Our Other Sarah...

 "Selene Unbound"

(Size: 9x12", Oils on Linen, Framed)   Price: $ 1100.00  SOLD

Well, I hadn't planned on not posting for this long, but time kind of sped past while life got in the way. This small portrait is of our other Sarah, Sarah Perez, fellow artist and willing model back when Illuxcon hosted the Costume Salon and Sketch Lab. I wanted a finite chroma while trying to find my way back into portraiture...my way. I had this idea of painting Sarah in a simple, unfussy array to concentrate on her features and demeanor. This pose came along at the end of the session and was by far the most striking. Taking photographs of models is like making drawing after drawing of a subject until you get in a groove and connect. So, while my initial idea was good, this got better along the way. I call this painting 'Selene Unbound' because it spoke to the cosmos I've continued to paint in my little rocket doodles. Her hands are pulling apart the vibrant hood and stars are releasing like fireflies from it, and questing tendrils gently wrap her forearms. The necklace and bodice of the dress bear moon symbols and the neckband itself, the colours of the Earth, the Moon's companion. Sarah, as my Selene, expresses challenge, expectancy, and promise within her gaze which is more than I could have hoped to create when I first started painting this. Some of the turquoise green has washed out of the vibrant blues in this photo and some of the luminosity out of the skin tones, but it still looks good and I'm rather proud of it. When I was choosing the clothing for Sarah to model for this photoshoot, someone asked me why I added a floor length evening dress to the mix when all I really needed was the featured cape. My answer was: "If Sarah feels beautiful and powerful in these clothes, then that will shine out of her in the photos, and hopefully the subsequent paintings of her."  Personally, I think it has.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Cheers,

Marianne

The Indomitable Ashley...

 

"Conviction"

(Size: 16x20", Oils on canvas, Framed) $1400.00   SOLD

It's taken me some years to make this post about this particular painting. Admittedly it is the best portrait I have done to date, and the subject has a story behind it...as many of the most meaningful paintings do. Reaching back to the years I produced the Costume Salon and Sketch Lab at Illuxcon, Ashley accompanied his beloved wife Jen, also an artist, to the convention. I was waiting in the foyer of the venue for one reason or another during set up and spotted Ashley standing just inside the door. Ruthlessly shoving aside my chronically non-confrontational introvert nature, I was smitten with 'Oh, man, this is someone I REALLY want to paint' and walked over to say hi. I asked him if he was an attending artist and he said no, that he was here supporting his wife who was. Then I said: "Okay, I was wondering if you or both of you would be interested in modelling at our costume salon upstairs during the show? He looked a bit askance at that, a bit wary, until I followed through with "Because I can really see you as a medieval knight or king. Ashley seemed to straighten and you could literally see him think an internal "Wow, really?"  I gave him the information for he and Jen for the orientation class the next morning. Sure enough, he and Jen turned up, worked through the class with a dozen other people and had a blast. Swords, armor, that orange shirt, among other things were like catnip to a bunch of artists over the weekend, including me. He was soooo photogenic, amenable to pose and attitude suggestions, and he was really into the whole process, almost seeming to spend most of the days up in the salon. By the end of the weekend, Ashley was on the floor with his own camera, taking his own photos of costumed models for he and Jen. And I will be ever grateful that of the 1500+ photos I took that Illuxcon, I have many reference action and portrait photos of Ashley to inspire paintings for years to come. Medieval scenarios, sword play, even a little Game of Thrones with another artist who modeled that weekend...but that is a subject and painting (or ten) for another day.

The Painting: There were two very nearly identical photos that I used for reference for this painting...but the whole attitude was so different between the two, that I had a long time deciding what I wanted to actually paint. In one shot, the whole gaze was almost adoring, reverential, so I called that one 'Benediction'. The second shot had a harder, firmer glimmer of resolve, and I called that one 'Conviction'. As you can see by the expression of the figure in the painting, and title, Conviction was the one I chose to proceed with. It was a tough call, though. I'd done my design drawings for Ashley in June of 2018, finishing them just before I broke my painting arm. You can read about that in my previous post called 'The Long Silence'. In spite of panic at the loss of time, a knock to my self confidence, and of course, getting over the actual injury, I knuckled down and got it done while trying not to rush and bugger it up. I'm rather proud of how it turned out. And of course, the photo doesn't do the original painting justice at all. Photography never does. But it is close enough.  My love of dramatic light and shade shows clearly in this work, and I just adore the contrariness of the bright orange shirt and the teal cloak against the cool, shiny, reflectiveness of the breastplate. However, they pale beneath the shining conviction of the figure's face. One thing that I hadn't noticed when painting but has grown in significance as time goes on is how Ashley's wedding ring becomes an emotional focus of the overall feeling of the painting and its deeper intent. Someone told me that it lends symbolism and gravitas to the whole 'conviction of protecting king, family, loved ones, a single beloved person, that he is resolved to defend to the end'.

 

Below, is a selection of the drawings and easel shot. Silly me forgot to take progress photos during painting, but I think I was panicking due to the time crunch of the rapidly approaching Illuxcon and needing to finish up. Sigh.

The base portrait sketch and a couple of Ashley photos from the costume salon. We have Joleen to thank for loaning the armor, various medieval clothing from her copious costume closet and enthusiasm for the salon itself.

 

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully there won't be such a long time between posting the 'big' paintings anymore. There are more to come, so I'll hope you visit again, soon.
Cheers,

Marianne

 

Two New Rockets for the New Year...

 "Scarlet Base"

(Size: 8x10", Oils on Linen, Framed)   Price: $420.00

Happy New Year! Well, I took the proverbial bull by the horns early in January and started laying paint on a small portrait (more about that in the next post) that has been a long time coming. It involved several luscious blues which I had plenty of left over on my palette, along with a hefty amount of my usual black mix of Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine. I added Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Orange Hue, and Cadmium Yellow Light to make up the warms of 'Scarlet Base'. I had sooooo much fun smooshing the clouds and blending the warms and blues. The addition of the almost 3D rocks in the foreground absolutely make the composition pop. They were a latish contribution because this concept just needed 'something' to make the visual interesting. The red sun is almost cradled by the gentle curve of the asteroid ring. Ahead of the rocketship, you'll notice a couple of red and blue streaks. My husband, whose art was initially grounded in space art picked up on them instantly and declared that my painting was a lovely close up of the red end of a bolo star system. In layman's terms, that is a solar system with two suns that feed off of each other. In this case, the smaller, denser blue sun off camera to the right is pulling substance away from the giant, but more flimsy red sun and it leaves a visible streak in space while doing so. The space station is a mining platform pulling cooling rare minerals from the surrounding space as they feed along unseen courses from the red to the blue. 

"Firefly Mist"

(Size: 5x7", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $240.00 SOLD

This little painting was created using the same leftover paint as 'Scarlet Base'. I kind of like the cools against the warms contrariness of both colour schemes. 'Firefly Mist' is more or less just a smooshing/blending cloud thing going on. Both paintings are a product of 'on the fly' non-design creation. Neither of them were sketched up on paper first, instead were just quickly, loosely laid down elements directly onto the canvas. Colours were mixed up on the fly and were added to or taken away from the canvas as the idea developed. Blending brushes might have been wielded...

Anyway, this is it so far. More on the small portrait next post. Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers,

Marianne

 

2023 CHRISTMAS SMALL WORKS SALE

  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 SOLD

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 SOLD

 "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 SOLD

 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

Designed Rocket Doodles...

 "Gossmere 'Gossamer' Base"

 (10x10", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $600.00  SOLD

This is one of the designs from my teeny sketchbook that I doodled awhile back. It's the first time I've painted, let alone drawn such a spindly space station. It was kind of inspired by the spider-like air traffic control 'tower' at LAX airport, in shape. And since the design is light and airy compared to many of my other clunky space stations, this one fit the almost pristine delicacy of the concept of the whitish rings and planet cloudscape below it. Lots of nuance and golden highlights have been  lost in photography, but I'm rather proud of fulfilling my vision for this idea. Below, is the page from my sketchbook...fully designed in a 3.5 x 3.5" space. The entries that I draw between the covers of this little book are more complete and 'deliberate' ideas that come to mind and need a little more effort than the 'off the cuff' ones that are more like 'insta-rockets'. Besides, with drawing up designs before hand, I can just scan to canvas size, print out and draw them down, ready to begin adding paint. They also often require more than just one sitting to complete.

 

"Jagged Edges"

(6x7", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $ 350.00  SOLD

 

 

I kind of like viewing space through 'broken windows' kind of debris. You may have noticed this. It provides the viewer with a narrative and possible story than just 'rocket flying through space' does. Yeah, I like painting those simple ideas, too. But, sometimes the urge to tell a bigger story takes over and I get to doodling in my teeny sketchbook again for a more finite design. The actual paint is another story. I'm never really fully invested in a colour scheme when I'm designing a rocket doodle...with the exception of, perhaps, "Gossmere 'Gossamer' Base" above which come to mind fully formed in paint as well as pencil. A couple of others where I am using a space photo from one of the NASA telescopes as a starting point may have a base colour-idea as well, but this doesn't happen often. The old pulp cover artists of the Golden Age and Silver Age of science fiction quite regularly used lurid colours when representing 'space' that defy the laws of physics and the universe when getting their ideas across. I'm more in line with their way of creating as it feeds fully into the 'what if' principle that is currently driving my science fiction/science fantasy space art and rocket doodles. "Jagged Edges" colour ideas were inspired by the top right hand corner of one of my previous paintings, "Moon Hopper". Nostalgic rust-coloured space with cool-tinted shadows was the basis for the premise going forward. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. It brings 1950s space opera and pulp magazine covers to mind. Below is the design drawing from my little sketchbook.

 

"Lightship"

(6x6", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $280.00  SOLD

"Lightship" is something of a 'ringer'...somewhere between an 'off the cuff' rocket doodle and a 'designed' one. I had a square frame that I wanted to paint something for and an idea started to form. I ended up using a 'saturn-like-planet' sketch from a previous painting and a previous style of space station I've painted to inspire the drawing of a new one. Below is the drawing/doodle of said space station/lightship on a page of its own in my teeny thumbnail sketchbook. Yeah, I know a lot of my space station designs reflect similar elements, but that's just my creative quirks at play. I like them to look organically grown technology of 'let's just add on a piece here' development over a long time frame...so bits stick out everywhere, appearing 'tacked on'. The final colour scheme of the painting wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, but it was an adventure to paint.

Anyway, here ends the current crop of rocket doodles until I post up my annual CHRISTMAS SMALL WORKS SALE 2023 on Sunday 3rd December at 4pm. Come back and take a look. Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by.
Cheers, 

Marianne

Spur of the Moment Rocket Doodles...

 

"Moon Hopper"

(4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed)    Price: $ 150.00  SOLD

True Rocket Doodles in my creative world are the ones that come from a 'what shall I paint now?' mindset, usually after I've just completed whatever else I've been working on, large or small. And sometimes, inspiration strikes just right and I'll grab a canvas and start drawing elements on it until I get a working concept or story. These latest few paintings are just that: impromptu, off the cuff, spur of the moment tiny works inspired typically by 'colour combinations', shapes, a singular element from something I've just been working on, or even something amorphous from music I've been listening to or such. Sometimes, the magic is just there when you need it. 'Moon Hopper' was inspired by wanting to play with colour and shape, so I just kept adding elements, starting with the 'Saturn'-like planet as the anchor and finishing up with tiny rocket racing away from the space station. All of the random elements work in this tiny painting and I added and added them until it just felt 'balanced' to me. Then I started in with the paint. I had a lot of fun with this one, and the nostalgia style 'space' that I created in the top right hand corner was the basis for another painting, 'Jagged Edges' which I'll talk about in the next post. Meanwhile, here are some of the other paintings that I created for Illuxcon that were literally not designed, but were more of happy accidents...

"The Narrows"

(4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $ 100.00 SOLD

'The Narrows' was inspired by a colour scheme I had in mind and a pretty pale rose gold frame I had lying around my studio. A wavy line, draw a rocket on a favourable angle, put in a few moons using a small circle gauge template and off I went. There is something just so soothing noodling wet paint into pleasing shapes and depths.

 "The In-Between"

(4x4", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $90.00  SOLD

I had a small but bulky mottled brown frame hanging around my studio table for quite some time. I don't remember when I purchased it or where, but it spoke to me on  some level, and I am a sucker for giving odd sized frames a good home and use. Right then, I thought the colour of it would lend itself well to a small painting of Mars or similarly toned painting idea. So, I used a roll of artists tape to make the big planet anchor and and drew in a rough asteroid/moon shape in the lower right. I had fun with doodling this domed station for a few minutes, then it was ready for painting. Everything was roughly noodled with the paint with only loose attention to details of real world, or real space objects. I've painted Mars a few times now and didn't want to lose flow in the creativity process by delineating every little crater and canyon on the red planet. The space station was formed by a lot of tiny dashes and implied detail. After the painting was finished, I held up the frame to it and decided that the frame didn't fully compliment the image itself. It kind of needed to be darker. I shrugged, scrunched up some paper towel and proceeded to dab black paint from my palette onto the frame to darken the inner edges of it, not fully covering the original pretty mottled brown. It worked!!! The darker inner edges made the tiny painting pop. So, after the frame dried, I sprayed it with Kamar Varnish a couple of times and let it sit and dry some more. The frame and painting looked fully cohesive when finally mated. Sometimes, it just pays to play around. Ahem...

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting a few more of my 'Designed' Rocket Doodles next time, so stay tuned.
Cheers,

Marianne

Vintage Inspiration

"The Mote in God's Eye"

(9x12", Oils on Linen Panel, Framed)   Price: $575.00  SOLD

 

I was feeling a bit burned out when we went to a friend's home and orchard up north for the annual apple picking back in September. Rather than doing my usual enthusiastic picking of said apples and making cider with my friends, I got myself a cup of the hard cider on tap from the cooler spigot and wandered around the extended house and looked at all of the vintage artworks and books. Vintage pulp art heaven. Little niggles of ideas nibbled at my mind whilst I drooled over inspiring works of wonder. Science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, thriller, fun and whimsical art that has mostly graced the covers or interiors of novels and books and magazines for at least the last hundred years. I'm not an expert and able to tell the names and techniques of the many artists, but it certainly was inspiring. The huge red sun in a Paul Lehr painting stayed with me and I sat down in the living room with my teeny sketchbook and noodled out a few drawings, one of which became the basis for my new painting "The Mote in God's Eye". I have toyed with this premise in the past and never got any further than ideas in mind and a single aborted attempt at an over sized rocket doodle that I never finished some years back. I think the colour scheme I had on it and a very nebulous idea was all wrong. This time it all fell into place. I just needed the right inspiration and a warmer, if overly dramatic colour scheme. LOL That big red sun got to me. The nostalgia which is prevalent in my rocket doodles comes from my youth in the 1960s and my Dad's love of all the pulps, science fiction and thrillers, particularly. I get that from him. But nowadays, I bring my nostalgia of the old 'what if' days that knew virtually no limits in imagination to life in my tiny rocket microcosms. Small visions of stories or parts of stories that make the viewer wonder what is happening. Yeah, the simple visions of my ideas have gotten more complicated over the years, but there is always a story to tell...even if I'm not always quite sure what it is until I've finished painting it. What do you think?

This is the design I doodled that day...

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon for more rocket doodles and such.
Cheers,
Marianne