Red Saturn Run...a new painting.

Red Saturn Run

(aka Red Saturn Flyby)

(9x12", Oil) Price: $175.00

I painted this as a part of my new paintings for a science fiction convention art show. The idea came from my little notebook that the last few painting thumbnails have been scribbled in. Pretty simple in its effect, almost monochromatic. But very evocative of the retro rocket nostalgia that's been gripping the SF community in recent years.

The palette was limited to: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and Cadmium Red Light.

Note the tiny moon at the far right hand end of the sliver of Saturn's ring...

As usual the photo doesn't do the original painting justice - a lot of subtlety is lost.

So. More paintings to get ready for the next art show next month in New York...
Come back soon,
Cheers,
Marianne

First Dragon of the Year...

Little Rose Dragon
(Oil, 6x8") Price: $175.00

I've been needing to do some small paintings to add to my display at Boskone Art Show next month in Boston. I already had the rocket ideas and such, but I also needed to refamiliarize myself with my paints again...to become confident in spashing about the paint again... As the years go by, I find that it's like riding a bicycle: you never really forget... Anyway, I had some dragon drawing lying around the place from previous projects, so I thought I'd practice on those. Above is this weeks effort: 'Little Rose Dragon'.

Doing this painting in oil has been eating at me for awhile. I had previously executed it in acrylic and prismacolour pencil on Illustration Board - and I'd never been fully happy with it in that medium. That painting had never sold either, for one reason or another. However, I decided to clear the decks by giving the old version to a dear friend for Christmas and promply set up my miniscule easel to re-attempt the painting in oil.



This is the work in progress. The easel is only about 12 inches tall. The best thing about it is that the upright post and foot pieces allow me to upend the painting and do fine detail that I would normally have to be a contortionist to paint. On larger works this is a problem, but I get around it. In this photo, the easel is sitting on my disposable pallete, under my right hand lamp. I use natural colour light globes in my two lamps: it helps smooth out the light and shadow in my small painting corner.

This is the original drawing for 'Rose Dragon', executed on hand tinted drawing paper. In a previous post I told you all about 'Nick Paper'. The pencil is Prismacolour 'Sienna' or 'Red Earth' I think. And of course, no drawing of mine done on 'Nick Paper' is complete without the red Kanji stamp - the symbol is Japanese for 'Ma'.

So, the new 'Little Rose Dragon' painting is done in the same palette and brushes as for 'Escape Velocity' - there's just a difference in emphasis.

Anyway, I'm off to paint something new, so check back again soon...
Cheers,
Marianne

Escape Velocity...a new painting!

Escape Velocity
(Oil, 14x18") Price: $450.00 SOLD

I had the idea for this painting while in Denver last September. I'd picked up this little blank paged booklet at a previous convention in Memphis, TN a few months before, and been carrying it around for ages. Every so often I'd get an idea and scribble down a thumbnail for it along with some notes. This is the result of one of those scribbles.

It took me a while to work out the robot design as I'm not good at working up technology with out some kind of clue of what I'm doing. So I borrowed one of the little articulated robots that I got my hubby for Christmas and set him up under a light under the Christmas tree for a photo shoot. It's all about the pose and foreshortening. Anyway, the robot was Black Ox - a Japanese one - and my design looks nothing like him. The model was completely black with two big horn/cone things sprouting from his temples...and well, my robot doesn't... But it served the purpose.

It took two sessions to paint this one, and I think I can safely say that I've achieved my goal.

The palette included: Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, a little Permanent Rose, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, and Cobalt Violet. Brushes were the usual array of big flats, small Filberts, and some little pointy Rounds. Oh, and the big fluffy blending brushes - two of them!


These are the two thumbnails I scribbled out when this idea struck.

















This was the last of three sketch ideas for my robot that I spent a recent Sunday drawing up. I liked this one the best. I also liked poring over some of our pulp SF magazine art in our reference books. In the end, I created my own robot. Hope you like him...


More paintings to come. I'm currently working on a little dragon painting...stay tuned.
Cheers,
Marianne

And Another Exhibit...The Art Corner

This October, Bob and I are back at The Art Corner in Salem, MA. Wendy and Chuck are busy with three other exhibits and have given us the run of the shop/gallery space. Wasn't that really, really nice of them? Below are photos of my bit of the wall space. The three bigger paintings are older ones that I've trotted out as anchor points, but the rest are from my painting a day project from last year - some of which have never been exhibited before. I was waiting for a very special show to put them up. This is it! My total is 23 pieces...

We are having a Grand Opening of our exhibit on Friday, 3rd October 2008, so if you're in the area, please drop in and say hi. It'll be a bit of a party as it is also Bob and my 1oth wedding anniversary. Details below:

The Art Corner

231 Washington Street

Salem, Ma 01970

978-745-9524

artcornersalem@verizon.net

Cheers,

Marianne

New Exhibit!

After much waiting, and then toing and froing about whether I had the energy to sort out enough artwork for this little exhibit, I finally got my act together and this is the result.

Last year, my hubby and I agreed to a month each of showing artwork at a great little coffee shop at Pawtuxet Village. Bob got January of this year, but I had to wait until now - September. In the meantime, we've just come back from a hectic three week trip across the country which involved the setting up and taking down of artwork in two locations, and getting ready for a larger, more prestigious exhibit at The Art Corner in Salem, Massacheussetts at the end of September. Ugh. Not only was I low in energy, but wondering how the hell I was going to pull together enough existing paintings for not one, but TWO shows. I juggled lists of paintings for two days, dug said paintings out of cupboards and off of walls, and I finally had enough. I did wonder what was going to be the main anchor painting for the coffee shop show as the two I was considering were offsite at a friend's house, and he was away for the week. Pottering around, I found one large one I'd forgotten about - probably because I'd never been completely satisfied with the finished product and have every intention of repainting. This was "Marina" my Mermaid/Unicorn piece: you can see it above the mantle in the photo. So I finally had enough to fill the wall. There's a lot of older stuff there from recent years, but it seems to work as a collection. What would really be nice now, is for some of these works to find a nice caring home, otherwise it's back into the cupboard.

The show itself is at:

Little Falls Cafe

2166 Broad Street

Cranston, RI 02905

More soon,
Cheers,
Marianne

We Are Stardust...

One of my favourite songs has this line in the chorus: the haunting Matthews Southern Comfort version of the song, "Woodstock". It entirely feeds my more romantic and dreamlike ideas I had when I was a child and longing for the stars. Maybe it was the lunar landing fever of the time - the late 1960s - or the Aquarius movement, but it was timeless. Then and now.

I had to produce something new for my art panel at the forthcoming world science fiction convention in Denver, and over a 48 hour period I managed to finish one painting and complete two more. With Last Farewell, I finally brought to a close an idea I had many years ago. While searching boxes of paper for sorting and chucking, I found a small thumbnail sketch I'd jotted down at random. I looked at it for a long time, and thought "I can finally paint this!" So I did.

Stardust was just a passionate doodle featuring two of my favourite elements: a soaring, swooping pointy rocket ship and a nebulous, hazy background - this time it's a ringed giant. It was kind of blissful to do.

Starstream Camping is an idea I had this year, and had given up on after the first attempt. That initial start had included a big chunk of planet in one corner and the tent being placed on one of the asteroids in its ring. It just wasn't working, and I wasn't happy with it, so I put it aside. That was several months ago. Last week, I had an epiphany of sorts and said to myself "Why does it have to be a planet? For me, it's always been the Stars..." I whipped out a board, and a day and two painting sessions later, I had a painting that speaks volumes. One of my very favourites so far...look for the whales and inquisitive dolphin...

Starstream Camping

(10x10", Oil) PRICE: $230.00

Stardust

(9x12", Oil) PRICE: $185.00

The Last Farewell

(14x18", Oil) PRICE: $350.00 SOLD

As usual, the photography doesn't do them justice, but it's close.

Palette included: Titanium White, Viridian Green, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean, Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Red Light, Cobalt Violet, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue. My big blending brushes got a serious workout during this lot, plus a couple of Filberts (big and small), and a couple of pointy little Rounds.

Thanks to author Jerry Oltion and his romantic and sometimes funny outlook on outer space, and to his short story "The Big Two-sided River". River is about a miner who goes camping the old fashioned way on an asteroid in the rings of a gas giant planet. Thanks Jerry, the story and the atmosphere has lingered these past years.

Cheers,

Marianne

Little Panda

Little Panda

(6x8", Oil) Price: $145.00

Well, I finally left the writing behind for a bit and did a painting. There was a good reason though: the Grand Reopening of The Art Corner in Salem, MA. Following a fire there in late April, the store has reopened in temporary new premises around the corner. Bob and I were invited up to 'paint in the window' on the day, so we did. It was going to be a bit nervy for me though, as I hadn't painted in months, and I had to start one cold. Urk. I did it though! This little panda bear started off a bit wonky, but he came out true in the end. I'm rather proud of this one, since I've been wanting to paint a panda for absolutely ages.

Palette included: Titanium White, Cadmium Lemon, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Terre Verte, Ultramarine Blue, and Alizirin Crimson. Two Filbert brushes and two small Rounds, plus the usual big fluffy blending brush. 6x8" canvas board, gessoed a couple extra times for smoothness.

Below is the little guy in situ. I still love my litte painting box. I wish I used it a bit more than I do.

To read more about The Art Corner, the fire, and our painting day, go to my other blog, Muse du Jour http://musedujour.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Marianne