Friday, July 29, 2011

Santa Fe Workshop with Niki Gulley & Scott Williams


"Tumbleweeds" ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 14" x 11" pastel


Santa Fe is the muse of many famous artists and photographers, and that could be you, too! Join us for our Plein-Air Painting and Photography Workshop this August in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You will work at different picturesque locations, painting and (or) photographing scenes that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams. Santa Fe offers breathtaking vistas; sunny, dry weather, world class restaurants, galleries and shopping ensconced in a charming, 400 year old Spanish Colonial city that welcomes the new and exciting and never grows old.
This is a not to be missed workshop in “The Land of Enchantment.”

Plein-Air Painting & Photo WorkshopTaught by Scott Williams & Niki Gulley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 7 -13 / 2011
See nikigulley.com/?page_id=13 for more details or e-mail
Niki Gulley with any questions.

Visit my website at NikiGulley.com.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Painting in Santa Fe with Niki Gulley

Outskirts of Santa Fe ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 8” x 16” oil on board

Painted with thick oil paint and palette knives, I wanted to capture the craggy mountains and dense sage brush indicative of the unique New Mexico landscape.

Santa Fe is the muse of many famous artists and photographers, and that could be you, too! Join us for our Plein-Air Painting and Photography Workshop this August in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You will work at different picturesque locations, painting and (or) photographing scenes that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams. Santa Fe offers breathtaking vistas; sunny, dry weather, world class restaurants, galleries and shopping ensconced in a charming, 400 year old Spanish Colonial city that welcomes the new and exciting and never grows old.
This is a not to be missed workshop in “The Land of Enchantment.”

Plein-Air Painting & Photo Workshop
Taught by Scott Williams & Niki Gulley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 7 -13 / 2011
See nikigulley.com/?page_id=13 for more details or e-mail
Niki Gulley with any questions.

Visit my website at NikiGulley.com.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Plein-Air Painting / Photo Workshop in Santa Fe, NM with Niki Gulley & Scott Williams

“Convergence” Santa Fe, NM ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 24” x 36” pastel

On our last trip to New Mexico, we pulled over to photograph and paint this magnificent river gorge below. The clouds and light were just beautiful and I loved the contrast between the sun’s orange cast on the rock formations, the blue sky above and the deep purple hues on the distant hills and dramatic shadows. The two rivers converging created a perfect flowing composition, while the foreground rocks and scrub brush nicely anchored the corners of the painting. After being in Dallas surrounded by buildings and concrete, I just love getting to New Mexico with its vast open spaces, gorgeous skies and wild natural landscape, and I hope I can share those feelings with you in “Convergence.”

My husband and I have been teaching painting and photography workshops in Italy for the last four years, but since we love New Mexico so much, we decided to share our enthusiasm with our students and stay a little closer to home by teaching a week-long workshop in Santa Fe this August.

Santa Fe has been the muse of many famous artists and photographers, and that could be you, too! Join us for our Plein-Air Painting and Photography Workshop Aug. 7 -13 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We will take you to different picturesque locations daily offering demonstrations, plenty of guidance, and time for sight seeing while you hone your painting and/or photography skills. The workshop is filling up quickly, but we still have a couple of spots left if you would like to join us.

Plein-Air Painting & Photo Workshop
Taught by Scott Williams & Niki Gulley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 7 -13 / 2011
See nikigulley.com/?page_id=13 for more details or e-mail Niki Gulley with any questions.

Visit my website at NikiGulley.com.

Friday, July 22, 2011

"A Pause in Time," Venice pastel by Niki Gulley



“A Pause in Time” Venice, Italy ©2011 Niki Gulley
18” x 24” pastel

Mysterious, enchanted, dreamlike – Venice is a fairytale at night.
Evening has drawn its starry cloak over the city, the crowds and pigeons are gone and three women enjoy the evening at a café in Piazza San Marco.
This changeling city, this artist’s muse now is unhurried, relaxed and romantic
and this one perfect moment in time is held in artful pastels, satiated colors–rich velvet textures capture ebony/violet chairs that Peggy, Pollock or Cole Porter may have sat in,
paintings of angels from old Venice and three modern women of today complete this delicate balance in a point of time.

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.

– Truman Capote


To see more of my pastels, please stop by my booth at the Ann Arbor Art Fair this week.
State Street Area Art Fair
July 20 - July 22 • 10 am - 9 pm
Sat. July 23 • 10 am - 6pm
Ann Arbor, MI • Liberty & State St.
Booth #B212 on University between Thayer & State Streets


E-mail Niki Gulley for more information, or visit my website at

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

"Ocean Paradise" pastel by Niki Gulley

“Ocean Paradise” ©2011 Niki Gulley
24” x 36” pastel

Rocky crags from eons old ice age erupt out of crystal clear turquoise waters.
Massive, forceful, ancient; the vertical cliffs stand tall adorned with a garland of greenery.
Thailand’s towering karst formations thrust out of the sea touching the heaven above – caressed by the sea below.
Otherworldly, exotic, strange and beautiful:
this is the painting to transport you to the other side of the world;
the enchanting, exotic, intriguing beaches of the ancient kingdom of Thailand.


To see more of my pastels, please stop by my booth at the Ann Arbor Art Fair this week.
State Street Area Art Fair
July 20 - July 22 • 10 am - 9 pm
Sat. July 23 • 10 am - 6pm
Ann Arbor, MI • Liberty & State St.
Booth #B212 on University between Thayer & State Streets


E-mail Niki Gulley for more information, or visit my website at

Monday, July 18, 2011

New Koi Pond pastel by Niki Gulley


“Playing Tag” ©2011 Niki Gulley
24” x 36” pastel

Black, gold, white, tangerine—quicksilver Koi slice through silent waters while above them water lilies keep an eye on the playful, darting fish. Colors float and ripple across the painting forming tranquil patterns that segue into a loving composition of inverted hearts drawing you into the “heart” of the painting – a happy threesome of lilies in bloom.

To see more of my pastels, please stop by my booth at the Ann Arbor Art Fair this week.
State Street Area Art Fair
July 20 - July 22 • 10 am - 9 pm
Sat. July 23 • 10 am - 6pm
Ann Arbor, MI • Liberty & State St.
Booth #B212 on University between Thayer & State Streets


E-mail Niki Gulley for more information, or visit my website at

Friday, July 15, 2011

"Passage of Illumination" textured oil painting by Niki Gulley


“Passage of Illumination” ©2011 Niki Gulley
48” x 60” textured oil on canvas

Wander down this path that beckons you and lift your eyes heavenward to that cobalt vault lined by a rainbow of vivid greens and golds and gleaming crimson, purposely choosing these warm vibrant colors to suggest a hopeful future. Like an ancient chorus these joyful trees sing with dazzling colors, a call and respond to each other across the enticing path that traces verses of light and dark, hue and color, an alluring siren song leading you into the depths of this radiant, vanishing horizon. A painting rich in color and light, joy and energy its double bowed composition gently leads gently you into this magical, blissful destination.

To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings, please stop by my booth at the Lincoln Park Arts & Music Festival in Chicago this weekend. Visit chicagoevents.com/event.cfm?eid=189 for details.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

"Sunny Side Up" textured sunflower painting by Niki Gulley


“Sunny Side Up III” ©2011 Niki Gulley
30” x 48” textured oil on wrap around canvas

Huge sunflowers fill the fields, bright, sunny and cheerful. Warm golden petals glow above purple shadows and shimmer before violet hills, just as the sun begins to set filling the sky with radiant red and gold. Bold strokes capture these sunflowers in thick impasto colors that vibrate across the canvas

To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings, please stop by my booth at the Lincoln Park Arts & Music Festival in Chicago this weekend. Visit chicagoevents.com/event.cfm?eid=189 for details.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Plein Air Painting in Santa Fe, NM

“Tumbleweeds” ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 14” x 11” pastel • SOLD

Capturing the sunny mesas and the red bluffs of Abiquiu, this pastel painting brings to mind Santa Fe and the high desert: endless blue skies, rugged mountains, mesas filled with yucca, cactus and flowering spring grasses.

Santa Fe is the muse of many famous artists and photographers, and that could be you, too! Join us for our Plein-Air Painting and Photography Workshop this August in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You will visit different picturesque locations, painting and (or) photographing scenes that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams. Santa Fe offers breathtaking vistas; sunny, dry weather, world class restaurants, galleries and shopping ensconced in a charming, 400 year old Spanish Colonial city that welcomes the new and exciting and never grows old. This is a not to be missed workshop in “The Land of Enchantment.”

Plein-Air Painting & Photo Workshop
Taught by Scott Williams & Niki Gulley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 7 -13 / 2011
Visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=13 for more details.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Textured Waterfall oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Flowing Thoughts” ©2011 Niki Gulley
SOLD • 48” x 30” textured oil on canvas


Just Sold! Rushing, raging waters crash down the cataract plunging unto the rocks below: the cascading, pounding, rhythmic waters wear down the rocks and shape them to its ancient channels. Each brush stroke in this painting brings you closer to this mysterious waterfall as light shimmers and dances through the mists above, encircling energetic textured strokes become the cadence of plummeting waters roaring through the rocks.

To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings, please stop by my booth at the Lincoln Park Arts & Music Festival in Chicago this weekend. Visit chicagoevents.com/event.cfm?eid=189 for details.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information.

Friday, July 8, 2011

"Bursting with Color" diptych painting by Niki Gulley

“Bursting with Color” ©2011 Niki Gulley
Two 24” x 24” textured oil paintings on canvas to form a 24” x 48” diptych

I love it when we are driving leisurely through the countryside and we come across a gorgeous field of wildflowers. The sudden burst of color thrills your senses! Playing with color and texture, I feel like this poppy painting radiates with energy and captures the joy you feel on one of the first beautiful days of spring.

With this series, you can purchase either the left or the right painting to hang alone or display both side by side to form a panorama diptych.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her textured floral paintings.

Or, to see more of her work, stop by her booth at Art Fair on the Square in Madison, WI this weekend, (July 9 & 10). mmoca.org

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

"Aqua Dreams," New textured oil painting by Niki Gulley

“Aqua Dreams” ©2011 Niki Gulley
36” x 60” textured oil on canvas

When we arrived at this tranquil spot, the early morning light was very cool in color, but as the sun began to rise from the horizon, it shone this beautiful warm light that shimmered on the water’s surface and cast its hope of what was to come from the brand new day. I remember the peacefulness I felt in that moment, and a sense that anything was possible. In Aqua Dreams, by showing the contrast in the cool aqua/blues in the foreground waters against the warm golden glow on the distant pond’s edge, I wanted to share that feeling of hope and promise communicated by nature.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her textured oil aspen and birch tree paintings.

Or, to see more of her work, stop by her booth at Art Fair on the Square in Madison, WI next weekend, (July 9 & 10). mmoca.org

Monday, July 4, 2011

"Flowing Light" textured oil painting by Niki Gulley


“Flowing Light” ©2011 Niki Gulley
36” x 60” textured oil on canvas

You walk down a path sheltered by autumn drenched trees, intrigued by the light flowing through the leaves and branches, casting shadows, colors changing with each gentle breeze, sunlight cascading down your pathway. Peaceful, tranquil, this painting flows around the canvas capturing the memory of autumn: lush crisp colors, crunchy leaves and a walk through the woods Walt Whitman would have envied.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her textured oil aspen and birch tree paintings.

Or, to see more of her work, stop by her booth at Art Fair on the Square in Madison, WI next weekend, (July 9 & 10). mmoca.org

Friday, July 1, 2011

New Textured Birch Painting by Niki Gulley


“Ruby Emergence” ©2011 Niki Gulley
48” x 60” textured acrylic on wrap around canvas

I wanted this painting to be about the power and energy in nature to invigorate your spirit more so than an exact replica of the forest, so I chose to use warm vivid colors and thick staccato strokes to add to that feeling. I placed the foliage in diagonal sweeping shapes to create a sense of movement, so that you can feel the wind gently rustling the leaves and causing them to dance.

E-mail Niki Gulley for more information on her textured oil aspen and birch tree paintings.

Or, to see more of her work, stop by her booth at Art Fair on the Square in Madison, WI next weekend, (July 9 & 10). mmoca.org