by Two Sylvias Press, Two Sylvias Press will be available some time this fall. A comprehensive artist's companion with daily exercises to practice and improve your skill as a visual artist. Here is an example of a page 46:

Analogous Colors

Analogous Colors are colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. In the above painting you can see I painted the lilies in shades of yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, and green. You can work with up to five colors and still keep the painting analogous.

Try This: Select three to five colors from a color wheel and use only these colors to render a painting. You can use white and/or a complement for high and low lights. Paint whatever you like, or copy the lily in the picture above. Try the same painting in a different set of analogous colors. What have you learned from this exercise?

Stay tuned, More to come....

Open Studio Fridays in December

There's lots of work to see at my studio, 1000 Harris, #6, in Historic Fairhaven. 

The village is beautiful and active with hay rides and Santa at the Ferry Terminal. 

The bookstore is full of new volumes, the coffee shops are offering eggnog lattes. 

And there's art at the Morgan Block Studio: paintings, jewelry, pottery, leather handbags. And we usually have on a pot of hot tea or apple cider. If you are in the neighborhood venture up the stairs, our doorway at 1000 Harris opens between Good Earth Pottery and Artwood. 

Hope to see you soon. Nancy 710-7139 for appointment.

Nancy Canyon shows NEW Paintings at Allied Arts of Whatcom County

NATURE: The first show of 2016 juried shows hanging through July. Please stop by for a visit. 1418 Cornwall Avenue, Bellingham, WA 10-5 daily. Call

Cottonwood Forest

Scudder Pond Forest

Spirit Trees

Daily painting is a practice to improve painting skill.  Every discipline has a practice: scales in music,  bar work in ballet. After a trip Italy, I decided to paint daily...and did all through February. Then my practice  became sketchy.  Now, after a trip to Italy,  I want to resume this practice.  Here is a new painting available by auction at dailypaintworks.com  Take a look: Water Weeds

Tuscany & Lilies

New paintings of Tuscany from recent trip to Montisi are available now at Daily Paintworks .  And I've also added a new painting to be auctioned off: Two Lilies  See Daily Paintworks

Also in the October Issue of The Tishman Review you can enjoy two of my lily paintings: http://www.thetishmanreview.com/The Tishman Review full color.

Two Lilies  (Available at Daily Paintworks)

View from Il Poggio

Sheep Tree

Unclad Art Show

Please attend the UNCLAD Art Shoe held in Edmonds, Washington, March 18-20 at the Edmonds Yacht Club.  The show includes 90 artists working in a variety of styles. Opening night Gala tickets, public hour tickets and life drawing Marathon can be purchased at uncladartshow.com See more at https://www.facebook.com/uncladart/videos 

Elevation: The Art of Cascadia

Here's the information about the Art of Cascadia show opening February 5th, 6-9.  Hope you can join me at Allied Arts to see my work and the work of Ron Pattern, Lanny Little, Anita Boyle, and others. Allied Arts in Whatcom County located downtown on Cornwall

Friday, February 5, 6:00-9:00 pm Elevation kicks off with a bang during Art Walk on with exhibits at: Allied Arts Gallery (1418 Cornwall Ave.) work by some of our finest painters and mixed-media artists, all of it inspired by our local natural beauty. Painters Nancy Canyon, Lanny Little, Yvette Neumann and Ron Pattern will be joined by mixed-media artists Anita K. Boyle and Graham Schodda. The opening reception starts at 6 pm and features live classical guitar by Walt Burkett. This exhibit will be on display through the end of February, the Allied Arts Gallery is open Monday-Friday, 10am - 5pm, and Saturday, 12-5pm. Old Dakota Art Space (1415 Cornwall Ave., directly across the street from the gallery) Photography holds center stage with 15 of our finest nature photographers showing their Cascadia-inspired work. One of the largest photography exhibitions ever presented in Bellingham, it will feature Brett Baunton, Mark Bergsma, John D'Onofrio, Lance Ekhart, Tommy Gibson, David Inscho, Kenni Merritt, Daniel Nylen, Tore Ofteness, Ken Osthimer, Andy Porter, Alan Sanders, Helen Scholtz, Mark Turner and Dennis Walton. Here too, the opening reception starts at 6 pm and features live music from the Prozac Mountain Boys and fresh local ale from Kulshan Brewery. This exhibit will be on display through the end of February, the space will be open Thursday- Saturday, 12-5pm or by appointment with Allied Arts Staff. Hatch 2.0 (221 Prospect St.). Sculptor Denise Snyder and painter Mary Jo Maute will be joined by some of our finest improvising musicians led by Steve Jones in an art/music performance entitled The Nature of Form and Color moved with Sound. Designed to bring viewers into the creative process, they will create art and music together on the fly. Downtown Bellingham Visitor's Center (1306 Commercial Street) Michael Heath and Tom McCalla exhibiting their local landscape watercolor paintings. Hotel Bellwether (1 Bellwether Way) David Valdez digital landscape photography. Saturday, February 6 9:00-12:00 Workshop Terry Halbert: Digital Photography (Allied Arts Gallery, 1418 Cornwall Ave) Join American landscape Photographer Terry Halbert for an inspiring free three-hour instructional class that will take you from camera basics to seeing a new artistic vision of the world. 2:00 pm Presentation Susan Conrad: Solo Paddle from Anacortes to Alaska (Susan's new book will be published this spring!) The Idiom Theatre (1418 Cornwall Ave.) will host Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage, a presentation by Susan Conrad at 2 pm. Susan paddled her kayak on an epic solo 66-day journey from Anacortes to Juneau, Alaska.  5:00-6:30 Presentation Terry Halbert: Expedition America - a National Park Odyssey (Allied Arts Gallery, 1418 Cornwall Ave) Stevie and Terry Halbert quit their jobs, loaded their belongings into their Volkswagen EuroVan and set out for a year long adventure to see all of America's National Parks. Come meet Stevie and Terry and hear about their year long Odyssey and see their 27 minute video through America's natural wonders, its national parks and its people. 7:00 pm Multimedia Presentation A Love Song For Cascadia in the Old Dakota Art Space. The presentation features projected images by Brett Baunton, John D'Onofrio, Lance Ekhart and Dennis Walton, accompanied by poets James Bertolino and Anita K. Boyle and Native American Flute master Gary Stroutsos (whose flute was featured in Ken Burns' documentary series, Lewis and Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery). Sunday, February 7 11 am Workshop Night Sky photography workshop led by photographer Andy Porter. at the Old Dakota Art Space (1415 Cornwall Ave.)  Friday, February 26 Recreation NW Expo 4-8 pm Depot Market Square (1100 Railroad Ave.) This is your chance to connect with the active outdoor community. 50+ exhibitors and 700 runners, bikers, sailors, paddlers, and others who are looking for new ways to play outside. Saturday, February 27  Excursions and Tours: Throughout Whatcom County, we will be connecting people with outfitters, tour guides and other professionals to get out and see the sights and insights into local businesses! Seeking VolunteersWe can't make awesome programs like this happen without the helping hands of people like you. So if you are interested in helping out with this event, click here to sign up today!

Whatcom Artist Studio Tour 2015

Here we go again!  This weekend and next from 10-5 each day, stop at 30 some artists and their studio and view/purchase some amazing art.  If you will, stop and say hi to me.  I'm at 1000 Harris, #6 in the Morgan Block Building.  Hope to see you soon.

White of Clouds