Welcome to my second annual Christmas Small Works Sale. Yep, it's rockets again this year. Twelve brand new paintings. Hope that's good with you. Unfortunately, while I did my absolute best with the photography, each
image is lacking in the nuance, luminosity, and detail that real live
viewing brings. Please keep that in mind. Also, please see shipping
options at the end of this post. To contact me for purchasing a
painting, please use FACEBOOK MESSENGER or INSTAGRAM MESSENGER. I'll keep an eye on my email
for direct contact as well. First to request purchase will get the
painting. If that falls through, then it will be offered to next
requestor according to the time stamp of the message. Meanwhile, please
enjoy...
"Breaching the Cloud Layer"
(Size: 6x8", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $300.00 SOLD
This is one of my off the cuff rocket doodles to use up paint...a lot of 'made' black in this instance...on my palette. I mix the colour black from French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna and then I can control if it's a warm or cool black for use. I grabbed a panel, drew a quick slant-y line for the cloud layer, used my big circle gauge for the rising moon, and drew a small angled straight line to base the rocket on. Drew in the rocket shape, fixed with Workable Fixative spray and then started laying paint. I also channeled pure nostalgia with this mid-century era colour scheme. Reminds me of one of my fave films, 1954 'War of the Worlds'.
"Breakaway"
(Size: 7x10", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $400.00
The concept for this little painting came directly from the pages of my teeny thumbnail sketchbook, so it is one of my 'designed' rocket doodles. And, inherently not the colour scheme my inner brain was aiming for. I will make notes on my thumbnails about colour, title, etc, but they don't always turn out as expected. I thought I had completed the design with a plain, unbroken rising moon above the planet, but my mind kept asking 'why are there so many orbiting rocks?' 'The moon exploded?' was the hesitant answer back. So, in the drawing, I broke up the moon and added lots of debris around it. THEN, the design felt complete, so I painted it. Although, the finished painting is bright, it's not quite this candy coloured.
"Debris Window"
(Size: 6x6", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $310.00 SOLD
This painting is another 'draw a few elements and a rocket on a canvas and just paint' off the cuff effort. I really love framing some scenes from dramatic elements that are mostly 'off camera' so to speak. I had a lot of blue and made black to use up, and the ever present golds and oranges on my palette, so I doodled some wrecked ship/station debris in the foreground and painted it dark and woolly against the bright starscape and inspection rocket. Who knows how often in the far flung future ship debris are found after being lost for so long or new alien things found. All need to be reported and families, no matter how distant they now are in the past, need notification about their lost ones. Also, buoys placed near wreck debris to warn other passing ships to avoid them in case of collision.
"Firecloud Launch"
(Size: 6x8", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $300.00
Okay, this design came from the pages of my teeny thumbnail sketchbook, complete with colour scheme notes. AND, it turned out as was expected, heavy in red space and blue highlights. It's a little less contrasty in reality, but still vibrant.
"Oasis Biodome"
(Size: 5x7", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: 300.00 SOLD
"Oasis Biodome" also comes from the pages of my teeny sketchbook, but it was a design based on inspiration from a vintage SF magazine cover. It doesn't look anything like that cover, but the 'weight' of the design element, ie. the half-cut-off station on the right is placed in almost the same spot as the cartoony space station on the original inspiration. I was experimenting with odd design choices, and this was one of them. I rather like how it turned out.
"Polukhromos"
(Size: 6x6", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $280.00
This is one of my off the cuff paintings that started out as a 'it was a good idea at the time' design. I wanted something colourful and Christmasy and I drew up the space station and used the circle gauge for the moons. The supernova in the background got very woolly, very quickly and I thought I'd all but ruined it for a few days, until my husband was walking past my studio table and loved it. That encouraged me to keep going in trying to save it. The space station was originally shaped like one of those elongated Christmas tree ornaments and had a 'ribbon' wrapped around it from top to bottom. I didn't end up liking it. It was too 'straight up and down' and not at all interesting. Too static. So, I started doodling on the canvas and adding things. Well, it looks just as woolly as the supernova nebula behind it, but I ended up liking it after all. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but someone out there will love it, I'm sure. Also, in looking at names for this painting, I finally chose 'Polukhromos' which is the Greek translation of 'polychrome' in the dictionary. I think it is very apt.
"Red Run Shortcut"
(Size: 5x7", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $280.00 SOLD
This is another off the cuff, draw up directly on the canvas little painting. I was aiming for a 'big planet' look and also loved the colour of Mars, so Mars it became. A simple 'flypast' design that I could have fun smooshing my oil paints around. And yes, to use up some of the usual 'more than I need' made black.
"Runnin' for It"
(Size: 6x8", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $300.00 SOLD
"Runnin' for It" is another off the cuff, draw up directly onto the canvas painting. I drew in a line for the planet edge, circle gauge for the moon, line for the rocket, drew the rocket. Then I completely went to town with the exploding surface and flying rocks. And I absolutely love the blue/red contrariness.
"Sirius Crucible"
(Size: 6x8", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $300.00
"Sirius Crucible" is an 'in-between' design. As in, I needed to use up a bunch of paint fast and wasn't quite sure what to paint. I have a bunch of used sketches and ideas piled up around my painting table, so I sifted through those, looking for inspiration. I found the space station I had used on another past painting and squinted at it and thought that it might make a nice centrepiece to cloud frame in space/nebula 'thang'. So, I drew it down and went at it with the paint, but somehow, I just ran out of inspirational puff and ended up putting it aside for several months. When I was grasping for ideas to draw just recently, I pulled out the half finished canvas again and looked at it. Squinting at the left over paint on my palette, I thought I could experiment with it a bit more. Well, I loved the amber back light and the soft multi-coloured clouds up front and so finished it with a sense of accomplishment. I hate wasting things, even canvases that haven't worked out. However, in adding the rocket and it's tail-fire trail, it also became something unexpected. Some of us see it as a simple space painting, others took one look at it and said they saw a shabby puppy or lion in the gold, with the off sized moons as eyes, and the space station and fire trail as the nose. Admittedly, it took me a while to see it as I was fully focused on the space theme, but when I did, I now can't unsee it. So, the title became 'Sirius Crucible' after the dog-star.
"Starbreak Station"
(Size: 6x8", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $300.00
I found a pretty, blue supernova in colours that I love and painted this off the cuff rocket doodle using some of it. All of my space scenes are painted loosely in an impressionist style, so I had a lot of fun daubing and blending blues and purples amidst the black of space on this one. Very serene and luminous in real life.
"Teeny Sputnik 1"
(size: 4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $ 120.00 SOLD
I painted a Sputnik 1 for a friend last year as a commission. I still had some references lying around for it and a bunch of 4x6" frames and canvasses. I also had a lot of blue left on my palette as well. SO, I noodled an Earth horizon and and rising Moon in the distance, along with a bit of 'Milky Way' in the distance and created a teeny Sputnik 1. Just for the heck of it.
"Tumbling Stone Outpost"
(Size: 4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed) Price: $120.00 SOLD
Yep, lots of made black, and cadmium yellow light, and cadmium orange left on the palette. So, I drew up directly onto the canvas a bunch of positive and negative shapes, and a space station in the lower right corner. Even with the tumbling rocks, the design didn't feel complete, so I added the tiny rocket and its fire trail to tie the two 'halves' of the painting together into a whole. As strange as a design as it is, it now actually works. Pulp space paintings from last century were full of this kind of dramatic and dynamic design work, as the art adorning books and magazines had to draw the eye to sell the product. It's why we have so much gorgeous vintage art that 'thinks outside the box' and inspires, even if the laws of physics have been broken or even twisted and bent into something truly awe-inspiring and challenging. Suspension of disbelief is key, and I hope my little space fantasies can reach even a tiny bit of that inspiring achievement of pulp space artists past.
Shipping:
Currently,
I have medium Priority Mail flat rate shipping boxes for single sales
that will run about $25.00 with insurance. If you buy more than one
and want to ship Fedex, we can get that done, too.
Thanks for stopping by,
Cheers,
Marianne
#pointyrocketships, #retrorockets, #pulpspace, #pulpspaceart, #spaceart, #smallpaintings, #oilpainting, #rockets, #rocketships, #1950sspaceart
