Monday, February 06, 2012

"The Old Springhouse", 16x12, oil on gessoboard by Maryanne JAcobsen

"The Old Springhouse", 16x12, oil on gessoboard by Maryanne JAcobsen

This is a painting of an old springhouse that was up the road from my last house in Chester Springs, Pa. The building may be old but it has a tremendous amount of character, and with the dappled light cascading over it, I knew immediately that I wanted to paint it.

In case you are not familiar with what a springhouse is, here's a definition from Wikipedia: A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building used for refrigeration once commonly found in rural areas before the advent of electric refrigeration. It is usually a one-room building constructed over the source of a spring. The water of the spring maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. In settings where no natural spring is available, another source of natural running water, such as a small creek or diverted portion of a larger creek, may be used. The main use of a spring house is for the long-term storage of food that would otherwise spoil, such as meat, fruit or dairy products.

This painting is now available for purchase after being in an exhibit . Please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if you are interested in this painting.

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Sunday, February 05, 2012

"Zion", 8x10 (study)

SOLD

"Zion", 8x10 (study)

This is a small painting that is a quick study of Zion National Park. I may do a larger version one of these days but it daunts me to try to capture on canvas such an incredible site! It was painted quickly with a palette knife and brush and I tried not to fuss with the details.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

"Green Shutters", 5x7, oil on gessoboard

SOLD

"Green Shutters", 5x7, oil on gessoboard

Stroll down the street and smell the scent of flowers lingering in the breeze.
Toss you hair over your shoulder and smile.
The shutters are green, the sky is blue, and God is good.



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Friday, February 03, 2012

"Old Florida", plein air, 12x12, oil on gessoboard

Sold
"Old Florida", plein air, 12x12, oil on gessoboard

Yesterday was Thursday which usually means painting with the Sun Coast Plein Air painters.
The Destination was the Manatee Village Historical Park in Bradenton which is a very cool place with old buildings depicting what it was like to live in Old Florida before the advent of tourists and snowbirds.

It was an hour drive to the site, and as I was driving I realized that I had made a mistake toning my canvas the night before with a warm color- orange! The sun was a total no-show on this cloudy morning. When I arrived I was amazed at how interesting all the little buildings were, though I realized painting any of them would be challenging as I found them looking pretty drab and lifeless under the sunless sky.

I decided to make the best of the situation and just practice what I am weak at- perspective. I concentrated on the perspective of the two little buildings only to find that my biggest challenge was not the lack of sun and the perspective, but the Spanish moss in the trees!

GRRRRRRR!

When I go back there, I may try this little house again. Hopefully by then there will be sunny skies!

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

"Spring Meadows"- 24x24, oil on masonite, paintings of France, Provence, flowers, fields of flowers

"Spring Meadows"- 24x24, oil on masonite

This is an older painting that I had put away for awhile because I wasn't happy with it. I took it out yesterday and tried to think about what I could do to salvage it. It needed a lot of work, which is why I consider it a fixer-upper.

Many artists will not admit it when they struggle with a painting. Many artists will not confess to the fact that they had to work at making a painting come together. Painting is hard, it's not easy. When I can take a failure and "rehab" it, I am happy. And I am not ashamed to admit it. Here is what it looked like before:



What a mess!

I think we learn a lot by re-thinking our failures. Although I would not consider the final painting a success by any stretch of the imagination, it still is an improvement upon what it was the first time around. Therefore, I know I have learned something and that makes me feel satisfied.

This painting is available for only $300, plus shipping, which is the price of my 8x10 inch paintings. Please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, if you are interested in this painting.

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Monday, January 30, 2012

"The Discovery", 16x20, oil on linen, paintings of little girls, flowers,dogs, impressionist paintings of children



"The Discovery", 16x20, oil on linen

I absolutely loved painting this. I had never painted a dog before and frankly, I was a little worried. The reference photo (thank-you to the beautiful Tribe/Gallagher family for allowing me to use it!) showed the little girl and the dog looking at something, but most of the dog's face was covered with wildflowers, so I knew I had to wing it . I decided I could make it work if I kept it impressionistic.

Although I see things in the painting that I know I could work on to give it a more finished look, it was painted alla prima, so I am definitely leaving it alone for now. I'll digest it for a few weeks and then I'll probably refine some of the areas that need work, but for now it's at least 95% finished.

So tell me. What in the world are Ellie and Arthur looking at?

(Note: This painting is not for sale at this time.)

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"Three Daisies and two Cherries", 8x8, oil on wrapped canvas-painitngs of flowers, daisies, cherries, coffee mugs, small paintings

"Three Daisies and two Cherries", 8x8, oil on wrapped canvas-$150

Friday morning was the last day of Dreama's 3 day workshop on Marco Island. We did an exercise in the morning which was a lot of fun and revealed a lot of things about our personalities. We were given different photos to use as reference, and then we were allowed to start the painting for about 3 minutes. Then, for the next 45 minutes or so, we played "musical easels" -going around the room in a clockwise direction and working for 2-3 minutes on someone else's painting. If we didn't like the way it looked, we could scrape out the parts we wanted to change. We didn't have to use any rules, other than to paint with the other artists' paints and medium. The end result was that the painting we had started with, ended up with about 12-15 other painters strokes on it!

While some of the ladies were totally happy with their end result, I decided that my painting looked like it had a bad case of schizophrenia. So I wiped the entire thing out and started fresh. Above is the end result and I guarantee that every stroke is mine! I used Dreama's method of laying in the first notes with transparent oils and adding the opaques in subsequent layers.

I like the way it came out. Although it has a lot of blue in it, it is definitely an upbeat happy painting.

Purchase on Paypal for $150 plus $10 shipping and handling.

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $150.00 plus $10.00 s/h
Or, send me an email

Saturday, January 28, 2012

"Let the Sunshine in", 8x8, oil on museum quality gessoboard

"Let the Sunshine in", 8x8, oil on museum quality gessoboard

As I mentioned yesterday, I took Dreama Tolle Perry's 3 day workshop on Marco Island this past week. This is one of the paintings that I did in class. I was very happy to meet Dreama in person as I have always admired her work. I enjoyed the workshop and I was also happy to turn out this happy little painting!

"Wildflower Garden in Denmark"-12x16, oil on linen

SOLD


"Wildflower Garden in Denmark"-12x16, oil on linen

I just returned from a wonderful workshop with fellow daily painter and Artist Extraordinaire Dreama Tolle Perry. The workshop was a blast and it was great to get home from the trip and find a check in the mail for the sale of my painting, "Wildflower Garden in Denmark." Thank-you to Gallerie Unique in Fort Myers Florida for the sale, and hugs to Dreama for an excellent workshop! If you would like to know more about the painting above, below is an excerpt from the original blog post and be sure to visit Dreama's blog to see all the lovely paintings we did in class last week!

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A few years back, my husband and I took a trip to Denmark to visit my husband's relatives and celebrate the birthday of a cousin. We had a wonderful time and were able to go back in time and trace my husband's history, which included a dad who was a stowaway on a boat out of Copenhagen headed for America many, many years ago. The stowaway dad was discovered at Ellis Island, became a merchant marine, and the rest is history for our family!

The site of this painting was somewhere around the grounds of the beautiful Begentved Manor, or Castle, as some call it. We had just walked over a bridge and were on a winding road with red houses with thatched roofs:

At the foot of that bridge was this incredible wildflower garden, and although I was not a painter at the time, I knew I had to try to capture the beauty of that garden with my camera! Anyway, the trip was wonderful, and I am glad that although I was using a pretty lousy camera at the time, I was able to translate my memories of the moment into a painting!




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Monday, January 23, 2012

The Show-Off", alla prima, impressionist landscape


"The Show-Off", 5x7 oil on board- $79

There's always one in every crowd!

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $79.00 plus $6.00 s/h
Or, send me an email

Old World Charm, 8x10, oil, $300, paintings of France, Strasbourg, French Venice, Le Petite France, Petunias, canals, old cities

Old World Charm, 8x10, oil, $300

In the series of paintings that I have done of Strasbourg, France, this is the only one that was done in a smaller format. It was done with impressionistic strokes, and has a blurred, dreamy quality to it, which I like. It is available framed in a gold plein air frame for an additional $25. Please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, if you wish to purchase the painting framed.

On a happy note, my larger painting of Strasbourg was just juried into the Women Painters of the Southest's juried show to be held in April at The Course Gallery in Jacksonville, Florida.

To purchase the smaller piece, just use the Paypal button below.

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $300.00 plus $10.00 s/h
Or, send me an email




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Monday, January 16, 2012

"Summer Morning, Monhegan Island" 16x12, oil on canvas

"Summer Morning, Monhegan Island" 16x12, oil on canvas

This is a quick study that I did today from a photo that we took this past summer while we were at Monhegan Island.



I hope that you enjoy it and thanks for visiting my blog! If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com. To see more of my work, please visit my website here.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Almost Evening", 6x6, oil on ampersand gessoboard


"Almost Evening", 6x6, oil on ampersand gessoboard-$200

It's a bit of a magical time of day- not quite daylight and not quite night time. Robert Louis Stevenson called it The Children's Hour.

This is an old city. It could be a city anywhere in the world- Paris, Charleston, Philadelphia or even the gaslight district of San Diego. Make it what you want it to be. And then let the magic begin....

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $200.00 plus $5.00 s/h
Or, send me an email




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Monday, January 09, 2012

"Quiet Morning on Main Street", 20x16, oil on linen

"Quiet Morning on Main Street", 20x16, oil on linen

The pretty building in this picture with the teal-colored awning is The Venice Wine Bar. And No! this is not a painting of Venice, Italy! Sorry. It is not even a painting of quirky Venice Beach California!

I live in a quiet little town in southwest Florida that some illustrious person decided to name after one of the greatest cities in the world.

Okay. I'm glad we're done with that explanation!

Today I went out to paint in downtown Venice with the Venice plein air group. I got there a little late, but I decided to set up right at the intersection of Venice and Nokomis Avenue where there's a lovely old building dressed in pink and lots of palms situated along the avenue.

The day was gorgeous, weather wise, and people were friendly and stopped to chat as I painted for about an hour and a half before calling it quits.

Painting plein air is valuable for many reasons, but I have yet to turn out a masterpiece painting with all the distractions that go along with painting out in the open. But I took my painting home and thought about the wonderful light, colors and perspective that the scene had afforded me. So I set to work on a studio piece and worked on it literally for the last ten hours. Although I was tired, I didn't want to stop painting while the colors and values and temperature were fresh in my head.


I hope that you enjoy this morning on the avenue in downtown Venice, Florida!

Sunday, January 08, 2012

"The Pond at Horseshoe Farm"- 14x11 , oil on linen

"The Pond at Horseshoe Farm"- 14x11 , oil on linen

This scene looks out over the pond and stables at the Strawbridge's Hetheridge Farm on St. Matthews Road in Chester Springs, Pa. It also happens to be the scene that I used to look at every day from my back yard when I lived in Horseshoe Farm in Chester Springs.

The painting was done from an old grainy photograph taken with one of the very first digital cameras that ever came out, so I had to rely heavily on memory as I painted.



In this painting, I decided to make the stables the focal point, even though it did not stand out in the photograph. The sun always came up over the pond in the morning, but I believe this photo was taken at the end of the day, when the sky in the background was receiving reflective light from the setting sun.

If you are interested in this painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com


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