Sunday, May 24, 2009

TeaTime- impressionist still life

Tea Time, 12x16, oil on gallery-wrapped canvas

This still life painting was done in an impressionist style. The brushwork in the painting is very painterly and I limited my palette to the beautiful combinations produced with burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. The greens are in the sap family , and overall it's a very subtle piece.





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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sunlit Courtyard

SOLD"Sunlit Courtyard", 12x16, oil on masonite

I did this one quite a while back and my husband liked the sunniness of it so much that I hung it in my his office, where it's been for the past two years. Pitting yellow against purple set up a nice vibration and the texture in this one is also very nice. This is the first time I have offered it for sale.

By the way, I found out yesterday that my painting "Colle Verde Vineyard" is receiving an award at next week's opening reception of the Venice Art Center's Spring all- media exhibit. I know that there were many, many paintings entered into this exhibit and many were juried out, too, so I feel very happy to have been honored with an award!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Ready to Dance!- ballet art

SOLD

Les Sylphides, 8x10, oil on gallery-wrapped canvas

Back in the mid-nineties my ballet company performed Les Sylphides, a one act ballet of short dances to the music of Chopin. There were 3 female soloists, one male, and 18 corps dancers, called "Sylphs" in the ballet. The girls in the company all got a huge kick out of the little wings attached to the backs of their tutus, although they thought the ballet itself was pretty boring.


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"Winter's Chill- Valley Forge"

SOLD"Winter's Chill- Valley Forge", 8x10 , oil on canvas

This is a small study that I did today. I may try a larger one at a later date; I'm not sure. I almost never paint snow, and I haven't lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania for almost 5 years, so I really had to think about light temperature before starting this painting. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state, but painting it is quite different from painting Florida landscapes which reflect a very orangey/hot light temperature most of the year. Anyhow, I love Valley Forge and I miss the bike rides that my hubby and I would take there on Saturday mornings to unwind after a hectic week of work. In winter, Valley Forge has an almost mystical quality to it. I tried to capture some essence of the quality of a cold wintry day in that historically mystical field when I painted this.

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Monday, May 04, 2009

A Year in Provence

"A Year in Provence", 12x24, oil on masonite

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she's gone.

{CHORUS}
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Ah... Ah..."

Somehow, every time I look at this painting, I think of the Beatles' 1969 hit, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Sure, there's marmalade skies in this painting, but there's certainly no boat on the river there or even a girl with sun in her eyes! However, this painting does have many, many wonderful elements in it- the mountains of Provence, lavender fields, an old French farmhouse and even sunflowers in the foreground! Anyhow, I truly love this painting, and it has gone into many art shows over the past year or so since I first painted it. I recently decided that I need to let go and sell some of my favorite paintings in order to challenge myself to do even better work in the future, so if you like this painting, here is your opportunity.

If you have any interest in purchasing this painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com. I am also willing to sell it professionally framed as well, (for an additional charge, since it is a custom frame), if someone is wanting to receive it in a custom frame ready to hang. Here is a picture of the framed piece below:

This painting has incredible depth and texture that a computer screen can simply not measure. It was painted thoughtfully with palette knife only, over a period of time. I hope you enjoy it!

Friday, May 01, 2009

The Wild Pacific Coast

SOLD
"The Wild Pacific Coast", 8x10 oil on canvas panel

I'll never forget the first time that I saw the Pacific Coast. I had lived on the eastern seaboard most of my life and was never very impressed with the crowded Jersey shores that we vacationed at when I was a child. After getting married I felt fortunate that my own family had spent many lovely vacations in the turquoise waters in the Caribbean waters off Guadalupe and St. Lucia and Martinique and the Dominican Republic and many other islands, and it always was hard for me to go back to the cold, crowded, chilly and gray-colored northern Atlantic beaches after that. But in spite of those lovely turquoise waters of the Caribbean, the day that I saw the rough, wild and jagged Pacific coastline for the first time, I fell madly in love with the passion that those waters evoked inside of me! We vacationed in southern Mexico in the HUATULCO beach area a couple times and it was quite stunning though still foreign -feeling to me, a non Spanish-speaking American. We also vacationed in the Baja peninsula once and that was also stunning but rather too desert-like for my tastes with its iguanas and snakes everywhere. But the year my husband and I drove up the California coastline from San Diego to San Francisco really opened my eyes to the reason why so many people decide to make the Pacific coast of California their permanent homes. It is no wonder that so many artists thrive there, and I admit I am jealous of those that call the southern Pacific coastal area their home!

This painting was done with a palette knife from a photo we took as we drove up the twisting, curving Pacific highway a few years ago. If I were younger, I would move there in a heartbeat, perhaps to a place like La Jolla, which is just north of San Diego and very chic and very beautiful. I hope to go back one of these days soon, but in the meantime, I'll just paint the memories.



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