Deadline approaching for “Coloring Outside the Lines” Workshop

“Morning Textures II” Tuscany ©2012 Niki Gulley
12″ x 9″ oil

Day 6, morning location – Tuscany Art Trek
On the last morning of our Plein Air Painting and Photography Workshop, we headed into the nearby town and set up our easels to capture the beautiful morning light illuminating every crack and textured surface of the Renaissance architecture. The only tricky part was trying to find a location where we were out of the way of traffic, because no matter how narrow and quiet a street may seem, tiny Italian cars will eventually buzz by you. Once establishing our drawing and focal point, we had to paint quickly to capture the changing light and be out of the nearby trattorias way as they were gearing up for the noon rush. I loved how everyone’s paintings turned out! the resulting paintings were full of spontaneity and energy as we had no time to fuss or overwork our paintings, and merely reacted instinctively to the scene.
If you’d like to join us for next year’s Art Trek to Venice in February, Greece in May, Tuscany in September or Cinque Terre / Lake Como in September, please visit NikiGulley.com/Artreks for more information. Workshops fill up quickly, so please let us know if you are interested. Registration deadlines for some of the trips are less than a month away!

If you’d like to learn how to paint with more color and freedom, please join me for my upcoming workshop, “Coloring Outside the Lines,” in Fredericksburg, TX, Nov. 2-4. Registration deadline is Oct. 15th. For details, visit nikigulley.com/art-classes.

Niki Gulley helping one of her students with her painting on the last day of our Tuscany Art Trek.



If you have questions about the Art Treks workshops or are interested in purchasing any of my plein air paintings, please e-mail me at [email protected].

Painting Workshops Dallas

Afternoon Impressions
“Afternoon Impressions” by Niki Gulley
14″ x 11″ oil painting

I am so anxious for spring to be here, that I just had to get out of the studio yesterday and paint outdoors. Pretending that winter is actually over, it turned out to be a lovely afternoon for a few hours and I decided to set up at one of my favorite locations in Dallas, Turtle Creek.

While right now it’s still too early for the azaleas to be in bloom, I really love the peacefulness of the trickling water sounds from the creek, the intertwining branches in the tree limbs above, and the dappled shadows created from the sunlight peeking though them. I only had a short time so I had to capture the scene and light quickly!

If you’d also like to paint this beautiful part of Dallas, join me March 27th when I teach my next workshop, “Conquering Cabin Fever: Expand your painting into a whole new world outside the studio,” let me know. For more information, visit nikigulley.com/ng2/?page_id=13

Or e-mail me at [email protected].

Color Explosion Workshop with Niki Gulley

“Backyard Aromas” ©2010 by Niki Gulley
12″ x 24″ pastel

In this pastel I wanted to capture this beautiful lavender field, but so many artists paint lavender that I wanted to put a twist on the subject matter. Rather than recreate the realistic colors as I saw them, I thought it would be fun to see how far I could push my colors. I love the way complimentary colors vibrate when next to each so I chose oranges and yellows for the sky and sand in between the rows since they are opposite of the blues and purples of the lavender on the color wheel. I love the energy and color contrasts of the finished painting!

On Jan. 30th, I’ll be teaching an all day workshop at my studio, “Color Explosion,” where we’ll cover color theory and meaning so that you can use color with confidence. Registration deadline is this Friday, Jan. 22nd, and I have just a few spots left. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to participate in the workshop. For more information, e-mail me at [email protected] or visit nikigulley.com/ng2/?page_id=13.