Nomi Wagner - Portrait Artist, Painting Portraits, Family Paintings: Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Ojai

Making History!!!

Posted on February 7, 2012 by admin

Thanksgiving with family, 2011

Do you know all about your relatives, past and present… their life stories, dreams, talents, passions? I don’t, but I wish I did. My life and work has been all about saving visual memories for family, friends and clients. I did interview my mother and make a video of her life story several years back, and I just completed an iMovie of our Thanksgiving Week 2011, but there is so much more I could do to document our family.

I would like to leave a better legacy for my children, grandchildren, and those to follow. It’s daunting, especially since I work full time and love painting and drawing portrait commissions, but I think even the smallest attempt at creating a family history is better than nothing.

Documenting your family memories can start at any age.

I have so many thoughts and ideas of what I could do, and I hope to inspire others to do some things to preserve their memories. This information isn’t reserved for older people like myself. I started my first photo album at age 10, when I got my first camera. Kids today have access to cameras in all sorts of forms and take lots of photos of their families, friends, and the events in their lives.

But what will happen to all of these photos?

just some of my photo albums

My photo albums number over 80 (plus 32 scrapbooks!), but, when digital photography came in, I stopped having prints made. I figured that we could just look at photos on my computer. And, even though they love looking through the albums, I often wonder what the heck my kids are going to do with that huge collection!

grandkids looking at photo album, 2004

They never tire of the albums. 2009

Many of us have a gazillion digital photos sitting on our computers. They are today’s form of boxes of photos. And like the old photos in those boxes, they are usually of unnamed people. We think we will remember who the people are, but we won’t be able to pass on this information if we don’t do something about it.

What have you done to preserve your family history?

I hope you will stay tuned as I share some ideas. Subscribe to my blog to see what comes next. I would really appreciate your feedback and suggestions of ways to MAKE HISTORY!

Posted in Family Photos, Uncategorized | Tagged family, family pictures, grandchildren, Nomi Wagner, photographs, preserving memories | Leave a comment

Drawing on My Experience

Posted on January 23, 2012 by admin

Here are some things I’ve found out about drawing:

Most people, including myself, were not born knowing how to do it.
It’s ok if you “can’t draw a straight line.” Straight lines can be boring, and that’s why God invented rulers!
Though not easy – at least for me – it can be learned, and it can be FUN!
You don’t have to draw things out of your imagination. You can copy anything you see.
Like most skills, the more you do it, the better you get.

It’s Never Too Late to Learn

My first experience with learning to draw was at age 47, at a Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 5-day intensive course. I was a professional photographer and had heard that drawing would improve my business skills. Since childhood I had harbored a secret wish to be an artist, so I figured that learning to draw would be icing on the cake. Little did I know that the class would lead to my eventually becoming a full-time artist … not Michelangelo obviously, but good enough to find personal fulfillment and to make my clients happy.

A Partner in Learning

I talked my husband Gerry into taking the class, too.

Voilà, Gerry's portrait of Nomi

Gerry doing his homework

Always Drawing and Perfecting

Since that first course, I have spent countless hours in classes, as well as on my own:

drawing people in airports
copying from art books in the car while Gerry drives
copying from the masters in museums
drawing every day for my work
I am currently figuring out how to draw on my iPad.

So go ahead and draw!

No one is looking. It can be your little secret, or you can overcome your fears, take classes, and share your drawing with the world. You will be amazed at how you have never really “seen” things until you actually draw them. And guess what … you will become better at business and everything else, including other art forms. Drawing will help develop a balance between your perceptual skills and your critical thinking. Your right and left brains will thank you. Best of all, you will hereby be proclaimed an artist and eligible for your Artistic License!

Posted in Art Technique, Career Transformations | Tagged art classes, drawing, drawing for the first time, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, learning, practicing art | Leave a comment

BABY NOMI’S PORTRAITS—A Tutorial

Posted on January 12, 2012 by admin

A couple in the Netherlands had their first child in 2010 and sent me the following email:

Our daughter Nomi Wagner was born on 11th August this year. Recently, while we searched on the web (Google), we discovered there already exists a Nomi Wagner. We looked at your website and were curious if you can make a portrait of our daughter: ‘Nomi Wagner’ painted by … Nomi Wagner!

I was thrilled to have a little namesake in Holland. The Wagners couldn’t decide which to commission, a drawing or a painting, so they commissioned a painting and I gave them a drawing. After all … we’re family now!

I painted Nomi’s portrait, combining two emailed reference photos.

Using Corel Painter, I made a digital charcoal sketch of the combined source photos on one layer of a .rif file. I then inserted a layer of white above that (to toggle) and painted with digital watercolor on a gel layer above those two layers.

When Nomi’s portrait was completed, I dropped all layers, saved as a psd. file, and extracted it from the white background in Photoshop. Then I deleted the original portrait layer in the rif. file and painted the background and foreground in Corel Painter on a gel layer beneath the extracted portrait, now in a default layer.

To finish the painting, I dropped the layers and blended them with my Soft Blender Stump in a .psd file.

I used the same technique for Baby Nomi’s drawing, dropping the layers but leaving the background white. As always, I make changes as the work progresses.

cherub face in the making

Dear Nomi,

The portraits look fantastic!!!!!

We are very excited….

Without any doubt our parents will be just as pleased on Christmas when they receive the additional prints made by you.

Again many thanks.

Happy holidays and hope to meet you soon….

The Wagner Family

Posted in Art Technique, Tutorial, Uncategorized | Tagged baby, children's portraits, Corel Painter, family pictures, Holland, Nomi Wagner, portrait drawings | 5 Comments

HEALTHY New Year!

Posted on January 3, 2012 by admin

After all those fabulous holiday goodies, it’s (sigh) time to get back on the wagon. My husband Gerry and I make a big bowl of Gazpacho every week and enjoy it as a first course. It curbs our appetites and has lots of veggies. This is our variation of a recipe I learned almost 40 years ago when taking cooking classes from Diana von Welanetz Wentworth.

Gazpacho

Mix together in a very large bowl:

64 oz. bottle of Trader Joe’s Garden Patch Juice or V8

(2) 14 ½ oz. cans stewed tomatoes

1 bunch celery hearts

1 large sweet brown or red onion

1 bunch green onions, chopped with knife

1 long seedless cucumber, unpeeled

Trader Joe’s Mélange à Trois (frozen)
or
1 lb. multi-colored fresh bell peppers

1/4 C. balsamic vinegar

1/4 C. red wine vinegar

1/4 C. Worcestershire sauce

4-8 dashes hot sauce (optional)

Pour veggie juice into large bowl. Add juice from stewed tomatoes. Chop drained, stewed tomatoes and all veggies (except green onions) in food processor. Stir in vinegars and Worcestershire sauce. Chill and enjoy! Top each serving with a dash of olive oil. I put a heaping spoon of plain Greek yogurt on mine. To your good health and a happy year!

Posted in Health | Tagged gazpacho, healthy eating, recipe, veggies | Leave a comment

Old Is the New Young

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin

I am 72 today. Woo hoo! Party on!

I watch interviews and read about other creative senior citizens still out there, still making every minute count. We don’t want this party to end. We’re grateful to still be here and able to do our work, and we’re racing like hamsters because there is so much left to do. It’s ridiculous, but it’s who we are. We’re having such a good time, we don’t want to stop … ever.

It’s never been possible for me to just sit back and chill, unless away from home or on vacation. Even then, my brain is an unstoppable creativity machine. It wakes me up in the wee hours and drives me crazy, as it has every night of my entire life. This compulsion to create and produce may be because of experiencing family members die young during my early childhood (see my earliest blog posts), or it just may be who I am. Dunno.

“Mambo #5” At age 60, oldest person in local dance school recital, June 2000.

I want to be a jazz pianist. I want to be proficient in conversational French. I want to tap dance in shows – the most fun I ever had. I want to see the whole world and then come home and paint it. Not gonna happen in this lifetime … bummer.

To paraphrase “Is That All There Is?” a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and made famous by Peggy Lee (I was lucky to see her sing it in person.):

If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing

Let’s keep creating and have a ball

If that’s all there is

Posted in Aging Gracefully, Uncategorized | Tagged birthday, growing old, Nomi Wagner | 7 Comments

5 Steps to Loving Your Curly Hair

Posted on December 12, 2011 by admin

Hi, my “Curly Gurlfriends”,

Supergurl

People with straight hair envy us and don’t have any idea how challenging it is to be a naturally curly gurly. Having done extensive online research, combined with trial and error, I have come up with a recipe for smooth curls, and I want to share my good fortune. I don’t have gorgeous long curls like Melina Kanakaredes on CSI: NY, but this is what works for me and hopefully will for you, too:

1. Rinse with cool water after shampooing and conditioning. Squeeze out excess water.

2. Towel-dry with one side of Bone Dry microfiber doggie drying gloves ($9.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond and certainly cheaper than the $25 ones sold online for humans.) After applying product (I use Matrix Vavoom Height of Glam Volumizing Foam, but that is a personal choice) and combing through with a wide-tooth comb, turn the gloves over, put your fingers in and scrunch. Don’t over towel-dry or over scrunch with the gloves.

3. Now, the big Aha! … After your hair is in place, spray with a light mist of mild acidic (ph 4.5) water. We have the acidic water here, just going down the drain – a by-product of our Kangan alkaline water machine.

4. Let your beautiful curls air-dry. Don’t futz with them or they will start to frizz. But if you can’t resist and frizz happens, lightly mist with more acidic water.

5. Sleep on a satin pillow; you deserve it. The amazing one I found at Bed Bath & Beyond is a satin, zippered pillow protector for $5.99 that goes in the washer and dryer.

My hair looks great for days now instead of minutes. If you struggle with the curly challenge, let me know if any of this works for you. Please share your discoveries – feel free to pass this on to other curly gurlies.

P.S. Curly hair needs to be cut by a skilled stylist who understands and likes curly hair.

My work is done here. Up, up and away!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alkaline water, Kangan water, managing curly hair, naturally curly hair | 4 Comments

From Moscow and London to Broadway and Chicago

Posted on December 8, 2011 by admin

Last week we went to the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow for a magnificent production of Esmerelda. It was dreamy! We had VIP seating and were invited backstage between scenes to meet the producers, see the dancers warming up and watch the scenery being set. Well, actually, I was wearing jeans at our local movie theater, and we had free parking. I have become a groupie of Fathom Event Concerts!

In the past few months we have seen fabulous productions of Phantom of the Opera from the Royal Albert Hall in London, a marvelous live interview with Jane Goodall, an awesome jazz concert with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton from Lincoln Center, the Broadway musical, Memphis, and the LA Phil LIVE with Gustavo Dudamel conducting Mendelssohn. We enjoyed that production at the exact same time people were seeing it at Disney Concert Hall, but they didn’t get to go backstage and chat personally with Dudamel as we did!

These productions are beamed coast to coast to movie theaters nationwide — plays, jazz concerts, sports events, and operas. The camera angles make it even better than having a front row seat, and you get to go backstage!

This week, we went to see Chicago Presents an Evening of Holiday Music and Greatest Hits. I’m still humming, “Saturday in the park, I think it was the Fourth of July.”

You, too, can have a VIP experience all over the world. See you there!

www.fathomevents.com

Posted in Movies & Books, Uncategorized | Tagged ballet, Chicago, concerts, musical, Nutcracker, opera, VIP | Leave a comment

Pilates, Tai Chi, and Yoga … Oh My!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by admin

Keeping young and fit with my mom and brother.

Question: Nomi, how do you keep your girlish figure at age almost-72 while spending so much time sitting at a computer?

Answer: Exercise classes, my dear – one to two hours every weekday.

The truth is that I hate to exercise. Even motivating myself to go for a walk on our beach doesn’t work since our dog died. But put me in a classroom with a good teacher and like-minded souls, and I am in heaven. Crazy, you say? Yes, but it works for me. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adult fitness, exercise, family fitness, pilates, tai chi chih, yoga | Leave a comment

Perseverance

Posted on November 21, 2011 by admin

If there is one word that defines me, relative to my work, it is perseverance. Doing commissioned portraits is, for me, an excellent discipline. I can’t give up on a project…. I have a client waiting for it and I want to do my very best for them, giving them even more than they expect.

Most artists will tell you that there is often a point of self-doubt while creating a piece of art, when the work doesn’t look exactly as they had envisioned or when it starts to take on a life of its own. That is the point when many artists give up, and that is exactly the point when they need to persevere and see the work through to its completion. It’s a matter of trusting oneself, trusting the art, and letting go of doubt.

Admittedly, drawing and painting with a computer has its benefits. I can erase, make changes, and also save versions of the work as I proceed. Every time I say to myself, “Wow, that looks good!”, I save the version. Likewise, every time I worry that the art may be going in the wrong direction, I save the version. By the completion of my commissions, they are huge file folders, often 6-7 gigs in size. Being able to save files like this gives me the confidence to take risks with my work. I rarely go back to a previous version, but just knowing that I can gives me confidence to go forward fearlessly. For a perfectionist like me, it’s a PERFECT solution!

Here is a cartoon by my famous cousin, Benita Epstein. It describes me to a T, but I would wear a lovely gown, of course!

http://www.benitaepstein.com

Posted in Art Technique, Digital Art, Uncategorized | Tagged computer graphics, digital art, digital graphics, married to work, Nomi Wagner, perfectionist, perseverance | Leave a comment