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)

For sale at Denvention or TBA here later if not sold.

Stardust

(9x12", Oil)
For sale at Denvention or TBA here later if not sold.

The Last Farewell

(14x18", Oil)

For sale at Denvention or TBA here later if not 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

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

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

The Story of Nick Paper

The surface that these drawings are done on are something we call 'Nick Paper'. Handtinted drawing paper that takes Prismacolor pencil work really well. To find out how 'Nick Paper' came about, and its connection to September 11, 2001 - go to my other blog, http://musedujour.blogspot.com/ and read the full story...

Hugs,

Marianne