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

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