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 the cover of an Australian fiction magazine, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine (that issue edited by my dear friend, Edwina Harvey) 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