"Midsummer Daydream", 8x10, oil on linen, paintings of women, Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania, garland, May Queen

"Midsummer Daydream", 8x10, oil on linen

The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.
- William Blake

I painted this back in November but there were some passages in it that I wasn't happy with. So today I took the painting out and made some revisions to it. It's always a good thing when you can pinpoint mistakes in a painting. It's an even better thing when you can figure out how to fix the errors! I definitely came a little closer to achieving what I originally wanted in this portrait, so I am happy:0)

Thank-you William Blake for your beautiful poetry. I think the two work well together, don't you?

"Palm Parade at Ringling", 14x11, oil on linen Raymar panel

"Palm Parade at Ringling", 14x11, oil on linen Raymar panel

I painted this a while back but never posted it. I liked the the contrast of shadowed foreground against the brightness of the middle ground. But what initially attracted me to the scene was the varying shapes of the palm tress as they paraded from foreground to background.

The Ringling!, aka as the Ringling Museum, is located in beautiful Sarasota Florida, and the museum is a must-see for all visitors to this area of Florida. Beautiful grounds, a world class art museum and circus museum as well as a Venetian mansion are the legacy of John and Mabel Ringling. The estate passed to the state with John's death in 1936. John Ringling was one of the five original circus kings of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and blessed with entrepreneurial genius and through his success with the circus and other investments, he became wealthy enough to acquire the 20 acres of waterfront property in Sarasota, Florida in 1911.   In 1912 the couple began spending winters in Sarasota and later decided to build a home there, which was named Ca'd Zan.I have painted Ca'd Zan many times before, but this painting takes on a side view of the mansion.

To learn more about The Ringling!, please visit the website here.

If you are interested in this or other paintings of the Ringling Museum, please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, or simply type in the word "ringling " in the word search in the upper left corner of this blog. Thanks for looking!

"Me and My Teddy Bear", 8x8, oil on board, little girls, teddy bears, impressionist art

SOLD

"Me and My Teddy Bear", 8x8, oil on board

Sorry, this painting has been sold, but if you like it and would to commission something similar, jsut send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com

To see available paintings, please visit my website here.http://www.maryannejacobsen.com

"Under the Old Oak Tree", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen, oak trees, Spanish moss, Kim English workshops

"Under the Old Oak Tree", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen

A few weeks ago I took a 3 day plein air workshop with fabulous artist Kim English. I've talked about the workshop a few times, but have not posted much of what I painted during the workshop. The main reason for this, was that Kim's objective was to get us to paint fast, and not worry about coming away from the workshop with any "Masterpieces" or refined works.

Now when I say fast, I mean lightning quick! No time to think about mistakes, no time to overthink anything, just spontaneous reaction. (Or should I say spontaneous combustion?)

The first day started with doing 5 minute oil sketches with a live model. As soon as the 5 minutes was up, we had to quickly wipe out our painting in 30 seconds maybe, and get ready for a new pose! By the end of the first day we were all totally exhausted. (Or at least I was!!!!!!!!!)

The first day was rainy so we had to improvise. We painted indoors in the morning at Spanish Point and in the afternoon at the Venice Art Center. So not only was there a lot of paitning and wiping out, there was plenty of moving around as well! I wiped out every single painting that first day except the last one, which I'll try to post in another blog entry after I photograph it. By the end of that first day, Kim gave us not 5 but 20 minutes to complete our little oil sketch! What luxury that felt like after those 5 minute poses!

The second day was cold but a beautiful day to paint outdoors at historical Spanish Point. Our model had some great outfits that she wore including a sea-foam colored gown and blue shawl.

Kim posed her in front of Guptil House and did a 20 minute demo, demonstrating how to get in all the information as quickly as possible. Here is a photo of his demo:

Our model was beautiful and typical of today's youth in that she was glued to her iphone in between poses. I loved the contrast of old world charm against modern technology in this photo of her using her iphone while in costume with the old building behind her:

 After Kim's demo, he set us loose to try to capture everything as well on own own! I should have had some smaller canvases with me, but I didn't so this was as far as I got in the first pose of the day:

 I felt I had gotten a decent start on this one, so I deemed it a "keeper" and put it away to finish at home. The above painting, "Under the Old Oak Tree" was the result.

I definitely learned to paint fast during Kim's workshop, and since then I have experimented with adding more figures to the landscape as well.

If you would like to learn to paint quicker outdoors, and/or add figures to your landscape work, do check out Kim's workshops which are listed here.

"The Rebel and Company", plein air, 9x12, oil on board , old wooden boats, Cortex fishing village, The Rebel

 

"The Rebel and Company", plein air, 9x12, oil on board

I painted this one out at Cortez Fishing Village last weekend for the Paint the Town Paint-out. I stood on a dock and was happy to have shelter over my head so that I didn't have to worry about the sun.

The day was chilly and windy, but that didn't stop the people from coming to this quaint little spot to enjoy an outdoor lunch from the famed Starfish and Company seafood restaurant.

I wrote a little bit about the Cortez Fishing Village and the Paint-Out in my last blog entry. 

The Paint-out involved about 30 of the area's best plein air artists and I was happy to participate for the second year in a row.

My hubby was with me that day and he walked around taking pictures and chatting with people as I painted. Here are some of the great photos he took  that day.

First up- me painting the boats depicted in my painting!

 The captain of "Half Awake" with his dog, Sylvia:

 Me painting:

Smelling the fish!

Oh Captain, my captain!

Pelicans galore!

 Heron looking for free lunch!

The history of Cortez:

As you can see, the old Cortez Fishing Village is a really special place and hopefully it will retain its old world charm for many more decades! (In spite of the tourists!)

"Mister Chris", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen

SOLD

"Mister Chris", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen

I feel as though it's been ages since I have written in my blog! The past couple months have been a whirlwind of Paint-outs, paintings and plein air workshops, and I will confess that I am tired!

I truly enjoyed my back to back workshops with Katie Dobson Cundiff, Kim English and last week with Morgan Samuel Price, and I do feel that the expert teaching and all the plein air painting that I did has helped me gain confidence in my future plein air endeavors.

The above painting was painted this past Tuesday at the quaint old Cortez fishing Village in scenic Cortez, Florida. It is very hard to find a place with so many amazing birds, little islands with mangrove trees and fish shacks, and turquoise waters filled with old working fishing boats galore! There are scenic views of Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, and Sarasota Bay (north end) and even a crazy restaurant (I say crazy because the rules are more in line with Seinfeld's Soup Nazi then a traditional seafood restaurant!) that serves some really fresh seafood straight off the dock! I will confess that eating at the Starfish Company restaurant is an experience, but not necessarily one I would want to repeat during spring break or snow bird season!

In order to paint this boat, called the Mister Chris, I had to stand for a few hours on a rickety old dock in the blazing sun, smelling gasoline fumes from the rags in the boat docked next to me, and hoping to remember that if I stepped backwards the wrong way, I'd end up in Sarasota Bay. Yeah, it was fun!

I am going to work a  lot more on water reflections in the future, but Morgan's workshop was very helpful in teaching us how to capture these tricky reflections. This painting is part of the "Paint the Town" Paint-out exhibit and can be seen along with many other gorgeous plein air paintings at  Art Center Manatee through May3rd. If you are in the area,stop by and see the paintings created by some of the area's finest plein air artists.