New Balloon Ship...

Follow The Leader

(10x10", Oil) Price: $160.00

This looks a little washed out, I'm afraid. The colours are really deep and vibrant, but I'm still getting used to using our new digital camera.

I painted this at the last minute. I started out with the idea of painting another moon balloon ship piece that involved moonlit waves. The original working title was 'Wavehopping', but the ship looked lonely, and there was a negative space just begging for something to fill it. So I painted a little dolphin. Then I went 'hmmm, this composition needs some last thing'. So I painted the dolphin tail in the foreground. When I stepped back from the easel, I'd found that this little painting had developed a really nice flow and composition. Now the balloon ship looked like it was having fun, and the moon was joining in. Hence, "Follow the Leader".

I painted this in one sitting, as I wanted to get it done fast. The palette was a nice combination of Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Viridian, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Pale, French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. Lots of fluffy blending brushes, one fine detail Round brush, and a half inch Flat, and a half inch Filbert. I also found out why these paintings were drying so fast: the Cobalt Blue was actually a tube of Alkyd paint (synthetic oil paint) rather than real oil paint. They share the same paint drawer, and I'd mistakenly picked up the Alkyd instead of the oil tube. Doesn't really matter though - it will not affect the paint one little bit. And it will all look the same. Meanwhile, I've dug out the real Cobalt Blue...

More later,
Marianne

And another rocket...

Swooping
(11x14", Oil) Price: $175.00 SOLD

Here is another pointy rocket idea. I fell in love with John Harris' way of working oils and some of his romantic looking hard science fiction paintings. So I tried one of my own. Unfortunately, a lot of the viridian and pure cerulean tones have been lost to the digital camera. It tries its best, but often fails to reproduce these colours with any true accuracy. I mourn for the kodakchrome expertise of a dying technology: real film. Our local photographic lab has produced no better when it comes to taking photos of our art, because they themselves now only deal in digital photography. Needless to say, we don't visit them much anymore.

Meanwhile, I've been giving thought to my rockets and balloon ships (yes, there is another one), and I think I've figured them out. The rocket ship and the balloon ship represent 'me' - or at least my dreams and goals. So I'll keep painting them, where-ever they take me...

Cheers,
Marianne

Another Retro Rocket....

Reach III

(9x12", Oil) Price: $150.00 SOLD
Okay, this is the absolute last retro rocket in this colour scheme. I only did this one because I promised a friend I'd do an extra version, and that I actually had an idea for it. Meanwhile, it's open season on other retro rockets with different colour schemes and themes. Unfortunately, the digital photo lost all of the soft tranistional colours and brushyness on this one. I have another one on the easel at the moment, but with a cerulean/viridian green type of high atmosphere, with a highlighted view of Saturn, and with a retro rocket 'swooping' in the foreground. I'll post that one when I'm finished with it. Both paintings will be going to a science fiction convention artshow this weekend.

There hasn't been a lot of time for painting lately, as I've been really, really busy doing writing for a publisher, developing some ideas that would utilize my creative side as well as my husband's.

Anyway, same palette and brushes as the last two Reach rockets.

Back soon,
Marianne

Moonlight Flight

Moonlight Flight

(8x10", Oil) Price: $145.00 SOLD

I had this idea at the gym when I was thinking about the pointy rocket ships I wanted to paint in the two previous posts. I bravely looked up some viking boat references and with the distant memory of the airship from the movie "The Mummy Returns" set to drawing one up. The ship is empty while it sails the moon paths, ready to carry the viewers dreams and hopes aloft with it. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice: a lot of soft detail was lost in the cloud highlights and the moon. And I tried to colour match as much as possible.

This is painted thinly and took two coats of paint to get the sky right, because French Ultramarine is a transparent. I noodled that around with Cobalt Blue and Alizarin Crimson with a dash of Titanium White to create this simple background. A tiny bit of Cadmium Yellow Hue was mixed in with the highlights, because the moon doesn't always reflect a cold white light. There is warmth in the shadows, as is usual with moonlight, no matter how cold or slightly warm that light may be. I blocked in the ship in the first session, but completed it in the second session in detail when the first layers were dry. As usual, I made great use of my big fluffy blending brushes.

See you next time,
Cheers,
Marianne

More Cosmic Whales...

Spotting Starwhales II

(9x12", Oil) Price: $175.00 SOLD

I've been on a bit on an inspiration kick lately concerning pointy rocketships and cosmic whales. Not sure why. But it has made painting rather fun. I'm painting them for myself, so I get to indulge the quirky side of fantasy and science fiction art. Hey, it works for other artists and their personal works, so why not me?

This is an expansion on a theme that I painted for an Australian fiction magazine cover a few years ago. I always liked the original painting and wished that I'd accomplished it better. People seemed to like it though, and the orginal painting sold to a film director, so it can't have been too bad. Anyway, I like all of the pinks and purples that go great with the bluish whales and dolphin. And the composition is tighter in this version. The whales themselves look like they're having a blast. I wouldn't mind being in that rocket, looking at them and smiling.

So, what do the whales represent? I'm not sure at this stage. I'm still on the journey with them. However, I get the feeling that they represent 'life' and its journey throughout the realms of time and space. A higher consciousness. Greatness...the 'something better in all of us' to aspire to. I'll let you know when I know...but that could take quite a while. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the ride...

For this painting, I used: French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Burnt Sienna, Magenta, and a little bit of Cobalt Violet. Lots of blending brushes....


Cheers,
Marianne

Reach II

REACH II

(9X12", Oil) Price: $175.00 SOLD

Welcome to the New Year 2008.

Things got way too busy as we neared the end of 2007, and I managed to work myself into exhaustion. We travelled; I cooked my end of year gifts to send to friends and family around the country; and I spent a lot of time helping midwife a dinosaur children's picture book, along with my husband and a friend, Cortney Skinner. I wrote the book back in November, and the boys are currently illustrating it. It is called "If Dinosaurs Lived in My Town" and will be out Spring 2009, from Sterling Publishing, via Hollan Publishing. Since I'm the techie of the family, I've been liasing with the publisher and constantly transmitting illustrations between Bob and Cort, as well as taking care of other business. This week I decided to stop helping everybody else and do something for myself for a bit. The results are some small paintings with pointy rocket ships in them. In Reach II, I revisited the colour scheme and style for my previous smaller painting, Reach, which I painted last year. It seemed like a good place to start since I hadn't painted since last August. I hope you like the result. Stay tuned for further painted explorations...

From now on, this blog isn't going to be about doing a painting a day. I proved that I could hang in there and accomplish that for a period of months. I'm now just going to post my explorations in paint and post them as 'Paintings OF the Day'. I thank you for your patience, and hope you will drop by from time to time to see what I've been doing.

Cheers,

Marianne

New Art Sale Page!

Hello all,

Thanks for following my artistic endeavours this year, but I must apologise for the serious lack thereof in recent months. This is customarily our busiest time of the year, usually involving lots of travel, frantic working towards deadlines, conventions, and the subsequent getting ready for art shows. Well the majority of that has come to an end now, for the year, so I'll be getting back to some serious painting and writing real soon now. I have a hankering to continue my quirky still lifes-with-toys-and-pumpkins themes, but bigger.

Meanwhile, I thought about something a fan said to me recently in Japan. He said that although he loved my website, he didn't know what works were still available for sale, because there was no mention of price, availability, etcetera, mentioned there. So, being easier to update my blogsites than to update my website, I have now made up an ongoing blog page to list my works for sale. This includes older fantasy pieces as well as the more recent incarnations. Hopefully you'll drop by to look occasionally, and might even find something you might like. I'll be updating every week or two. When things are sold, they'll be marked as such, so there is no confusion.

The Sale Page can be found at http://artsalepage.blogspot.com/ or by clicking the link 'Marianne's ART Sale Page' at the left of this screen.

Thanks,
Marianne