Day 34

Kelp Wraith

(8x10", Oil) Price: $250.00

Okay, we're back from Dallas...so, back to work.

This painting is a 'ringer' as we call it back home in Australia. A painting I did some time ago. I'm posting it until new ones dry enough to be photographed.

Anyway, my usual marine art is much tighter in style than this painting. It was originally an experiment along the lines of what I'm painting for Daub du Jour now, only with thinner paint. The Kelp Wraith line of experimental painting didn't get very far back then, as it is now. I wouldn't mind trying the same image but with thicker paint and a more brushier look to it. More mysterious, perhaps - invoking some artists from the 1930s and 1940s. I'll let you know.

Meantime, I sold my Snowy Mammoth painting from Day 32! I want to paint another one but in a different context, before I move on to other inspirations. So check back and see...

Gotta go do something creative.
See you tomorrow
Marianne

Day 33

Tiny Pansies

(3x3", Oil) Price: SOLD

After the gargantuan personal effort of painting the Woolly Mammoth yesterday, I wanted to paint something a little smaller and easier. So, I painted a very small work of pansies. I took the photos again in Nick's garden last Fall, and have waited this long to paint them. I love the colours!

The palette consisted of: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cobalt Violet, and Permanent Rose. Small brushes of course.

NOTE: Since I've been getting artwork and business things ready for a convention in Boston this coming weekend, I'll be taking a few days break from painting. After that, we have to fly to Dallas for another guest appearance that my husband is making there at another convention. I always knew that business would get in the way some day, but it's only temporary. I hope you'll hang around and come back and visit the site, soon.

Cheers
Marianne

Day 32

Snowy Mammoth

(6x8", Oil) Price: SOLD

Okay, here is the latest woolly mammoth study. This is a huge improvement over yesterdays. And, it came out exactly like I wanted it to.

The palette is exactly the same as the study from yesterday, only with a bigger canvas. I do so love my 6x8" canvases!

Brushes: Size 6 Filbert, Size 4 Round, and 1/2" Flat. Yeah, I got 'brushy wi'd it'.

So, I'd better go find something new to paint.

Cheers

Marianne

Day 31

Young Woolly Mammoth Head Study

(5x7", Oil) Price: $75.00

Here is my first attempt at painting a study of a Woolly Mammoth head. The canvas was way too small, because I'd run out of prepared 6x8" ones. Got plenty now. Anyway, I was more interested in paint effects and brushstrokes than making a proper portrait. This is one of the very woolly versions of mammoths. He looks a bit like he's wearing a shaggy hat. I'll grab one of the others off our mammoth shelf - yes, we have a Mammoth toy display shelf - and try painting other versions of the species. Bob likes dinosaurs (I do to, really) but I do like the mammoths. Elephants, too.

I think with other attempts, I'll continue to try to paint the essence of the beast as opposed to painting a still life of a toy. But those look good too, so who knows.

Anyway. Palette consisted of the usual suspects: French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, and Transparent Gold Ochre. The canvas support was tinted with my favourite Burnt Sienna/T. White/Transparent Gold Ochre blend, and allowed to dry before use. Brushes were: 1/2" Flat, Size 6 Filbert, and Size 4 round.

So, till I have to go dig another woolly mammoth out of a snowdrift tomorrow. See you then.
Marianne

Day 30

Sandra's Gargoyle

(6x8", Oil) Price: $125.00 - SOLD

Bob and I went up to Salem, MA, yesterday to do a painting demonstration at The Art Corner framing shop and gallery on Washington Street. Well, we set up our brand new Guerilla paintboxes and painted while various patrons peeked over our shoulders, anyways. This was an enormous hurdle for me to get over: painting in public. My internal mantra was 'if I can do this at home in the studio, then I can certainly do this here'. The shop was genial. So was the company and the visitors. Mind you, we did pause occasionally, paintbrushes poised, and waited to see if any passers by the window would stop and lick the splendid ice sculpture outside the door. I think the boys wanted to see if anyone's tongue got stuck on the ice. My painting partners were Charles (aka, Chuck) Lang and my husband, Bob Eggleton. I managed to paint the gargoyle above, Chuck worked on a painting of lots of green and red apples, while 'whiz bang Bob' got two splendid landscapes done. See his blog for those.

Anyway, the gargoyle in question is a casting of a sculpture created by friend and fellow artist, Sandra Lira. Sandra sells various sizes of this gargoyle through various catalogs and shops. This one happens to be in situ, in the garden of another friend, Robert. I took these photos in early Fall about four years ago, and have wanted to paint it for a long time. He's got great attitude - the gargoyle, not Robert. There was no suitable place to set up the still life stuff that I'd brought with me to the shop, so I pulled out one of the photos I'd packed at the last minute. So there will be toy mammoth paintings another time...

The palette was French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Cadmium Yellow Light, Transparent Gold Ochre, Titanium White, and a little Permanent Green Light.

Here is my 'you beaut' little paint box - only 6x8" big - set up in the shop.

Anyway, more tomorrow!
Cheers
Marianne

Day 29

Sunny Spot

(4x6", Oil) Price: $55.00

This isn't quite a landscape per se, but one of those little quiet spots I like so much. I've been hanging onto the reference photo for this little painting for about eight or so years, telling myself 'one day I'll paint it'. Well, yesterday I did. Finally! It's a little brushy study of what it might become when it grows up into a big painting. The place itself exists (at least, I hope it still does) on a forest trail just up behind the Big Sur Lodge on the California Coast. The same place we stayed at for the painting of 'Muir Beach' from a few days ago.

The palette consisted of the usual suspects: French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Transparent Gold Ochre, and a bit of Sap Green.

I'm so happy that this has turned out well. I've been carrying the photo around so long, and looking wistfully at it and saying 'one day'. I have even thought of painting a translucent white dragon coming out of the patch of sunlight on the ground, just for something otherwordly. Maybe I'll do that later in the year. Meanwhile, I'd better get back to painting.

More tomorrow,
Marianne

Day 28

Falls End

(4x6", Oil) Price: $55.00

Okay, it's another landscape! Sorry, I'm on a roll... This is the bottom of a waterfall we saw in Seattle, Washington some years back. I just love the sun hitting the foreground, while the falls and pool lurk in the background shadows.

The usual suspects were swimming around on the palette for this one!

I've rather enjoyed doing these little studies. They're not as easy as they seem, and can be just as complicated as working on a larger, more complicated version.

Oh, well...back to work...
See you tomorrow,
Marianne

Day 27

Last Light

(4x6", Oil) Price: $55.00 SOLD

Okay, this is the second of my teeny landscapes. My parents' house in rural Victoria, Australia, faces this scene every evening. We took lots of photos when we were there last.

I used the left over paint on the palette from the painting in Day 26, and only added Cadmium Red Light. The other colours were (of course): French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, Transparent Gold Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Light, and Alizirin Crimson.

Another landscape tomorrow!
Cheers
Marianne

Day 26

Muir Beach Sunset

(4x6", Oil) Price: $55.00

Finally got down to using smaller sized canvases! I lurk and post on an artists site called WetCanvas - www.wetcanvas.com - in the Miniature Art section. Well, one of their moderators, Val, threw out a 'let's do this' thread on miniature landscapes. So I did some. This is the first one. The photograph unfortunately doesn't do it justice or capture all of the detail: it was bitterly cold outside today and made my fingers ache in the few minutes it took to take photos of paintings. They were still wet from yesterday - too much so to put them on the scanner.

Anyway, this is Muir Beach somewhere along the Big Sur in California. Bob and I went there for three days back in 1998 just after we got married. We were there for a convention, but kicked back with no phone or tv for three days, and sat in front of an open fire each evening. Days were spent walking the beaches, meeting seagulls, and taking many, many photos.

Next one tomorrow,
Marianne

Day 25

Baby Elephant Walk

(5x7", Oil) Price: $85.00 SOLD Unfortunately this reproduction hasn't come out the best. It's snowy and gray today, so I had to take a photo of this little painting under lamps in the studio. It was still too wet to lay on the scanner.

Anyway, I found this little chap in the toy section of the craft store the same day I found the tiny plastic grapes I painted yesterday. He's not terrifically anatomically correct, but he has the cutest expression on his face. Like life is a joy of discovery to him. I positioned him on the canvas so he had plenty of space to bounce into if he needed to. Seriously. And, I wanted to practice a little foreshortening technique.

The painting style is deliberately on the loose side. The palette consisted of four of the usual suspects: French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White and Transparent Gold Ochre. The canvas was previously tinted with the same colours as the canvas from yesterday.

See you tomorrow,
Marianne